Time to Exorcise Some Demons

Those injured players are coming back at the right time, the playoffs, and on Saturday the Riders go to Stony Mountain to try to exorcise the Bombers from the Riders psyche. The Bombers will push the rules and bully other teams to get what they want and have done so relatively successfully in the last four seasons, even though they are a two Grey Cup losing streak.

This will be the ultimate test of adversity for the Riders whose nightmare against the Bombers started in the western final when Cody Fajardo’s fourth quarter pass to the end zone hit the cross bar. It can only end by going into the gates of hell, otherwise called Princess Incestuous Stadium and showing no fear in sending the Bombers home early.

The Riders in the western final made a few adjustments including getting both AJ Ouellette and Ryquell Armstead onto the roster and alternating them until Ouellette showed he was ready with a two touchdown performance. It was not an overwhelming rushing attack, but what it did was hold the BC linebackers for just a second and allow the play action pass to do its thing.

The weather, at least at the time of this writing, has Princess Incestuous Field at plus 12. The wind that made the western semi final interesting may not make an appearance in Stony Mountain, unless the coven of witches the Bombers used to conjure a punt slowing wind in Montreal are allowed entry to Princess Port a Potty Field.

The western final will come down to who executes better and who dominates the line of scrimmage. Brady Olivera will not be a factor in running the ball since he averages 45 yards a game against the Riders.

Olivera will be more effective as a receiver, acting as a safety valve for Zach Collaros who needs a quick release in case, he is stalked by the Rider defensive line. If Collaros is allowed to scramble right, he does open the field for any sort of shenanigans, and along with Olivera, look for Demski to specialize in the over the middle stuff designed to clinch first downs.

Winnipeg will likely go deep against the Riders, looking to open the middle for later in the game when they need a clock eating drive to frustrate the Riders. Judging from the acting skills of Kenny Lawlor in pleading for phantom interference penalties, the Bombers will pull out whatever tricks they have to try to reinforce in the minds of the Riders they will not win.

So, Winnipeg will not really get much traction along the ground and resort to the medium to deep passing game to try to exploit the Riders tendency to play zone defense. The trick to making that work is to disrupt the timing of the passing and force Collaros to move to where he is not comfortable in throwing the ball.

The Riders will try to run the ball with their backfield set, but unless they exploit some nice seams, I see it being more of a tactic to prevent them from pinning their ears back and rushing Trevor Harris. Harris has posted some impressive numbers in the post season, but he is more effective when he has a ground game that gives him an extra second to hit a receiver if the read is correct.

Thursday was the Riders closed practice and they fly out to Winnipeg on Friday. The Riders gave teams a look at their new backfield in the western semi final, now they have another week to tweak their options with that formation.

The Riders will want to hold the ball as long as possible to take the momentum away from the Bombers. It will be a ball control offence with probably the odd trick play or so to make things interesting.

If the Riders can keep Harris vertical behind their offensive line, run the ball for 100 yards and get 300 yards in passing, they will win this game. It is a big emotional and psychological win to finally vanquish the team that has plagued them for four seasons and the Riders have the best chance they have enjoyed in years.

The Riders will advance to the Grey Cup with a 24-23 win, because the Riders don’t blow people out.

As far as the eastern final goes, the Argos 58-38 win over the Ottawa Redblacks looked impressive, but again, it was the Ottawa defense, missing some key performers, which allowed the steady stream of touchdown passes and runs.

This week Toronto goes to Montreal to try to repay them for Montreal’s win last year in the eastern final when Toronto was sporting a franchise best 16-2 record. The problem was Toronto was probably as arrogant as the last 16-2 team, the 1989 Edmonton Eskimos who were upset by the 9-9 Saskatchewan Roughriders who went on to win the Grey Cup that year.

Montreal had added linebacker Darnell Sankey and Shawn Lemon to their defense to give it some grit and Montreal’s defensive secondary managed to confuse Kelly, the most outstanding player last year, into throwing some interceptions, including a pick six.

Montreal clinched the eastern conference early and has kind of treaded water the last few weeks, looking to get back ups some playing time and keep their star players from being injured. While they have some game performances in their last few games, they have also not won. It is not as easy as flicking a switch to get a team showing some momentum and after getting a 50 point plus performance, the Argos have momentum on their side.

Cody Fajardo is coming off his Grey Cup MVP performance but has been hit and miss their season. Montreal has a good backup in Davis Alexander in case Fajardo falters, but Montreal minus some targets in their receiving corps, may have to resort to the run-in order to get things. Montreal’s

somewhat inconsistent offence is likely not a match for the Argos defence, which has speed.

Where this game will be decided is whether Kelly can face down Noel Thorpe’s defence. Thorpe will be looking to shut down Toronto’s deep passing game and forcing Toronto to nickel and dime its way down the field.

The longer Toronto has the ball, the more its quarterback will resort to throwing deep because Kelly wants to show last year’s eastern final was an outlier as opposed to Montreal’s defence truly getting inside his head and having him see ghosts.

Montreal’s defence is sound, but I can’t believe teams can turn around their performance at the drop of a dime. The Argos have more weapons than the Als but if Kelly has learned nothing from last year, Montreal wins easily.

I am going to go with Toronto beating Montreal 31-26 in a competitive game that would be decided by Toronto getting a late turnover from Montreal.

Throw into the mix the University of Regina Rams and University of Saskatchewan Huskies in the first all Saskatchewan Hardy Cup in 22 years and Saturday should be an incredible day for watching football.

Especially when it comes to the Riders exorcising their ghosts from Stony Mountain.

by Greg Urbanoski

Time to Exorcise Some Demons

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