Dan Plaster
“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” -H.G. Wells
The father of science fiction writing, H.G.Wells quote sums up the way the Riders are looking at the second half of the CFL season.
The win over the Bombers last week is like the dawn of a new day for the club and may be the first steps to getting up off the turf after the 0-9 start to the year.
If you look at the stats from last week, a couple of the key indicators would say the Riders should have lost; including losing the turnover (Riders had two fumbles) and sack battle.
That’s on the offensive and defensive side of the football. The two turning points of the game came on special teams. Which seem fitting considering interim Head Coach, Bob Dyce was the Riders Special Teams Coordinator before taking over the helm.
The first was Nic Demski’s punt return touchdown. It was huge on many levels: it was Demski’s first touchdown of his young career, it was his second longest return of the year (first came in Toronto a few weeks ago on a missed field goal), the touchdown tied the game and finally, Nic’s enthusiasm seemed to spread to the whole team.
The other turning point came late in the third quarter, with the Riders pinned deep in their own territory. Ray Early was knocked down by the Bomber Mike Willie in the process of punting. That penalty extended the drive which culminated a handful of plays later in a Rider touchdown.
Fromt there, the offence and defence took over. The Riders pounded the ball down the Bombers throat into the wind in the fourth quarter. The second half featured the emergence of Andre Monroe and Tyron Brackenridge returning to his big play form.
The play of Andre Monroe was indicative of the play of the Rider defensive line as a whole. Led by John Chick on the outside and Tearrius George on the inside, throw in Alex Hall, who is beginning to return to form after a year off because of injury, now add Monroe and this could be a very formidable foursome. This week, Marcus White will be tossed into the mix, as well as Canadians Rory Connop and Dylan Ainsworth and the Riders have a lot of options.
What the defensive line did best last week was occupy the Bomber offensive line and fullbacks so much, that Jeff Knox Jr. and Tyron Brackenridge were able to roam free for almost the first time this season and make takles at the point of attack. That trickles down to the rest of the defence as they are now all able to make a play.
Offensively, we saw the full compliment of what the Rider offence could do, but maybe more importantly what Brett Smith can do with both his arm and legs. With his arm, it was a very efficient 19-25 for 211 yards and a touchdown performance. What did emerge was what Smith can do with his legs. His 59 yards on the ground (most coming in the first half), extended drives and kept the Riders in the football game early. This is nothing new for Smith. In his second last game as a senior against the University of Hawaii, he passed for 498 yards, but also rushed for 142 yards in a 59-56 overtime win. In his final season with the Cowboys, Smith rushed for 814 yards (though it officially says 573 because yards lost on sacks are against the total) and passed for 3,375, so he can do it both in the air and on the ground.
Offensively we saw the return of what made the Riders successful; give Jerome Messam the ball (107 total yards from scrimmage) and make Weston Dressler your prime target.
Which now gets us to the Labour Day rematch at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg. It is a return to where the year-long Rider nightmare began last season. Darian Durant went down for the season with an elbow injury and the slide in 2014 ended with a playoff loss in Edmonton. That funk has wafted all the way to the present.
That said, the Bombers haven’t been great during this span either. With the loss of Drew Willy for the rest of this season and because of the pop gun offence under Brian Brohm, the newly acquired Matt Nichols will take over the offence. It will be interesting how he leads this Bomber offence in just his second week with the Blue and Gold. He did have some success with the Eskimos this season and that included a win over the Riders, but it will be a lot tougher without the likes of Adarius Bowman and Derel Walker on the offence. The Bombers have just one receiver in the top 20 pass catchers (Nick Moore with 444 yards) and are also last in the CFL in points scored and are a yard per game away from the worst offence in the CFL.
They will need a stout performance from their offensive line and defensive line. This is where the Riders dominated last week, and if Winnipeg can’t make any headway here, it will be a very long night for Bomber fans.
Fast Facts:
– The Riders are still number one in net offence per game with 382 yards per outing.
– The Riders lead the CFL in drives of 85 yards or more. They have three in 25 attempts including last week’s 105 yard scoring drive in the third quarter. The Riders had just one drive for a touchdown that started between their own one and 20 yard lines.
– The Riders are just 11 touchdowns away from topping their 34 scores from 2014.
– Defensively is another story for the Riders. They have given up the most touchdowns (30), have the least amount of forced turnovers (9) and sacks (19) in the CFL.
– The Riders punting game is still one of the best in the CFL, currently second at a net average of 38.1 yards.
– The Bombers have punted the most times in the CFL (79).
– With his 206 yards on the ground, Brett Smith is the top rushing QB in the CFL.
– Despite having 115 career receptions, Jerome Messam is still looking for his first career TD catch.
– Rob Bagg is three catches away from 250 in his CFL career.
What to look for:
- Keep the momentum. This means a quick start. Brett Smith and the Rider offence have had to play from behind a lot, including last week’s 10-point first quarter deficit. If the momentum gained from a great fourth quarter carries over to the first quarter in Winnipeg, that will quiet a very loud IG Field
- The crowd noise. See key number one!
- Battle in the trenches. This is where the game was won for the Green and White last week. It will be a war on Saturday night.
- Matt Nichols debut. It will be interesting to see what kind of a grasp the CFL vet has on a brand new offence, or better yet, how simplified it will be. He will give the Bombers a spark, but the question is just how much?
- Return game. The Riders found their spark here last week and will look for another one this week. It is also a must that they not give up anything to give the Bombers a shred of momentum.
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We also give you live game day coverage with 90 minutes of CKRM’s pre-game show with Michael Ball and post game coverage on riderville.com/riderslive.
