It was a little wet and damp, but even the weather couldn't ruin the mood at Mosaic Stadium Saturday evening. The Saskatchewan Roughriders took advantage of eight, that's right, EIGHT B.C. turnovers en route to a 35 - 14 victory over their western foes. The win assures the Riders no worse than second place in the CFL's West Division meaning there will be play - off football in Regina for the first time since Jason Clermont sent the fans home happy in 2010.
In all of the excitement of the victory and the home play - off berth, still people find reasons to complain. Go on twitter or Rod Pederson's blog and still some bemoan the play of Darian Durant and the Rider offence. To this, I say the following:
* By the numbers B.C. came into the game with the top rated defence in the CFL
* It was raining most of the game, can't imagine gripping the football was at a premium which could hinder accuracy
* He wasn't Thomas Demarco
* After sixteen games, DD leads the league in TD passes, is second in yards and near the top when it comes to interceptions
* He ran the ball which a lot of people have called for recently
* WE WON!!!!
The odds may be against us but hosting the Western Final is not out of the realm of possibility. I will not get ahead of things yet though. What I really look forward to about this weekend's clash at McMahon agains the Stamps is to see how well we play against undeniably the best team in the league at the moment. Can we shut down Jon Cornish, something most teams have been unable to do the last two months? Can we move the ball with consistency? Can we continue to get the pressure on the opposing QB against a very good Calgary O - Line? Win or lose on Saturday, this will be a very good litnus test to see where we are at this point in the season. A close lose will not bother me. And besides, is this really the game we want to beat Calgary in? I say no, I would expect to play them in November, and THAT is the game I want to surely beat them in.
What a horrific weekend for the NFL in terms of injuries. Lost for the season are Sam Bradford, Reggie Wayne and Doug Martin. Out for extended periods of time are Jay Cutler and Arian Foster. As I said to a friend this morning who talked about the roughness of football, yeah it's a contact sport and these things happen. It is just unfortunate for these individuals and their teams.
Spark up the band, the Edmonton Oilers won a game. The Oilers jumped out to a 2 - 0 first period and hung on for a 3 - 1 victory over the Senators in Ottawa on Saturday. With good news come potentially bad news as Taylor Hall injured his knee and was sent home for an MRI. As of now, the results are not public. Here is to hoping that he is ok. Here is to also hoping that MacT hasn't hung up the phone simply because Devan Dubnyk has put together back to back quality outings. I am still not sold that he is the guy to get us to where we have the potential to be.
Interesting story on sportsnet.ca today as one of their columnist's made a list of the top twenty teams to watch in sports. He took a world wide approach pointing out teams from the big four as well as European soccer. According to this guy, the 17th best team to watch in the world is the University of Western football team. Are you kidding me??? Absent from the list, all eight CFL teams. I can tell you one thing, I love sports of all varieties but I can guarantee you that there are much more than sixteen others teams I would rather watch than the Western Mustangs. I would honestly watch the Jacksonville Jaguars before I watched them. Speaking of the Jaguars, they are yet to score a TD at home in three games. Can you imagine if that took place with the Riders? My god, it would be anarchy. It would be a provincial disaster.
Later,
HM
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