View From The Stands: #MascotLivesMatter Edition

By: Sheldon Jones (@Sheldon_Jones83)

On Saturday night in Regina at Mosiac Stadium, I along with 30,000 of my closest friends were treated to a highly entertaining football game between the two bottom teams in the Western Division. On a perfect night for football the Saskatchewan Roughriders had a bounce back game in all 3 phases and can clinch the season series with BC with a victory in Vancouver on July 27th. As always, here are my views from the stands…

– Charleston Hughes Does. Not. Age. What a game from #39. 10 tackles, 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles will undoubtedly earn him one of the CFL’s Top Performers of the week and the Roughriders Player of the Game. And that is saying something. This game had very good performances by QB Cody Fajardo, WR’s Shaq Evans and Kyran Moore and Returner Marcus Thigpen.

– Speaking of Evans he had himself a game. He has looked solid of late and hopefully has lost his case of the dropsies. He had 3 big catches and made his cover man look lost. If he can keep this up he will become one of the premiere receivers in the league.

– Mike Reilly may have the heart of a Lion, but he needs to learn to take a seat when the game is out of hand. He said after the game that he wants to win as a team and lose as a team but when you are the face of the team and are worth 700K+ an injury while trying to score in garbage time would be detrimental to the team. BC Head Coach DeVone Claybrooks said he tried to take him out but Reilly refused. Who is the coach here? Claybrooks needs to protect his investment and put his foot down.

– Mike was visibly wincing and pissed off in the last 2 minutes of the game. He has taken more abuse this season than any other QB in the league, being sacked 21 times in 6 games. This has to be taking a tole on him and if the situation doesn’t improve in BC he will get hurt sooner than later.

– The only person who was more pissed off after the game than Mike Reilly was twitter user @MandelinaMiss. She was upset at the “Despicable Actions” of Gainer taking out his frustrations on a stuffed Lion. Gainer has been using this Schtick for 30 years but “Mandy” decided it would be a great idea to champion known Twitter troll Duron Carter to join her cause for the end of mascot on stuffed animal abuse. This delightfully blew up in her face and gave her 15 minutes of fame she did not want. But a few good things came out of this. Piffles Pod alumni Ferlin got #MascotLivesMatter trending and a @StuffedPeta twitter profile was born.

– I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the horrendous reffing of head referee Al Bradbury and his crew. I know he didn’t make up any penalties but his crew looked lost out there and  missed major penalties. Nick Marshall deserved a penalty for his late suplex of Duron Carter and Makana Henry got away (initially) with a low hit on the QB, rolling into Mike Reilly. What happened to the extra eye on the field to protect the QB’s?

– Punter Jon Ryan is taking a little bit longer than expected to get back his Canadian punting style. He boomed the punts all game but had 2 go through the endzone for rouges when he was certainly looking to pin the Lions deep. He needs to be more directional towards the sidelines and get his coffin corner technique back.

– Last point goes to the latest coaching gaffe of Riders Head Coach Craig Dickenson. He listed RB Kienan LeFrance as an ineligible receiver on special teams plays on the “card” before the game. Then he calls a brilliant fake field goal, where punter / holder Jon Ryan throws up a high pass to LeFrance and he makes an incredible catch to get the first down. Hold up, no the eye in the sky catches the fact that LeFrance is an ineligible receiver so the pass does not count and the riders receive a 10 yard penalty taking them out of field goal territory. Luckily for Craig this mistake didn’t cost him the victory but he really needs to get these mistakes taken care of.

It was a very exciting game and after the 100 yard kickoff return TD by Marcus Thigpen just before half time the Riders had all the momentum. Hopefully they can keep that momentum going as the head to BC to try to get back to .500 and win the important season series with BC. With Solomon Elimimian locking the rust off and looking like the Solly of old I’m sure he and Manny Arceneaux are looking forward to returning to BC to try to get the victory and sweep this home and home.

By: Sheldon Jones (@Sheldon_Jones83)

On Saturday night in Regina at Mosiac Stadium, I along with 30,000 of my closest friends were treated to a highly entertaining football game between the two bottom teams in the Western Division. On a perfect night for football the Saskatchewan Roughriders had a bounce back game in all 3 phases and can clinch the season series with BC with a victory in Vancouver on July 27th. As always, here are my views from the stands…

– Charleston Hughes Does. Not. Age. What a game from #39. 10 tackles, 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles will undoubtedly earn him one of the CFL’s Top Performers of the week and the Roughriders Player of the Game. And that is saying something. This game had very good performances by QB Cody Fajardo, WR’s Shaq Evans and Kyran Moore and Returner Marcus Thigpen.

– Speaking of Evans he had himself a game. He has looked solid of late and hopefully has lost his case of the dropsies. He had 3 big catches and made his cover man look lost. If he can keep this up he will become one of the premiere receivers in the league.

– Mike Reilly may have the heart of a Lion, but he needs to learn to take a seat when the game is out of hand. He said after the game that he wants to win as a team and lose as a team but when you are the face of the team and are worth 700K+ an injury while trying to score in garbage time would be detrimental to the team. BC Head Coach DeVone Claybrooks said he tried to take him out but Reilly refused. Who is the coach here? Claybrooks needs to protect his investment and put his foot down.

– Mike was visibly wincing and pissed off in the last 2 minutes of the game. He has taken more abuse this season than any other QB in the league, being sacked 21 times in 6 games. This has to be taking a tole on him and if the situation doesn’t improve in BC he will get hurt sooner than later.

– The only person who was more pissed off after the game than Mike Reilly was twitter user @MandelinaMiss. She was upset at the “Despicable Actions” of Gainer taking out his frustrations on a stuffed Lion. Gainer has been using this Schtick for 30 years but “Mandy” decided it would be a great idea to champion known Twitter troll Duron Carter to join her cause for the end of mascot on stuffed animal abuse. This delightfully blew up in her face and gave her 15 minutes of fame she did not want. But a few good things came out of this. Piffles Pod alumni Ferlin got #MascotLivesMatter trending and a @StuffedPeta twitter profile was born.

– I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the horrendous reffing of head referee Al Bradbury and his crew. I know he didn’t make up any penalties but his crew looked lost out there and  missed major penalties. Nick Marshall deserved a penalty for his late suplex of Duron Carter and Makana Henry got away (initially) with a low hit on the QB, rolling into Mike Reilly. What happened to the extra eye on the field to protect the QB’s?

– Punter Jon Ryan is taking a little bit longer than expected to get back his Canadian punting style. He boomed the punts all game but had 2 go through the endzone for rouges when he was certainly looking to pin the Lions deep. He needs to be more directional towards the sidelines and get his coffin corner technique back.

– Last point goes to the latest coaching gaffe of Riders Head Coach Craig Dickenson. He listed RB Kienan LeFrance as an ineligible receiver on special teams plays on the “card” before the game. Then he calls a brilliant fake field goal, where punter / holder Jon Ryan throws up a high pass to LeFrance and he makes an incredible catch to get the first down. Hold up, no the eye in the sky catches the fact that LeFrance is an ineligible receiver so the pass does not count and the riders receive a 10 yard penalty taking them out of field goal territory. Luckily for Craig this mistake didn’t cost him the victory but he really needs to get these mistakes taken care of.

It was a very exciting game and after the 100 yard kickoff return TD by Marcus Thigpen just before half time the Riders had all the momentum. Hopefully they can keep that momentum going as the head to BC to try to get back to .500 and win the important season series with BC. With Solomon Elimimian locking the rust off and looking like the Solly of old I’m sure he and Manny Arceneaux are looking forward to returning to BC to try to get the victory and sweep this home and home.

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