Riders Escape Toronto With Win

Riders Escape Toronto With Win

Published: Monday, Sep 24th 2018, 4:09am

by: Greg McCulloch (@GregOnSports)

 

The Riders took sole position as the second-best team in the West with a 30-29 nail-biter in Toronto on Saturday.

The game was a mixed bag of good and bad, but a win is and win and at the end of the season they don’t ask how you won just how many.

Let’s break this down.

Confusing Collaros

Will the real Zach Collaros please stand up?

It is getting really difficult to deem the Zach Collaros signing as a complete success.

Sure, the team is in second place, but the Riders have the second worse offence in the league. Sometimes we get flashes of the 2015 Collaros hitting receivers in stride or making plays with his legs, but then we get flashes of 2017 Collaros chucking ducks and taking a poorly timed intentional grounding penalty.

Collaros finished the game throwing 56% for 233 yards with 2 TDs and 2 Interceptions.

Fortunately for Collaros, the team has shown that they don’t have enough faith in David Watford or Brandon Bridge to take the starting role away from him. Hell, they don’t have enough faith in either back up to run the short yardage offence.

 

Number 89

We were fortunate and happy to have Duron Carter on Episode 93 this past week to preview the game. He may have overstated when he said he was going to “welcome” Nick Marshall into the league.

Marshall held his own the few times they ended up matched up together. Judging by the amount of jawing the TSN cameras caught between the two, Marshall was telling Duron what was on his mind.  In fact, despite being a DB Marshall had more offensive yards than Carter, who had zeros across the board.

Also, it seemed that the Argos sat Duron near the end of the game. Which makes one wonder what was the point of bringing Duron in if they weren’t going to use him to make a run for a playoff spot?

The Duron in Toronto experiment might be over before it even really begins.

 

Big Kick Brett

I don’t know about you, but I am ordering pizza this Tuesday and getting my $9 off.

Hell, if I am Collaros, I am buying Brett Lauther his pizza for the rest of the year for making the game-winning kick a 56 yarder thanks to a stupid intentional grounding penalty.

Lauther can flat out kick, anytime he lines up I am not worried about it. I haven’t been that confident in a Rider kicker, since Paul McCallum pre-manure truck.

Lauther is a beauty and if he continues to kick this way could be a Rider for a very long time.

Between him and Ottawa REDBLACK, Lewis Ward 2018 is becoming the year of the kicker. If these 2 aren’t the East and West nominee for Most Outstanding Special Teams Player there is something wrong.

 

Thiggy With It

Probably the most underrated Kevin Glenn did in his third stint as a Rider was telling the management staff that his friend Marcus Thigpen was still in game shape.

At 32 years old Thigpen is considered old as a running back, but he is elusive as ever. With 2 rushing touchdowns over 80 yards this season and a kick off TD this season, he can flip a game with one touch of the ball.

Thigpen is a free agent at the end of the season and with younger players like Christion Jones and Kyran Moore on the roster, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Riders move on.

But he’s making a really good case that he should definitely be in camp next year.