Tuesday Takes – November 7, 2017

Tuesday Takes – November 7, 2017

Published: Tuesday, Nov 7th 2017, 5:11pm

by Alex Dormuth (@RealAlexD)

The CFL regular season is over and the playoffs are upon us! For us in Saskatchewan, it’s a big deal after the past 3 seasons and it’s hard not to be excited.

Brendan Labatte’s injury is much more serious than we think. I’m not talking extent of the injury, I’m talking about ratio wise. Derek Dennis will take his spot as a starter on the O-Line, but what Canadian gets bumped up to starter?

Marcus Thigpen looked great, so can you take him off the roster? Trent Richardson or Cameron Marshall will be back for the East Semi-Final against Ottawa, so who sits?

Is there an actual plan for Duron Carter? Is he a receiver or a defensive back? I’ve heard rumblings of the coaching staff having enough of him and that he’s not coachable. I’m not sure I believe that, but it’s becoming clear to me that he won’t be a Rider in 2018. Why you don’t play your MOP nominee for essentially a month is beyond me.

Check out this week’s Piffles Podcast where Steve and I discuss the Riders roster and how it may shake down.

Saskatchewan vs Ottawa will be the best game of the playoffs. It will be back and forth and will end up being a field goal game.

Edmonton is the most dangerous team in the CFL. They are the one team I wouldn’t want to play and I’m glad that they aren’t the Riders problem… well, at least for a few more weeks. No way Winnipeg can beat them, especially with a QB who has a knee and hand injury.

Bob Young/Kent Austin vs the Hamilton Tiger-Cats is the best storyline going into the offseason. Forget the Montreal Alouettes dumpster fire and where James Franklin ends up… THIS is the most intriguing. Obviously starting 0-8 will bring a lot of negative to your team and things won’t be rosy in the locker room, but players telling a beat reporter they won’t come back if Kent Austin is still around and then the Owner of the team calling the players cowardly are both stupid.

Players rarely win when they battle upper management and management should never call their players names. You’d think Bob Young would have learned a thing from the Houston Texans situation a few weeks ago. Both parties are at fault here.

Kavis Reed is in way over his head in Montreal and his post-season press conference showed it. He has no clue how bad his roster is and he truly thinks he has a good core there. Newsflash Kavis, you look like the 2015 Riders. You guys don’t have AC to bail you out anymore, time to move on #Consequences

Toronto isn’t getting enough praise and respect for how they finished the season. Yes, they only finished 9-9, but they finished the season winning 5 of their final 7 games. Hopefully BMO can get a good crowd on November 19 for the East Final, the team deserves it.

I know the format won’t change, but the CFL playoff format need to change. The fact that a 12 win team (Edmonton) has to go on the road for both their games and teams at 9-9 and 8-9-1 get home playoff games is a joke. Each Division winner should get a first round bye and the other 4 teams should be reseeded 3-6. If we went to that format, Calgary and Toronto get the bye, Winnipeg would host Ottawa and Edmonton would host Saskatchewan. The overall #1 would get the lowest remaining seed and the overall #2 would get the highest remaining seed.

I won’t even mention that 66.66667% of teams make the playoffs and that itself is too high. I’d be happy with 5 teams making the dance with the #1 team getting a bye. But I digress…

Yeah, they are moving the CFL schedule up 1 week next year to add in a 3rd bye week for every team, but the season will still end at the same time. Did you see how cold it was in Calgary and Regina this past weekend? Regular season games shouldn’t be played that late in the year. There is no reason the season can’t begin at the beginning of June. All the teams have tryouts and mini-camps in Florida and Training Camp can start in May with games in mid-May.

Happy playoffs everyone, the road to the Grey Cup in Ottawa has begun! Best of luck to all your teams, unless they play the Riders.

If you’d like to come out and watch the Riders @ Redblacks with the Piffles Podcast crew and more great Rider fans, let us know! We will be at the Press Box Sports Bar in Regina at 11:30. Let us know on the Facebook event page and we will make sure you have a spot! It should be a great time cheering on the Riders to victory!

Go Riders! #BEL13VE