The Morning After – Riders and Elks Turn Snoozefest Into Comedic Gold

The Morning After – Riders and Elks Turn Snoozefest Into Comedic Gold

Published: Friday, Jul 7th 2023, 3:07pm

By Alex Dormuth (@RealAlexD)

 

I need to get something out of my system before I begin: *clears throat* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (deep breath) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

 

Okay, now that I got that out of the way (for now) and had a chance to sleep on it, here’s some of my morning after thoughts after last night’s riveting 12-11 Saskatchewan Roughriders win against the Edmonton Elks.

 

• – I’m not going to get too much into the first half, because it was such a suck fest. A truly awful game. I love me some great defensive plays, but there wasn’t even that. Sorry CFL and your writers/panelists, you can’t spin this one at all. This was terrible football by teams playing lousy offense. Actually, I would have been happy with lousy offense, this was just offensive to us watching.
• – I will say though, thank goodness that the Elks kicker can’t live up to his name. Faithfull (in making field goals) he is not.

• – I do want to talk about Craig Dickenson’s decision to go for it on 3rd and goal from the 3 when it was 1-0 (hahaha) for the Elks. I know we can sit back and look at it now and say take the easy points, hindsight and all, but he made the right decision. You don’t get it, the Elks are pinned deep. You get it, you look like a genius. But if you look at how aggressive Craig Dickenson has been this season (I have an article coming out on that next week), it makes sense. Does he finally realise he was too conservative in 2022? Is he out-coaching himself now into going for more of these 3rd down gambles? They’re winning right now, so we tend to look the other way, but it really looks to me like he’s trying too hard to be aggressive, trying to get his contract extended. Again, I like the decision to go for it last night, but this team has been in 3 really tight games where points have been at a premium. Maybe conservative is the way for him to go.
• – Oh look, another rouge.

• – I was telling people that if the Riders contained Taylor Cornelius where he didn’t get to run around, they’d beat the Elks handily, despite all their own injuries. Well, they didn’t do that and he ran for some key first downs. I asked earlier this week, is it time to worry about the Riders pass rush? Yet another game with no sacks and very little pressure on the QB. This front 4 (on paper) should be DOMINATING, but they can’t get a sniff of the opposing QB in the last 3 games… yeah, I’d say it’s time to start worrying a bit.
• – With the way the Riders’ last few games has gone, I’m not surprised they stuck with the run game even though it did nothing. But the only time in the first 56 minutes the Riders moved the ball was when they pushed the ball downfield. I know coaches want to stick to their game plan, but scrap it if it’s not working. JUST MOVE THE BALL!
• – Rouge

• – I’ve never been the biggest Mitch Picton fan, but the guy needs more reps. He was the Riders best player last night and he needs to have a permanent role in this O. Very solid game, 81!
• – Okay, the last few minutes. What a gong show. People will say that the final few minutes saved the game and yeah, maybe it kind of did, but it wasn’t because it was particularly good. This is when things got comical! Trevor Harris finally moved the ball when it mattered, and the Riders tied the game on a Picton TD and Kendall Watson 2 point convert. Ok. Hope your defense makes a play or two and Edmonton doesn’t get another rouge. Then the kickoff… it bounces (pick it up)… it’s rolling (what are you doing)… it’s in the endzone (okay, pick it up and run it out!)… the returner goes back as slow as possible into the back of the endzone to get it (KICK IT OUT YOU MORON!)… he down’s it (WHAT?!)… concedes the rouge (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA). Riders take a 12-11 lead (me still: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA).
• – THE DUMBEST ROUGE OF ALL TIME

• – You can blame the player all you want, but that’s 100% on coaching. Sims needs to be pulled aside by Chris Jones and told that NO MATTER WHAT, that ball doesn’t get into the end zone. Kick it out, run it out to the 3, literally ANYTHING but have it go into the endzone, especially 17 yards deep. Just an awful way for things to end for the Elks, but it kind of sums up the team since Jones took over.
• – As much as he’s been a boom or bust player in his career, there’s no denying how clutch Nic Marshall is. Two games in a row with game clinching INTs. I’ve been on the fence the last few years about keeping him around, but Jeremy O’Day has done the right thing.

 

Good teams win football games. And at the end of the day, they don’t ask how, just how many and no one will remember this outing in week 21 when the final game is played and the playoffs are set. All that matters is that the Riders are tied with the BC Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers with 3-1 records. I despise the Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders, but Al Davis was right… Just win baby!