Something To "Mitch" About

"Would you rather us throw for 500 yards and lose?" That is the question Rob Bagg posed to everyone who was grumbling about the performance of the offence on Saturday night as the Riders won an ugly one 16-11 over Montreal. Bagg is absolutely right. Whether you win a football game 1-0 or 5-4 as was the case at one point Saturday night or 54-53, the bottom line is winning the football game and getting the two points. The Riders won, they got the two points. It was as ugly as could be, but there are no style points given out.

Here are some of my thoughts as I walked out of Mosaic Saturday night

--The Darian Durant haters just won't accept the guy for whatever reason. Listening to the CKRM post-game show on the way home, callers were quick to throw blame on the Riders QB for the offensive performance. ???? I just don't get it. I don't know what the haters want. This guy stays in the pocket on the Rob Bagg touchdown knowing he is going to get clobbered yet he absorbs that hit to make the play. He runs a quarterback draw not once, but twice to get a first down late in the game to keep a drive alive and kill the clock. He didn't turn the ball over. He was sixty percent on completion percentage. Was every throw great? No. Does Darian deserve the criticism he still gets? NO! There's no use banging your head against the wall trying to figure it out. Some people just won't give credit where credit is due. Its the same with Brendan Taman. As Luc Mullinder so aptly put it on the 620 CKRM post-game show, you won't realize what you had until he is gone. If he wins another Grey Cup during his time here, he will arguably be the greatest Rider to ever have worn the uniform having taken this team to the promised land twice if not more. Perhaps these Durant haters would rather have the likes of Kevin Mason, Reggie Slack or Marvin Graves quarterbacking the team. It's frustrating, but its amusing as well. It also makes me laugh when people say its the media creating the criticism. Yeah. its the media phoning in to the post-game shows, yeah, its the media who write anonymously for the most part into the blogs, yeah, its the media's fault. People that throw that at me just make me chuckle.

--John Chick is John Chick. What more can you say about him that hasn't been said.

--Tom Higgins can rationalize it anyway he wants, but he screwed up by not going for two after the Duron Carter touchdown late in the 4th. Higgins said there was enough time to get the ball back. He's right, but going for two at least means you get the ball back and you are tied instead of behind. If there was lots of time left, why gamble on 3rd and 4 from midfield with 1:45 left when they could have punted and maybe won some field position. Higgins arguably blew it for the Alouettes on this night.

--Al Bradbury and his crew did nothing to heighten the image of CFL officials. The offside call on John Chick in the first half was perhaps the worst call I have seen this year. If that isn't, then his explanation on the no pass interference on Chris Getzlaf because the two were running side-by-side is. ???????? I asked people on Twitter what they would grade old Al's crew for their performance Saturday night. I gave them a C Minus and many who answered said I was being generous.

--It was a very classy move by many Rider fans to give Taj Smith a nice ovation when he caught his first pass. I'm sure that meant a lot to #88 who you know is going through some battles. The Riders are giving this kid every opportunity to stick around, but they've told him the time to grow up is now. Rider fans let Taj know they are on his side and it was encouraging to see.

--Why doesn't the kisscam ever venture up to the pressbox and focus in on Carm and Rod? Tell me the place wouldn't go ballistic as Carm planted one on RP or vice-versa!

--I like Chris Milo, but I think he needs to be pushed a little. Bringing a body in wouldn't be the worst thing for the Riders kicker. Competition is always good.

Other thoughts

--The CFL has to start becoming concerned over the bad football games we are seeing. I was told by some that if I thought the game at Mosaic was bad it was nothing compared to the Edmonton-Ottawa game. These games are starting to become commonplace and its not fan-friendly. I'm not sure how you fix it, but somewhere somehow the CFL must find a way to create some excitement and perhaps it will come, but right now the product isn't appealing to the fan and that is not a good sign.

--I hate to say it, but it looks like Weston Dressler's dream of playing in the NFL is over. I was excited to see Weston get a chance even if it was a small one to do his thing with a national audience on FOX watching but sadly all we saw of Dressler was him sitting on the bench before the game started. He stayed on the bench too as far as I could see as he didn't catch any passes or return any kicks. My guess is Weston will be back in the CFL by Labour Day and he will be wearing green despite talk of him landing in Ottawa or Toronto. Brendan Taman will not let #7 get away.

--John Cena will be awfully sore this morning after the "pummelling" he took at the hands of Brock Lesnar. A man should not get thrown on his head and neck 16 times the way Cena did. Yes its scripted, but you still have to sell it to make it look good.

--Did Triple H reach into the wardrobe of his ex-woman Chyna when giving an outfit for current wife Stephanie McMahon to wear. The boss' daughter looked like she was wearing garb from the 90's diva in the ring for her match against Brie Bella which surprised very few methinks.

--The Blue Jays are done. At this rate, I can't help but wonder if they will be a 500 team the way they are plummeting in the standings. I still say opportunity blown at the deadline. Some disagree and that's fine. All I know is while others strengthened their team, the Jays did not for whatever reason.

--Where was all the rain we were supposed to get this weekend? Saturday was calling for 10-20 millimeters in Regina. Where was it? Environment Canada---10 percent accurate 90 percent of the time.

--Sounds like the event of the year was held at the Turvey Centre Friday night with the Frank McCrystal roast. I've heard many a story from many a person. I shoulda went!

--Congrats to the Regina Thunder as they beat the Hilltops 19-16 in overtime. Its never a bad thing when you beat the Hilltops is it Regina.

--Congrats also to the Regina kids representing Canada at the Little League Junior and Senior World Series. The junior team barely lost out on qualifying for a semi-final. It was said they were the best Canadian reps perhaps ever sent to Taylor Michigan at the Juniors. That's a good thing.

--Have a great week!