Riders still have not learned how to win

When Carr caught the pass in the end zone for a late TD, everyone around me was cheering wildly. Not me. I was cursing under my breath. I knew we left way too much time on the clock.

When we got the ball on that drive, the game was in the Rider's hands. All we had to do was calmly march the ball down the field 5-10 yards at a time, score a touchdown and essentially kill the clock. Instead, we scored a lightning fast td in 2 plays and gave them the ball back with almost a full minute left.

In the CFL you just can't do that. Sure, you can say that there should be confidence in the defense to stop Calgary. However, the ball is in in their possession now and the game is now in their hands as it was in ours on the prior drive.

It is very short sighted and a panic move to try and score so quick. Isn't there anyone on the Riders who recognize that? Who called those plays? If a team can't put together a drive planning to accomplish both goals, they don't know how to win. Sadly, Darian Durant said it was up to the "football gods" after his great pass to Carr. Do Durant and the other play calling coaches really not think ahead just a little bit?

I don't think they tried to score that quickly, but Eric Fraser jumped his route and missed badly with no coverage overtop. What is Dressler supposed to do, Stop at the 40 and take a knee?

Once they were in the redzone, it was 1st and goal so they couldn't horse around and prolong the drive with a first down, and they couldn't jam it into a stacked box twice and settle for a FG. They ran a play from scrimmage, like any other. If it's not there throw it away.

But it WAS there. Should Carr have dropped it so they can try again?

Calgary scored too quickly too. Riders still had 20 seconds and damn near scored again.

Scoring early is preferable to waiting until seconds remain. The defense deserves more blame for the loss because the offense scored enough but the defense allowed too much. Big errors are killers.

Winning requires effort and confidence, and proper preparation.
I was dismayed by Chamblin's prep words to the Riders before kickoff. "Hit 'em in the mouth 'til they quit" and "Play like men, not boys", over and over again. Sounded more like MMA (which I detest) rather than CFL football. Is it any wonder the Riders took so many roughing penalties early on leading to Calgary's first touchdown? It's like preparing soldiers to kill in the heat of battle, then asking them to be good civilians when they return home. A hellish adjustment. Really good coaches stress motivation AND technical soundness. Riders just lost focus at too many key moments today, a tendency they showed many times during the year. Talented but not mentally disciplined. It takes both to win the big games.
Hope Chamblin's mantra doesn't become Rider philosophy. I've been a fan for 40 plus years, but they'll lose me if they go down that path. I'll give Chamblin the benefit of the doubt, but some of his second half of the season comments don't leave me hopeful.

First this is football not a war, so the reference is such a far stretch that it makes no sense. Play hard is what he was equating it too.

Second, if you have a chance at scoring to go ahead and win a game, no matter what the sport, every single coach and player on the planet will take it. Frankly it was a poor choice to throw into double coverage, should have been knocked down or intercepted. At the end of the day you need the D to step up and kill the comeback. The only bad thing that happened is that they didn't play for first downs to run down the clock, which is a coaching error. We will never kow tough if they would have run down the clock and still score the TD for the win.

Rookie mistakes by a rookie HC. He should have had DD and Jones telling him take some time off the clock. In fact they should have plays, trick plays if needed, to do just that and have practiced it.

Will these rookie mistakes be gone next year? I hope so because they will cost you in the standings which impact home playoff games and can wreck your entire playoff as we saw. We need some strategic planner to be hired for the off season to make sure these loose ends are sorted out.

Of course he was equating it to playing hard, but I made the comparison deliberately. Both war and sport can incite extreme emotion. In football It’s a matter of channeling that intensity so that it doesn’t result in stupid or dirty play. In that early series of plays we saw both examples - the roughing penalties and George’s headshot which got him suspended for the first game next year. I’m just saying the Riders should play hard, clean and smart.
As far as scoring too early, I agree, you score when the chance is there and then rely on the D to stop the other team. You can try to manage the clock better, but that also opens up the possibilities of fumbles, interceptions, etc., so there are no guarantees.