Week 1: wrap up

Well, my great and grand plans of blogging BEFORE the Rider game were sidelined by the many-splendored thing called life! The Canada Day long weekend has once again felled my youngest with a chest infection, which meant a very long wait at a walk-in clinic.

The long weekend also brought droves of company. It's all good! I love hosting family and friends, but it didn't leave much time for me to hit up my blogging machine. So here it goes. Please forgive!

Saturday afternoon's game against the Edmonton Eskimoes was a treat to watch. So often the stadium in Edmonton has confounded our best efforts. Last year, for instance, we managed to make their quarterbacks look like Ricky Ray. And Ricky Ray they surely weren't.

It's been a while since I've seen the Green and White firing on all cylinders. Each faction of the team was fired up with equal intensity and it brought Durant three touchdowns and 171 yards and ZERO interceptions. True, our offence kind of went cold in the second quarter, but thankfully our defence managed to make the Schmoes look old, tired and listless.

The exception was the massive hit in the third quarter on Diamond Ferri by Schmoes Matt O'Donnell, as Ferri ran back an interception. That's right. The only highlight-worthy play by the Evil Empire was a frustration hit as our defence intercepted them and ran it back for 37 yards. Ooooeeee... it's not fun to be an Esks fan right now.

(As a child of the 80s, you must appreciate just how much I enjoy watching the Schmoes lose. Badly. And often. The Evil Empire looks doomed to mediocrity for the foreseeable future, too!)

Ferri looked like a MACK Truck hit him. I do hope he's able to play by Friday! Ferri, just like the rest of the Wolf Pack, looked hungry as they feasted on a weaker Edmonton team with two interceptions. The first on a very poor decision by Reilly to throw the ball on the last play of the first half while practically standing on his goal line. (Psst... dude, take a knee!)

Booyahs of the game go to: (A few out of many)

Kory Sheets. Seriously. The dude racked up 131 yards on the ground and two receptions for another 14 yards. At one point all the players were piled up in a bunch and the next thing I know, Kory came shooting out the other side. Like woah!

George Cortez. He's. The. Man. Loved the play calling throughout the game and the trick play with Dressler tossing a potential TD to Durant was pure gold. If it had worked, anyway. Loved the fact that they attempted it. Edmonton looked like they had no answer to our offense. It was great to see Durant look so in control and so composed as he fired off first downs to a host of star receivers. Can you believe we were up by 14 points before Dressler even caught a ball? Woot! Woot! Dressler is amazing, but it's nice to see the little guy doesn't have to catch everything for us to win a game. We've got enough talent on the field, let's use it.

Taj Smith. Okay, so watching Smith streak past us on his way to a touchdown last year remains one of my fondest memories of the 2012 season. His spectacular circus catch and run (ball bobbled by Dressler, off the foot of a defender, snagged out of mid-air by Taj for massive pick up) still makes me smile to even think of it. So to say, I've been cheering hard for this guy to become a starter, is an understatement. He caught five balls for 43 yards and a TD. Beyond that, there is no give up in this guy. He also had a key block on the Kory Sheets TD. He's all in and I love him as a Rider.

Getzy. I'm giving one last quick nod to a guy who had a bit of a rough go. Oh he made his catches and was still one of the top Canadians in the league, but a severe case of the drops last season garnered him boos at Mosaic at one point. To see him tearing up the field on Saturday was a thrill in itself. Talk about redemption! Three catches, 67 yards and a TD. Way to Chris!

The boos of the game go to:

Mike Miller for a cheap shot in the end zone on Sheets touchdown. He was already in the endzone. I don't know why a push at that point was even necessary. I'm still scratching my head why the official didn't call it as a late hit as Sheets was pasted to the track outside the end zone.

Dwight Anderson for losing his mind in the third quarter. I'm not sure what precipitated his meltdown, but there just isn't room for such a boneheaded move in the West Division. Anderson is lucky it wasn't a closer game. I do hope the guy gets help for his demons. I think he so badly wants to prove to fans in Saskatchewan that he's worthy of being here. In a way, my heart broke a bit for him. He's a great player, but he needs to get his mental stuff locked down before he has the likes of Nick Lewis and Jon Cornish beaking at him this Friday. I have no doubt Coach Chamblin had a very candid heart-to-heart with the man after the game. Here's hoping we never have to see that side of him again.

That's my thoughts for now.

Here's how my picks for last week made out:
Montreal vs Winnipeg. I said: (Montreal’s got this on lockdown unless AC comes completely unglued.) I was right. Montreal won 38-33, but it was a squeaker. Either Montreal's worse than we thought or Winnipeg is getting it together. Finally.
Hamilton vs Toronto I said: (Gotta pick the reigning Grey Cup Champs for this one. They did look pretty sharp last week when I saw them play at Varsity Stadium – a subject I will blog about in the near future!) Score was 39-34 Toronto.
BC vs Calgary I said: (Tough call really, but I’m going to give the edge to BC) Calgary defeated BC 44-32. BC looked amateurish. No way to sugar coat that. Calgary looked, um, rather scary actually
Saskatchewan vs Edmonton (Despite the perennial issues we have winning in Commonwealth Stadium, I’m going to say Riders.) Riders won 39-18. So nice to conquer the ghosts of Commonwealth.

So I'm 3-1. Nice. It certainly won't last. After all this is the CFL and anything can happen on any given day.

Cheer long. Cheer loud! Go GREEN!