Views From The Stands: Domination On The West Coast Edition
Published: Monday, Jul 29th 2019, 4:07am
by Sheldon Jones (@sheldonjones83)
This week’s “View” is actually the “Listen’s From The Road” as my wife (@tamers30) and I were on our way home from camping at Spruce Woods provincial park in Manitoba. Now I am the first to admit that I am not a “real” camper and I was only out there for 1 night, but my wife and her family were out there all week and had a blast. There is nothing like sitting around a campfire and having 6 or 7 “just one more?” Beers with family.
As we made our way home down the Trans-Canada highway, we tuned in to hear Derek Taylor’s play by play and Luc Mullinder’s insight on the Riders road game in Vancouver. Radio coverage was spotty at first, but we did get to hear most of the call just after the Riders took a 3-0 lead. As always here’s my random thoughts and opinions on the game.
– I really enjoy @DTonSC’s call of the game. You can still tell how excited he is to be the voice of the Riders and still manages to throw in his wealth of stats knowledge while calling the game. Luc’s thoughts are great too and I honestly don’t know why anyone still gives him grief for his work as the colour man. Carm is gone. Deal with it.
– Solomon Elimimian has definitely started to earn his money as a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. After having a rusty debut against Calgary a few weeks ago he has returned to form and made his presence known over the middle. An early sack to Mike Reilly was the first of many 2 and outs that the Riders forced on the Lions this week.
– Cody Fajardo had a “Matt Nichols-esque” game manager type of game. Outside of the one scramble where he got pounded and fumbled the ball, he played a smart mistake free football game and put his team in a position to win. We keep saying that we need to see more from Cody for him to attain that number 1 job in place of Zach Collaros when (if?) He is healthy, but he is damn close. If he has another appearance like this against a better Hamilton defence, I will be sold.
– William Powell had his breakout game as a Saskatchewan Roughrider. Sure, he has had flashes of brilliance so far this season, but against BC he was dominant. Powell had 146 yards on 21 carries for a average of 7 yards per carry. He was patient and on the heels of the OLine’s best game was rewarded when found the endzone 3 times, doubling his TD total this year to a league leading 6. More of this please.
– After a monster game last week, WR Shaq Evans was quiet, but didn’t need to be as flashy as the rush set the tone for the Riders. Another reason for that was the Roughriders return game had the offence starting in BC territory more often that not. Receiver Corey Watson led the Riders in receiving with 53 yards. He has been very impressive this season. I will admit I was not in favor of bringing him in over keeping Rob Bagg for that token wife side Canadian receiver, but I was wrong. He’s been blocking hard and when his number is called, he is making plays. Kudos to him.
– Another game for the BC Lions offensive line and more of the same for Mike Reilly. Reilly was sacked 4 more times to bring his total to 25 in 7 games. He can not continue to be hit this much. At least Claybrooks got him out of the game in the late 4th quarter this game. BC needs OLine help bad. *this is a recording*
– If it wasn’t for terrible coverage on one kick off and a missed FG the score would have looked a lot worse for the Leos. Returner Ryan Lankford has shown Ottawa that maybe they shouldn’t have been so quick to cut him after his mistake that cost them the game against Winnipeg. Lankford was responsible for 12 of BC’s 18 points. Let’s hope that Brett FUQN Lauther is ready to go for the next game because, while Gabriel Ferraro has been serviceable in relief for the riders his lack of ability at tackling makes me never want to see him on the field again. I have always wondered why they don’t (or maybe they do?) get kickers to practice tackling and tackling angles to stop returns like Lankford’s. Both times Ferraro was in a position to throw is body in front of Ryan or attempt a tackle, only to look foolish missing. Good grief, I miss Jamie Boreham.
With all things considered getting this crucial home and home sweep of the Lions is monumental. With these 2 consecutive loses, BC’s season is all but over. Yeah, I know they won the Grey Cup when they were 1-6 before but even then, they were at least competitive in their loses. The Riders on the other hand are back to .500 and while they have a short week are now lined up to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats who are missing 2 of their most important players. QB Jeremiah Masoli tore his ACL in a noncontact injury last week vs the Bombers and LB Simoni Lawrence we be serving his second game of his two-game suspension for injuring Zach Collaros.
Although the Riders have a habit of making back up QB’s look like world beaters, a very attainable win sits in front of them.
I can’t wait to be singing “Long Live The Night” as mosaic Stadium hosts Thursday Night Football.
Until next time Riders fans.
If you're having trouble subscribing, subscribe here instead.
