Don’t look now, the Riders are in first place

Milanovich may have been better served by watching Bull Durham and the classic bit of advice the veteran catcher (Kevin|Costner) tells the rookie pitcher played by Tim Robbins “Don’t think too much, you’ll only hurt the team”. Milanovich was once upon a time a candidate for head coach of the Riders heading into this season, but he decided to stick with Hamilton, or he used his interview with the Riders to get more cash out of Hamilton. After three games, Rider fans are happy Milanovich moved on. Hamilton has its own issues with various parts of the team not in sync with each other and Bo Levi Mitchell showing the various injuries to his shoulder and leg may have been healed, but he is not the quarterback he used to be. He cannot handle a rush like he used to and the Riders looked to put more pressure on him and when they didn’t, he took advantage of busted coverages from a defence that is learning to play the style Mace wants.

The leg injury to Harris will benefit from the two weeks off before the Riders play again, and this will allow the Riders to figure out how to grow from this start. The play of Shea Patterson going in for Harris may not have inspired too much confidence compared to how Harris moved the team, but Patterson got some invaluable real time playing experience and the Riders got a better idea of what they must work with in their back up quarterback.

The Riders schedule when they get back from their bye week will give themselves and their fans a realistic measuring stick for how far they have come from last season and what they must do to hang with the league leaders. It is an interesting season so far with some teams performing up to expectations, but a lot of question marks surrounding different teams, but the Riders can take comfort that compared to the last two years, they are beating the teams they need to beat. Toronto beat Edmonton 39-36 in an entertaining game that shows how incredibly frustrating it is for Elk fans seeing their team do so well at times and yet suffer such incredible brain farts that you wonder if Commonwealth Stadium may have built over an ancient burial ground.

The Elk can look so good one play and on the next play manage to shoot themselves in the foot. If Hamilton receiver Tim White needs a sports psychologist to get over his inconsistent play, the Elk may need an exorcist team of an old priest and a young priest to rid them of whatever internal demons drive them to commit stupid penalties that cost them games. Elks coach Chris Jones swallowed some portion of his ego and delegated the defensive coaching to Jason Shivers to presumably free him to focus on game management, but Jones’ embrace of the chaos theory and thinking outside of the box has created the impression Jones is running out of time to keep his job when the new private ownership of the Elk emerges.

Jones has also managed to alienate Elk fans who were raised during the free spending five Grey Cups in a row are feeling pretty entitled to the Grey Cup. The alienation is showing in the number of empty seats as fans tune out the Elk because Jones’ way of building a team is showing no rhyme or reason other than taking as much crap as possible, throwing it against the wall and seeing what sticks. If the Elk can put it all together, they are contenders and even at 0-3 they are still alive in the race in the west and even a cross over spot to the east. I wonder if the psychological effect of all the chaos Jones has brought to the team over the last few years has now created such an atmosphere of uncertainty that players are trying too hard to try to make something good happen for the team and in the process manage to incur enough penalties and stupid plays to defeat their good intentions.

Toronto for its part used its exceptional depth and continuity to prevail against the Elk, but the game might serve as a bit of an alarm against complacency and taking teams for granted. Despite the number of winless teams, the Elk could be 2-1 if they didn’t shoot themselves in the foot. The close but no cigar for the Elk may give them a bit of confidence as they head west to play the Lions on Thursday night. BC came off a statement game in beating Winnipeg in Winnipeg and after an opening night loss to Toronto, BC has addressed the Swiss cheese size holes in their offensive line and unleashed Vernon Adams Jr. and his deep passing game.

BC trails the Riders by a game and can pull into a tie with the idle Riders with a win over the Elk, but I suspect the trend of closer than expected games will continue with the Elk visiting. BC managed to shut the Elk out in two games last year and shutting out a team in the CFL is more difficult than you would think. The Elk will be desperate for a win to stay in touch with the west or even the eastern conference teams for that playoff spot that may save Jones’ job. BC is on a mission to play in the Grey Cup it is hosting and while Edmonton’s defence may be enough to force Adams to throw and abandon the running game, Edmonton has not shown the character or the consistency to overcome their own self-inflicted mistakes. BC wins this one 28-25.

Montreal’s demolition of an Ottawa team that defeated Winnipeg in the rain was a bit of an eye opener for many people, including myself. Montreal cruised to a 30-1 halftime lead and then coasted to a 47-21 win that was a celebration of raising the Grey Cup banner and served as notice the Montreal team not only has a great defence, but its offence under Cody Fajardo is also capable of demolishing teams. Montreal goes to Toronto in a rematch of the eastern final that served as a coming out party for a Montreal defence that added middle linebacker Darnell Sankey and defensive lineman Shawn Lemon to put the defence into another league.

The difference in this game is quarterback Cameron Dukes who is filling in for the suspended Chad Kelly who recently settled a harassment suit against him and the Argos now leads Toronto. Kelly is a bit of a troubled character and the Argos may be looking at how Dukes leads the team before deciding on Kelly sometime around Labour Day when his suspension is lifted. While Toronto has great depth and a lot of players remaining from their Grey Cup two years ago, it must be said if Toronto had problems with Montreal’s defence with the league’s most outstanding player in Kelly quarterbacking them, would Dukes fare any better?

Toronto is 2-0 after playing an Edmonton team that tends to specialize in shooting itself in the foot. This week they are playing a team that so far has not shot itself in the foot and seems very impressive as the defending champion. Toronto will give Montreal a good test but consider this a good gauge of where Dukes is as a quarterback and whether he can be the Argos quarterback of the future. Montreal wins this one 31-27.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers following their inability to handle the BC Lions find themselves at 0-3, giving their rabid fans no rest as they strive to drive to appear in their fifth Grey Cup in a row. Zach Collaros has found the absent Jemarcus Hardwick to be a bigger factor than expected as Collaros rolls out to the right and gets sacked as opposed to completing passes. Winnipeg has also suffered from the absence of Brady Olivera at the running back position ass Johnny Augustine has show while he may be able to fill in for a play or two, he is not exactly a world beater when it comes to a run ground. Winnipeg now has a defence with a leaky secondary that is less intimidating than in previous years.

I do not know if Winnipeg is a team that has gotten too old all of sudden with its core players, but the timing of the Bombers poor start is not ideal considering Winnipeg is hosting the Grey Cup next year. Calgary is coming off a bye week and is looking to improve their defensive secondary and their running game. Jake Maier has done the game manage routine as quarterback well, and that may be the best approach for a Bomber team coming to town in hopes of jump starting their 2024 season with a win.

The difference in this game will be how well Calgary’s defence handles Collaros and the suddenly suspect Winnipeg offensive line. If Calgary puts pressure on Collaros and not give him time to find his receivers, and if Olivera is not yet one hundred per cent, Calgary has a chance to make its own statement against Winnipeg and put distance between them and Winnipeg in the standings. It may be June, but it does not hurt to put as much distance between yourselves and Winnipeg team that may be down but is by no means out. Calgary will do what it can with a 24-21 win.

Finally, we have the feckless Hamilton team going to Ottawa in search of their first win of the season. Ottawa started with a bang against Winnipeg but cannot count on climate change to level the playing field against their opponents with torrential rains.

Ottawa is also not very well coached and with their rookie players Ottawa will be in a position where a veteran team or even a well coached one can beat Ottawa. Hamilton does not quite fit that criteria but Hamilton does theoretically have more pieces in place than Ottawa does.

This will be a dogfight to see who might finish third in the east and Hamilton must be conscious that if they lose, they fall further behind in the east and perhaps even a western crossover team.

Hamilton finally breaks the Scheid with a 28-27 win.

by Greg Urbanoski

Don’t look now, the Riders are in first place

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