No shame in being wrong and no sense in whining about Rider season
I remember at the start of the 2017 season, after watching the Riders absolutely suck in an exhibition game loss against the BC Lions, that this team would be lucky to make it to another 5-13 season.
Then when the Riders went to BC and went down 30-0 before getting two late touchdowns, I was filled with “righteous wrath and furious anger” as Pulp Fiction put it as the Riders fell to 2-4. Then BC came to town, the Riders won 41-8, and stranger things started to unfold.
The results of the season long training camp in 2016 seemed to pay off as the Riders seemed to stick with a more regular lineup and made changes based on injury rather than player evaluation. Although hey, if that happened as well, what the hell.
The Riders finished 10-8, good enough for fourth and an eastern crossover. Playing the “what-if” game, I looked at the 2017 schedule at the games the Riders lose by a touchdown or less. So if Tyler Crapigna makes a field goal in the first and second games of the year, and if Brandon Bridge leads the Riders to a come from behind win against Calgary in their visit here, and if the Riders didn’t fold in the fourth quarter against Ottawa, their record could very well have been 14-4, which would have been good enough for first in the west.