Something To "Mitch" About

YIKES!!! That was some kind of ugly. The 2013 Banjo Bowl will definitely not go down in the highlight reels for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

You had the feeling it might be one of those days early as the Bombers D came to play while the offensive line had perhaps one of their worst collective games in recent memory as Winnipeg got to Durant sacking him eight times while pressuring him on countless other occasions making him basically useless as he couldn't make reads or find open receivers seeing someone was on top of him virtually from the snap. If the team had been able to convert 3's into 7's in that first half, it might have been a different story, but it wasn't.

Just some thoughts

--If Rey Williams is out for an extended period of time, that could be bad news for the Riders. Williams hasn't played the way he has the first few games of the season, but he is still a force out there to be reckoned with. The Leader Post's Murray McCormick says he left the stadium on crutches. Is Joe Lobendahn available? Is he in shape?

--Have you noticed that team's rarely throw the ball at Terrell Maze. I have

--I don't know if Winnipeg has found an answer at quarterback in Justin Goltz or not. The kid is still wet behind the ears, but he does some dumb things out there.

--Taj Smith just keeps getting better and better with every game

--Does the loss of Chris Best mean that much to the o-line that was pushed around?

--Does Winnipeg have the best pass rush in the league?

--Chris Cuthbert and Glen Suitor have now done both Rider losses in Calgary and Winnipeg meaning the Riders are perfect when Rod Black calls their games. I ask you Rider fans if that's a good thing considering you aren't very complimentary towards Black and his call. That being said, is there a fanbase in the CFL that is complimentary to Black's call.

At the end of the day, this football team is still 8-2 and everything is tracking towards that game in Calgary next month as the one that will decide first place in the West. Perhaps Hamilton can do the Riders a favour next weekend at MacMahon, but I will go with Calgary.

Are the Ti-Cats getting their game together? It would look that way, but I'm still not sold on them. I guess it depends on the Ricky Ray injury, but I still believe the best team in the East are the Argonauts. We'll see next weekend at Mosaic how good they are in person with Zach Collaros calling the shots.

Buck Pierce to BC. I never saw that one coming. I guess Buck will be insurance to Travis Lulay. What other role could he play unless Lulay hurt himself in Hamilton.

I feel fortunate to get a chance to talk football and get some inside stuff from guys like Lance Frazier, Luc Mullinder, Matt Dominguez, Chris Szarka and Scott Schultz every week. The stories and anecdotes you get from them are first-rate. That is one of the reasons why CKRM is the place to be for football coverage. The team that's been assembled is second to none.

The first weekend of the NFL just once again made me realize how much I love the NFL. Don't get me wrong, I love the Canadian game too, but when you can turn the channel and have seven of the ten early games coming right down to the final seconds, it is tremendous theatre and a tremendous workout on the remote. One of those seven games saw the Seahawks hang on to beat Carolina thanks to a fumble inside the Seahawks 10 that killed Carolina's hopes. If the Panthers score, Seattle likely doesn't win the game. I can't wait for their Sunday night tilt at home against San Francisco next weekend.

I'm not a Chicago Bears fan, but I am hoping to see Marc Trestman succeed. If he can, it might open the doors for other CFL coaches to go south just like players do.

I will just say it right here and right now (OK, I said it first on Roughrider Gameday this morning). Jeremy O'Day will be the general manager of the Edmonton Eskimos in 2014 and the head coach will be Paul Lapolice. If its not Lapolice, it will be George Cortez.

Its tough enough navigating through East Regina's shopping area on a Saturday afternoon. Add three crashes within sight of one another and it makes for an almost impossible adventure. Thankfully, I didn't have to experience much of it.

Premier Brad Wall sits down with NDP leader Tom Mulcair today at the Legislature. I am guessing the Banjo Bowl nor the Raiders-Colts game will be a part of the conversation. Speaking of the Premier, I wonder how many barbs he is taking from Manitobans today after his video on Friday.

Who is selling at TSN and why can't they find more corporate partners for CFL games. Its become infomercial heaven on CFL games. From Zoomies to QRay bracelets to something for your kitty to scratch on to other god forsaken items, TSN is allowing these people to hammer away via advertising between games. Would you buy a pair of Zoomies? Don't answer that! It makes me long for the RONA guy and ask whatever happened to "Canadian Tire Man" and his handy-dandy gadgets from Canadian Tire that he always had to fix this problem or that.

Speaking of TSN, remember when Maggie the Monkey picked games for them. Well, now the NFL Network has a monkey picking games for them. Its been a few years so I guess you can't say the NFL Network has stolen the idea and really, its not that tough to get an idea picking an animal of some sorts to select games. Hell, Rod and I could have done that with my cat for Sportscage if we wanted, but we decided to use the good old coin last year. Is anyone else around here currently using a coin to pick games? We wouldn't want to infringe on anyone's territory.

Sundays are great when there is wall to wall football on. Agree?

Another season of Locker Talk begins Tuesday night at Access. Hold the applause. That's what the people at Access are doing.

The always-amusing Riderfans.com got hacked Sunday night by some pro-Syria website. Could it be that Bashar Assad has had enough of the Darian Durant bashing? Is he a member on that site? What handle does he go by?

Did anyone see the Eminem-Brent Musberger interview Saturday during the Michigan-Notre Dame game. AWKWARD!!! If you haven't seen it, Youtube it. Its there for the world to see.

Was Friday the last nice day we are going to have for a while. Cooler weather is upon us. As mentioned before, it can cool down as long as its above zero at kickoff on Grey Cup Sunday.


Congrats to all those who ran in the Queen City Marathon. You've done something I won't be doing. Then again, I could say that to Justin Verlander, Enrique Iglesias and George Clooney too.

On that note, I am done. Thanks for checkin in.