What’s Up Ticats

What’s Up Ticats

Published: Saturday, Sep 16th 2017, 2:09pm

by: Stephen Safinuk (@Safimod)

Last night, I got the chance to witness Tim Horton’s Field, in all its splendour, and let me tell you… It did not disappoint. While I love New Mosaic Stadium, and currently sits atop the leaderboard for nicest stadium in the CFL, the one thing missing from it is that CFL feel. Tim Horton’s has that in spades. I will save that for my write up on Tuesday, when I go over my 3 games in 3 days trip in a little more detail. Today, we go straight into the game. Let’s look at what went right, and what went wrong for the Saskatchewan Roughriders last night.

Injuries – Otha Foster, Marcus Thigpen, Duron Carter, Brendon Labatte. All in, the Roughriders were hit with 9 injuries during their game versus Hamilton. It’s a bit of a long week, so we have some time to heal. Hopefully we don’t see a lot of these guys on the 6 game injured list

Brandon Bridge – Great first 2 and a half quarters of football. We were moving the ball almost at will, and putting points on the board. I haven’t gone back through the play by play on the CFL site, but I don’t recall a single first down for the Riders after Namaan Roosevelt’s 3^rd quarter touchdown.

Dariusz Bladek – Once again, great job stepping in at center. Dariusz is going to be a key guy on our offensive line for years to come.

Our receivers – Another day, another 3 receiving touchdowns for the Saskatchewan Roughriders receiving corps. As per the norm, it was spread around nicely (Roosevelt, Grant, and Bailey). I absolutely loved the Night at the Roxbury celebration

Defensive Line – Pressure was an issue last night. At times, Jeremiah Masoli had all the time in the world to throw, and in the second half, he clearly started taking advantage. We can’t do that next week against Bo Levi Mitchell or it will be a LONG day.

Ed Gainey – What more can you say? 2 interceptions, and he could have had another. I’m not sure why opposing QBs keep throwing his way.

Duron Carter – I was sitting behind the Riders bench in the 2^nd half, and had to laugh at Duron. He was sitting on the bench, facing the fans, getting chirped non-stop. I can’t remember the exact words, but he basically said “I’m not going to chirp you, because you’re just going to go home and tell all your friends about it. You want me to chirp you”. He also gave a random fan a glass of water when they asked. Duron Carter is basically a guy out there playing a kid’s game and loving every minute of it.

Check back here on Monday, I’ll have my Week 13 Power Rankings and Tuesday for a review of 3 games in 3 days. Tuesday night, the Piffles Podcast crew is back in studio, so check back Wednesday for episode 56 of the Piffles Podcast.