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Riderville

How the Saskatchewan wildfires affected the Rider kicking game

Jun 17, 2025 | 10:33 AM

The views and opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the writer’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Pattison Media.

You may have heard of the butterfly effect which states that a butterfly flapping its wings across the world can help set off a storm if you aren’t careful.

For the Riders, this past week was an intentional affirmation of the butterfly effect starting at the beginning of the week when the Riders moved their two public practices inside to the Cooperator’s Center because of air quality concerns from the fires in northern Saskatchewan and the smoke heading south.

While this was a prudent move in the interests of player safety, there was a problem with that that did not become apparent until the Riders were on the field against Hamilton Saturday night.

The Riders have a new holder for field goal kicker Brett Lauther in Joe Couch, an Australian punter up from the NCAA who was on the practice roster last year but did not get many opportunities to hold for Lauther since Adam Korshak was the holder.

Korshak is gone, having landed a nice paying job the Riders had no hopes of matching salary wise, so the Riders are going the path of having their punter serve as the holder. The problem is the Riders are on their second punter of the season and when you don’t have an opportunity to practice your timing outside, it becomes understandable that when it comes to game time situations, a holder who can’t field the ball cleanly for the kicker can’t expect the kicker to concentrate on the kick when he doesn’t know when or where the ball will be placed.

During the game I had texts from across Canada wondering what was up with Lauther, who went through a similar lousy game last year against Montreal missing enough field goals to cost the team a win it could have used in chasing Winnipeg. I explained my theory about the holder and when I rewatched the game, paying attention on the holds, and at least two of the kicks were botched by questionable holds.

So, while phone lines and fan forums were buzzing over replacing Lauther and bringing in competition, to me the first step is rather obvious and perhaps easiest. Replace Couch as the holder with Tommy Stevens, the short yardage quarterback who has the ability to also take the ball and run if a snap is botched.

Stevens comes from Penn State, where he was not a bad quarterback and has the hands used to taking long snaps. Couch is shaky enough as a punter to have to also worry about taking snaps which he is probably not that comfortable doing. So if Couch is not consistently delivering solid holds on kicks, it is pretty unreasonable to expect him to figure this out in two weeks, especially if he loses a week of valuable outdoor reps.

The Riders though managed to overcome that, and the weird pass coverage they were employing, by pulling an interesting surprise and having Ka’Deem Cary in the backfield with AJ Ouellette. The result was Ouellette ran for a 47-yard touchdown, nearly hit 100 yards in rushing and the Rider’s receiving corps was missing Samuel Emilus after the first quarter to an undisclosed injury but had KeeSean Johnson come up big in the fourth quarter to put the Riders over the top.

The Riders had some people under the microscope like Trevaughn Campbell at corner who had a penalty last week but is showing the benefits of playing in the NFL and looks to be a solid addition. Whether Nelson Lokombo is the answer at safety is another question, but I have confidence the Riders defensive secondary will be much better when Jaxson Ford starts at safety.

The Riders offensive line, although hit with injuries, has taken a page from last year and has been playing very well together. Any discussion of the Riders offensive line being in shaky shape is nothing but click bait.

The Rider receiving corps may want to stop playing Blondie’s Heart of Glass, but they have enough depth to probably weather this stretch as they seem able to step up when needed. The interesting thing to watch with this team is even with the pregame, or even in game adversity, the Riders don’t seem to panic and considering they have games coming up against Toronto and BC before taking their first bye week, it would be nice to stack up some wins before taking a week off.

While Dru Brown of Ottawa shredded the Riders defense for over 400 yards, Bo Levi Mitchell helped the Riders by serving up a pick six to Rolan Milligan. While Mitchell had a record season last year, and may have another this season, a lot of that will be garbage time yardage when the game has been decided and the opposing defenses don’t want to give Hamilton an excuse to hit their receivers deep and get back into the game.

On Friday the Riders go to Toronto to play the Argonauts who are coming off a 29-19 loss to Calgary on the night the Argos unfurled their latest championship banner and handed out Grey Cup replica rings to their fans. Chad Kelly is still on the injured list and may not play, and Nick Arbuckle had some moments but also had some brain cramps of his own which may force Argo head coach Ryan Dinwiddie to simplify his offense to take away serious thinking away from Arbuckle.

Just for laughs I have bookmarked the Winnipeg Morning Big Blue fan page which as you expect is full of hatred for Saskatchewan and the Bombers refuse to give anyone credit for winning, preferring to stick to their company line that they screwed up rather than the other team played better.

They were furious about Arbuckle’s play, wondering how the Bombers lost last year’s Grey Cup and I don’t feel compelled to add my two cents that God did not want the Bombers to win again. Now can Dinwiddie simplify the playbook to take the most advantage of Arbuckle’s talents is one question, the status of the true Grey Cup MVP Wynton McManis at linebacker who may lose the game may be a good sign for the Riders.

Look for the Riders to maybe insert Stevens as the new holder and continue to try out their two headed monster at running back with Ouellette and Cary. I suspect Tuesday’s practice will be the only public practice and the Riders may make the status of some of their players clearer than what it is now.

If Kelly does start for the Argos, I can see the Riders unleashing their pass rush to try to get Kelly uncomfortable on his ankle which was broken in the eastern final. If McManis is out, look for the Riders to rush and maybe even dominate the line of scrimmage.

The Riders as they usually do will find some way to make the game interesting, but whether it is Kelly or Arbuckle, the result will be the same. The Riders will win this one 29-17 using a balanced offense and hopefully being more aggressive with their pass coverage. I don’t think Toronto has a running game worth worrying about so the Riders can focus on disrupting the Argos offensive line and forcing errors.