Riders showing Depth in beating Ottawa

Ottawa came into Mosaic Stadium after firing William Fields as their defensive coordinator and replacing him with Jeff Reinbold who was the special teams coordinator and had been the defensive coordinator and head coach once upon a time in Stony Mountain.

Realistically Ottawa had about three days from their announcement to the game and Reinbold could change a few looks but didn’t have time to implement the type of defense Ottawa GM/Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator Ryan Dinwiddie had wanted Fields to call.

Reinbold changed a few looks, but after a quarter and a half of trying to figure out what Ottawa was trying to do on defense, the Riders opened up their offense and in the fourth quarter unveiled Tommy Stevens as the game closing weapon the Riders need.

It would be easy to blame Ottawa quarterback Jake Maier for the loss, but Maier has been holding up his end of the bargain for Ottawa with his passing, although not all passes find their target. Maier is undone by Ottawa’s inability or refusal to implement a running game.

Ottawa paid Greg Bell big bucks to jump from Hamilton to Ottawa but Ottawa has not used them. Part of that problem is Ottawa’s offensive line, made up of odd draft picks and other teams cast-offs cannot perform close to the opponents goal line.

Ottawa has been shedding players to repair or build a new team culture in Ottawa, which makes one think Ottawa has written this season off. I don’t think Ottawa’s scouting department is in the same class as the Riders, so coming up with players at this time of year, with the NFL in training camp mode, is not an easy process, but if Dinwiddie can sell this as a necessary step to move the team into contention, he could survive another year on his contract.

The Riders went into this game with Kian Schaffer-Baker, Samuel Emilus, AJ Ouellette, Rolan Milligan, Trevaughn Campbell, Ali Saad and others on the injury list. At first glance this looked devastating for last year the Riders went without Schaffer-Baker and Emilus for most of the season until they returned for the playoffs and the teams young Canadians picked up the slack.

D’Sean Mimbs, Dylan Djete, Dhel Duncan-Busby and James Johnson III now stepped onto the field and while quarterback Trevor Harris started off with Keesean Johnson as his primary target, Harris went on to throw for 401 yards to a variety of receivers.

The Rider defense was better, not allowing big plays on first down and eventually unleashing a pass rush that made life difficult for Maier. The Riders have the players who can step in when the stars go down and this will make for a better team by the end of the season.

The use of Stevens in the fourth quarter to drain the clock and run Ottawa off the field was brilliant. Stevens has responded to Rider fans with some salutes to WWE wrestler Steve Austin, but I think a healthy percentage of the acclaim is thankfulness that after years of Karen Carpenter type quarterbacks trying to get short yardage, the Riders have a Humvee in Stevens who can break any run for major yardage.

The win put the Riders into a tie for first place, but the Riders claiming first due to playing one less game than the Elk. The Riders may lack the media cachet Davis Alexander of Montreal, Nathan Rourke of BC or Bo Levi Mitchell may get, but the Riders are still in the top third of the league.

The first Rider practice on Tuesday following the game had James Letcher, Saad, and even Emilus on the sideline catching passes. Letcher and Saad could possibly come back, but the Riders may want to save their salary cap space and remember they need their stars in October and November, and if the Riders are sincere about their depth, they will let the young guys get valuable playing experience and continue building on the team concept they have been sold on by Mace.

The Riders go to Hamilton who lost to BC 27-24 in a game where Rourke was rusty, and the Cats went with Harrison Frost who came in after Tre Ford and Jake Dolegala showed they lacked what Cat head coach Scott Milanovich wants from his quarterbacks.

Hamilton has a good defense, but when you are starting rookie quarterbacks, they are going to have a lot of growing pains, even though there is not enough film on them for defensive coordinators to work with. If Hamilton cannot find a quarterback who can give them reliable play, Hamilton will slip from battling for first to likely losing a playoff spot to a western cross over team.

Hamilton won’t be as easy as Ottawa, but the Riders faced the prospect of cycling in new players on offense against Ottawa and at the end of the game, the team was operating on all cylinders. Hamilton needs a win to stay abreast with Toronto who are currently second, but the Riders could move to a 7-2 record by the halfway point of the season.

Quali Conley will be back for this game after getting injured against Ottawa and Thomas Bertrand-Hudon will help out the running game with his blocking and occasional runs.

The Riders will likely try to jump on top of Hamilton early, score often and force Frost to abandon the running game and throw downfield just to keep up. The Riders will win this 30-24.

BC got back into the playoff race with a win against Hamilton last week and they start the CFL week with a game against Calgary. The Lions are trying to catch the Stamps for third in the west while the western fourth place winner will likely go over to the east in a cross over.

Rourke injured his non-throwing shoulder and appeared a bit rusty so maybe he gets better and maybe BC starts to use what could be a very potent running game. Calgary has gotten injuries along their defensive line, which was the strength of the team, and makes the Stampeders susceptible to the running game.

Calgary played a rotten game against the Argos, losing 33-30 in a very sloppy performance. If Calgary’s defensive line is suffering losses in personnel, BC has a green light to run on Calgary and run often because it is unlikely the Stamps can stop them.

The game is in Calgary and Vernon Adams Jr. would love to put on a show for the fans, but when Adams is good, he is very good, but when he is getting pressured, he coughs up the football like a cat with a furball.

I originally was going to take Calgary at home, but the Calgary D line situation combined with BC getting a running game has me thinking this will be a close game, but the Lions will win 33-29.

Ottawa, who fell to 0-8 after the loss to the Riders go to Winnipeg this week to play the Bombers.

The Bombers funnily enough are 1-4 at home and have ended their consecutive string of sell outs. The Bombers are in such danger of fading into black they will bring Zach Collaros off the injury list and hope he can inspire his team to win another and put a dent into the western standings.

Ottawa has another week for Reinbold to try some things, and maybe Dinwiddie can also do some self-examination in his play-calling because clearly something is wrong. Some self-awareness by Ottawa may help them offensively and if they can tackle, maybe Ottawa can do something to get off the 13 or 14 game losing streak over two seasons they are on.

Ottawa needs to show their fans there is hope. Winnipeg needs to show their fans the good times aren’t gone yet.

I am going to go out on a limb and suggest Ottawa will beat Winnipeg 31-26. Winnipeg is operating as if TSN are still blowing up their tires and are Grey Cup contenders and the sense of entitlement which has fallen over this franchise is stopping them from making the changes they need to make to be competitive.

Ottawa has to win sometime…right?

Toronto goes to Edmonton in an interesting game pitting the Madden style Argo offense and non-existent defense against an Edmonton team which was touted as a Grey Cup contender but has dropped two games against the best two teams in the league – the Riders and Montreal.

Edmonton has either gone away from using Justin Rankin to run the ball down the other team’s throat or other teams have figured out how to stop Rankin and the rest of Edmonton’s offense doesn’t really scare many people. Either Edmonton commits to using Rankin from the start or they may suffer the sight of Toronto going deep often to build up a big lead and force Edmonton to play catch up.

How Edmonton responds will be interesting, especially after Davis Alexander and Tyson Philpot taunted the Elk during Montreal’s 48-30 win. I would be made and willing to take my frustrations out on Chad Kelly, but Edmonton has not been good since 2019 and while they are improved, if they can’t bounce back, they are still locked into the mindset of waiting for the wheels to come off the dumpster fire that are the Elk.

I am going to go with Toronto beating Edmonton 30-29 based on Edmonton’s worsening performance and Toronto showing a bit more defense than what one suspect.