We're not going to get far by playing like that...

Wow that game was pretty unsuspected. There were so many drop balls both ways, this looked like how the game would normaly have been played in the wet field we had last week, but instead last week almost everything was caught.
Well i am usually a Paul McCallum fan but, today was pretty bad. There were 2 potential missed field goals, the third miss was due to a bad snap. You can't complain much about his punting though. As ever he places those punts very nicely (except for the one he shanked).
Corey Holmes had a pretty Hot/Cold night, while he dropped 2 passes (the one in the endzone was due to him just being so short :lol: ) and had 1 fumble, he performed very well on the ground.
Talk about Dominique Dorsey! He was outsanding for his first actual season game in the CFL, with his incredible speed.
Nealon Greene, to say the least had a so-so game. He threw quite a few bad passes, but there were even more that were right in the receiver's hands, but were dropped. There seemed to be miscommunication between Nealon and Szarka tonight also. There were 2 plays i saw that they really didn't get that hand-off off correctly (one in midfield on 3rd down, and one on the 1 yard-line 3rd down).
Defence played pretty stellar tonight, except for the very end where we gave up 60 yards off of 4 penalties. This was bullshit now really, you just can't do that. Although the first two and the last one on bush were very contraversal.
Nate Davis, man he was a bull tonight, He led our defence to victory once again, and Chris Schultz aided him also. - Dominguez, he sounds like he is alright and i hope so, because he adds alot to our offence.
one more point on Nealon Greene, is that his ability to eat up the clock and put on drives once again. I believe that this is the reason whly we always had good finishes, it is because his long drives keeps their defence on, and our defence resting, so that our defence can make great plays and once again bring on the opposing team's defence.

Overall a shaky game for both the Riders and the Ti-Cats, hopefully the Riders will perform better next week in Toronto.

Travis Out! :lol:

Hey Travis, good win anyway. Hopefully Kenton will be healthy enough to play soon. I listened to the game even though Keton was in Sask. I'm his mom by the way. Way to go Riders!!!!!!!

Ah for sure, send Kenton my regards. :smiley:

I have to agree that the game was not well played by either team.
There were a few good plays,but, the inconsistent catches and penalties outshone the good plays by far.
The referees need better eye sight and need to lighten up if the league wants to make any money. Since when can't the qb be touched? Those "roughing the passer" penalties where pretty shakey. Both times the defense was pushed into the qb. They must of been told to protect Mcmanus' frality in his old age.
Nate Davis was the bull once again.
One thing i don't get:Why the hell don't they put Czarka on the offence along with Kenton Keith or Holmes? Those two would be dynamic Czarka needs to see way more play than on special teams.
At least the Riders are 2-0.Great start!

We didin't win that game, we survived it. And I will vote McCallum off the island. Let's get Robokicker back. He may have beaten his wife, but at least he could hit from 25 yds CONSISTANTLY

From Nealon's stats it looked like he had a terrible game. But there were probably 5-10 dropped balls by receivers, which would give him more completions. And those 5-10 dropped balls would have added 50-75 more yards to his total passing yards. That interception was partially his fault since he threw it a little bit behind dominguez, but i would call that interception more luck then anything. All in all i think Nealon played a pretty decent game again tonight.
Aside from Cory Holmes' fumble and 1 dropped ball i think he had another outstanding game. You can't really point fingers at him for dopping that ball since every receiver on the field tonight was guilty for that. On the fumble it looked like he got blind-sited which is pretty hard to hold the ball when you dont see it coming, but he should really think more about the ball when he's doing all that dancing to aviod the defenders.
Szarka had a decent night aside from the miscommunications with Nealon. I'm sure they will work on that quite a bit at practice this week and lets hope they are ready to go for the Toronto game.
I'm not even going to get started on Nate, he lead the D-line and was in the backfield all night. I loved the play where he got triple teamed by the O-line but still managed to get to Mcmannus and sack him.
So if you actually read all of my post and you take out all of the "ifs" and "buts" we had a really good game tonight. :smiley: All I can say is the Riders better step it up next week against Toronto or we will get our asses handed to us.

That was an ugly football game. Holmes saved Saskatchewan's butts in that one.

I thought Barrett made some bad calls - after McCallum's field goal, they accepted Hamilton's penalty, only to miss the field goal two plays later. It's always a bad move taking points off the board.

hah well, it was a not bad call. Just think, if we got a touchdown on it, everyone would of been saying it was a good call :lol: tis just human nature

That was an ugly football game. Holmes saved Saskatchewan's butts in that one. I thought Barrett made some bad calls - after McCallum's field goal, they accepted Hamilton's penalty, only to miss the field goal two plays later. It's always a bad move taking points off the board.]
I might have agreed with that but it took another 60 seconds off the clock. It was clear that their main goal at this point was kill the clock ,get the 2 points and forget all about this game. Only thing that will hurt is Matt and his knee, Travis will have to step it up and hopefully KK is ready too. I think Barrett had a proline ticket that was a tie because why not kick that field goal from the 2 .It was the same as a point after from there. McCallum has a hole in his swing from the 20 -30 ...track his stats... It is easy enough to move back so do it next time. and practice the 25 yard line like crazy.

The thing is, you got a field goal, which is the second best scoring play in the sport. To cancel it to give your offense the ball back is usually the wrong decision, because too many things can happen - turnovers, sacks, or try again for a field goal and miss.

I can understand what Barrett was thinking, but a team should NEVER take a field goal off the scoreboard like that unless they are trying to catch up and are running out if time and absolutely need a touchdown.

That call would have really bit them in the ass if Hamilton recovered the onside kick, got a play in and kicked a field goal for the win. I know it doesn't matter because the Riders won anyways, but I've seen teams get burned the same way in playoff games before.

The great coaches will always say - you never take your earned points off the board.

ya, Im sure that Don Mattews would say that or even Wally Buono. EskJebus when you are down to the 25 yard line and get an automatic first down, it is a no-brainer you go for more points. You as a coach are suppossed to trust your offence and your kicker. If you don't trust them then you send them a bad message. Losing coaches don't take risks, winners take risks, and trust in there team. If you don't you turn into a coach like Jim Daley. So conservative it hurts. So absolutely the right call by Barrett I don't know how you can even argue that one.

However, the play at the 2 yard line was a bigger risk 3rd and goal from the 2 and your up by 9. If you kick the field goal then Hamilton has to score 2 tds instead of 1 and a field goal. But I liked the call, it was aggressive and it showed confidence in the o-line, and they probably would have made it if Szarka wouldn't have bobbled the ball. But I liked what I seen from the coaching staff they wanted to attack Hamilton, so good hob by the coaches.

  1. I am not worried about McCallum. He is just having head problems. When that is sorted out, he is the best kicker in CFL. Would you rather have Boreham? Kellet? Westwood?

  2. Receivers may have dropped some ball, but...The majority of the passes they dropped were 'off-time'. Now I agree that they still should have caught most of them, but as a reciever it is frustrated when the QB throws the ball behind you. Most of the completions Nealon threw, if they weren't behind the reciever, the reciever atleast had to slow up to catch it. For example all the hitch passes at the line of scrimmage, hit the recvr on the run, so he can do something with it. Our recvr's were waiting for the ball so long the entire d-corps of the Ticats were licking their lips. Nealon may be a great guy, but the game just moves to fast for him.

  3. If I here one more person say Szarka fumbled that ball, I am going to lose it. That was as half-ass hand-off by Nealon. Also the fake handoff by Nealon to Szarka, it looked like Nealon was going to try something nifty, but then realized that he would have to think on his feet.... like I said the pro game just moves to fast for him.

  4. I have been a rider fan for over 20 years, and this is (relatively speaking) the most talented team the riders have had in that period. While in Ken Austin's day the team may have had more talent, Edmonton, and the Argo's were so strong then... (BTW - KA for Hall of Fame or Bust, but thats another thread) With a great QB this team could be the Mtl or Edm of a couple years ago, or the Stamps of the 90's. With Nealon we will still be above 500. He is good enough not to lose the game. But to be a Grey Cup winner you need a QB who can steal a game for you.

I would love to be proven wrong about Nealon...

~S

Hah yea you summed that up well snow squirrel, thanx for the reply. I agree nealon still isn't great, and he either trusts his receiver greatly, or sucks :lol: But i really dont' have nothing to say so goodbye

Lay off Nealon what he does well is not give up the ball( after Burris days you should remember how that feels) and he has kept the team in the game every time he has started as a Rider.
He understands that when your in the red zone throwing an interception , or getting sacked will take points awayfrom the DRIVE.
You take the 12 points McCallum missed (or any kickers range for that matter) add a field goal from the 2 yard line and the score and your critisim are much different.
All I can say is thank goodness the CFL rewards failure because Paul's 3 misses ended up the margin of victory. :oops: :lol:

9 points** hah an don't forget nealon is very good at putting drives together, there isn't many 2 and outs and he gives our defence a rest while tiring the opposing team's.

Oops :oops: your right I am still adding the one he missed in overtime in the western final to all his misses until he gets things back on track I guess :lol:

lol :lol:

Ya, ok then why are you saying he sucks. He is very good at controlling the clock, maybe even the best. You won't see our defense give up as many big plays because of it. Give him time, he still has to get some of the rust off from not playing for a year.

aha ha that is more then rust!