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Monday, November 17, 2014

Something To "Mitch" About



Its over! The 2014 Riders season came to a frustrating end in Edmonton on Sunday afternoon as they lost the Western Semi-Final 18-10. Who's kidding who, this was a game the Riders could have had, they should have had and they might have had it.

Yes, a lot of blame has to be pinned on Kerry Joseph, but I am not going there. This game ended in the 2nd quarter when Josh Bartel decided to kick one down the middle of the field to Kendial Lawrence. Lawrence did what many players did this year-----he went through an atrocious returns team to take it 88 yards for a touchdown. The only TD of the day for the Eskimos who were just as bad offensively under Matt Nichols.

Head Coach Corey Chamblin said the one bad thing about his team came back to bite them in the ass again! No kidding!! Would the Riders have won that game if Lawrence doesn't take it back for a TD....we will never know, but I'm guessing the entire texture of that game changes if Lawrence doesn't and at the end of the game Tino Sunseri would have been getting his team into position for a Chris Milo field goal then a touchdown and a two point conversion.

As for Kerry Joseph, his post game comments hit right to the heart. Joseph said he let the Rider Nation down, he let the province of Saskatchewan down and he let his teammates down with his efforts. He came right out and said he sucked and he was horrible. It was not the way he wanted to go out, but Kerry Joseph has no reason to apologize to the people of Saskatchewan and the Rider Nation for what he did. The loyal order of Rider Priders have loved Joseph since he went off the field in tears after winning the 2007 Grey Cup. That love affair continued well after he was gone and while many mocked his return, many saw the old guy could still play the game. I think many of us knew it was a pipe-dream to suggest the Riders could win the Grey Cup with Kerry at the helm, but he gave us a better chance to win than what Tino Sunseri and Seth Doege did. If one of those two had actually come through once Darian Durant got hurt, Joseph wouldn't have had a chance to come back because he would be sitting on his couch in Louisiana watching Drew Brees and the Saints play.  The last game was nightmarish, but one career can't be defined by your last game. Thanks for at least giving us some life in the final month of the season and some hope.

I'm guessing much like it was after the 2012 semi-final loss to Calgary that Corey Chamblin won't be taking any time off and will be spending endless hours trying to figure out how to make his team better in 2015.  It seemed like last winter we didn't want training camp to come around because it truly meant the 2013 season was over and all that was left were the memories. I think people around here will be waiting for this team to get back at it at training camp in June. They still have a solid nucleus, but changes will be made. What changes aren't known (however, shoring up special teams will be a big start), but what is known is this organization will not take what happened yesterday or this season lying down. There has to be a tremendous sense of disappointment about the way this team caved in when Darian Durant went down. Losing your leader was tough enough, but seeing the way the team reacted when the leader was gone was something completely unexpected.  As this season ends, that is the big question that must be answered. That question being "Why did this team let one injury derail their entire season!"

That's all I got. The floor is yours!

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does anyone remember when Chamblin got in the pissing match with Craig Dickenson?

Anonymous said...

If Tino gets the reps and playing time that Joseph used in the last month we win. That's on management.

Anonymous said...

The only thing I don't get is after stressing ball protection all season - why do we let Kerry go for the playoff INT record. He should have never played the second half and one fortunate play (the TD) because EDM was dealing with injury shouldn't have secured Kerry a second half start. Missed opportunities.

The defences on both sides of the ball ruled the day. Even without the special team faux pas we lose 11-10. Our offense needs to be seriously reexamined next year. A viable back-up QB is required & is it time for Cortez to move on (YES)? I don't think the offense ever lite it up this year - I think both changes should occur.

Special teams - kicking was the issue Milo/Bartel - be surprised if they aren't both replaced. Lots of young talents in the wings.

Well - until next season... Go Riders Go!

PS - I am now officially cheering for Montreal.

Anonymous said...

Well Scruffy, I got up but the sun didn't come out? Snowing pretty hard.

Anonymous said...

Tino got lots of reps after Durant got hurt, management gave him lots of opportunity. Making a stupid comment, that's on you anon #2.

Mike

Anonymous said...

There is no doubt Riders should have won this game. However

1) Everyone talked about new wrinkles in offence because of Cortez and now was his time to shine. Where were the wrinkles? Can we admit he pulled the pin when Darian went down.

2) Bob Dyce can clean out his desk and give the secretary a forwarding address. He is the first off-season casualty. His special teams were a joke.

3) Why did we trade for josh Bartel when we had Ricky Schmidt?

4) Where was Messam?

Its going to be a long off-season and a controversial one too. I think a lot of regulars and fan favourites may be gone.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Kerry! The Cinderella story didn't end the way you or we wanted it to, but you gave us a chance.

Anonymous said...

Sunseri! WTF? You are handed a starting assignment and you shit the bed. However, you come off the bench and you have success. Football is a four quarter game son. You might want to learn that in the off-season. ARGHHHH!!!

Nick

Anonymous said...

Trade Getzlaf, Clark and a first for Ottawa's first (Richards) and an import linebacker.


Kyle

Anonymous said...

Our o-line was pathetic. Labatte and Heenan especially.

Anonymous said...

What does happen to Getzlaf? He will be the first to tell you he had a bad season. Has age caught up with him?

Anonymous said...

Watch the replay. Brian Peters missed an easy tackle on that punt return TD. Just terrible. Too bad Korey Williams couldn't squeeze a couple more catches. Those could have been game changers

Anonymous said...

Hate to say it but I feel Mr.Labatte is totally overrated. He played poorly today and had a tough season all year

truenorthern said...

Factors to consider:
- Injuries to key Canadians hurt depth and especially special teams
- Injury to the best QB in the league
- Loss of depth from losing free agents after winning Grey Cup.
- Expansion draft that also cost the team key players.

Considering the above the team, executive, and coaching staff overachieved

Anonymous said...

There is much work to……………..

- find a backup QB who can play. Sunseri or Doege can be brought back as #3. Both soiled the sheets every opportunity they got. Sunseri is not starter material.

- I agree Dyce has to go. There were a lot of injuries to deal with but he still had good talent and did nothing. Special teams were a sore spot all season.

- Hall's defense was 8th out of 9 teams with only the RedBlacks being worse. Really? That's not good enough. He and his overrated defences need to go.

- O-line interior, D-line , receivers, linebackers all need upgrading. Kicking game was bad all year. A back who knows how to block would be nice.

- Canadian talent has fallen off and we need and upgrade there too.

- We need to ensure we are bigger and badder next season. We got too small and were manhandled by too many teams this year. Our size has to get much bigger in all positions.

- Our GM should see to it we never get caught they way we were this year. Three of the last four years haven't been too good. Taman and Smith had several years together in Winnipeg and did very little. We need to find out if they are what we need going forward. Too few good players brought in by them and too many huge errors in judgement.

Anonymous said...

Unacceptable dereliction of duty by the gm during the off-season and the progressing 2014 regular season to provide the necessary on field player talent for any on field success. (long term?) Anyone with a sense of sensibility could see the writing on the wall before training camp commenced this past spring with no replacements or upgrades to the team. Coach Chamblin now telling print media there will be changes to the roster when they return for the 2015 season. "This Is going to be a tear down phase." "We have to tear some things up and redo a lot of things. It may be a rebuilding phase .... There will have to be a lot of changes made for us to be a championship football team again." Advice to Rrs board of directors and new Incoming VP; release the current gm, hire Mr. Chamblin as head coach/Gm. Mr.Chamblin it would seem has his own sense of direction of what he wants to see happen for this professional football club and there should be no doubt he would know how to get it done with his football brethren connections. If not, and the current status quo remains, welcome back to the CFL West Division basement, it almost happened this year. Fire Taman asap, last year 2013 GC courtesy of Mr. J. Hopson.

Anonymous said...

Kyle, you have been hit in the head by a blunt object haven't you?


Anonymous said...


How many FA's do the Riders have to re-sign? Its gotta be 15-20.

Anonymous said...

Labatte had his worst game of the year.

Anonymous said...

This surely has to be the end of old man Cortez. He didn't bring anything to the table. I'm guessing there were hundreds nay thousands who had a better game plan.


Trevor

Mitchell Blair said...

Over 20

Anonymous said...

dressler and chick will be gone as they probably dont want to be part of a rebuild as chamblin put it.

Keither said...

There seems to a common experience for last year's champion teams to have a down year, for various reasons - case in point - Riders, Seahawks, LA Kings, Regina Thunder.

Change is what sports is about. In terms of the Riders, I hope they quickly determine what George Cortez's plans are and if he is moving on, that the Riders make a very good offer to Lapolice.

As Paul has mentioned on the Sports Cage in the past, he has been building a playbook that could do progressive things on offense.

Anonymous said...

This team is in decline. The first thing the new President/CEO has to do is release Brendan Taman. Keep him around and the crowds will dwindle down to where the only sellout in the new stadium will be Labour Day just like in the not so good old days with telethons thrown in for good measure.