Hello and welcome to another edition of the Writer Ramblings podcast,
episode 181 with Taylor Shire and Daryl Davis.
And we're chatting about the Saskatchewan Roughriders picking
up a not so thrilling but still a win,
a 2013 victory over the Ottawa Redblacks on the weekend.
Now, that sets up a sort of an interesting matchup,
which we'll get to against the Toronto Argonauts this week. Daryl.
Yeah, weird scheduling, I guess.
Taylor. Right. Two eastern teams in the middle of their stretch drive.
The two weakest teams in the league too.
Right. And as you said,
it wasn't a tremendous game.
It wasn't a convincing victory by the Roughriders. It was in Ottawa.
So it's often tough to win on the road.
And I know they've they've won all their eastern road games which is pretty impressive.
It wasn't they they weren't totally impressed by their their performance on offense.
They they had some yardage. But they went what.
As your story said I think seven straight possessions
with ended with a punt after scoring on the first,
uh, on their first drive.
But the defense held them in great interceptions by the linebacking corps.
I think that was the the the real reason why the Rough Riders won.
And that kind of harkens back to earlier this season, doesn't it,
with the defense holding the fort for the Rough Riders.
Yeah. And everyone has been so hard on how slow the riders have been to start.
I think it was before last week's game.
They had scored six points in the first quarter of all six of their last games combined.
So averaging 1.1. a game and then they go and score this opening drive touchdown.
And it looks good okay. The offense is back into rhythm.
And then all of a sudden I don't even know what happened.
They just weren't connecting on anything. They had one okay.
Drive. Uh but other than that it was just yeah seven straight punts.
So everyone yeah, it was so hard on them for not starting fast.
So they started fast, but then they kind of went to sleep,
uh, for the, you know,
majority of the middle half of the game.
So went into hibernation didn't they.
They got 84 yards on that first drive.
It took them eight more drives to get that 84 yard to equal that 84 yards.
So yeah strange strange game in that respect right.
That they they weren't real sharp weird things.
What do you think about the the the scuttlebutt.
And you know, this is a tough one to prove.
But all these guys are coming back, right?
Sam is back. Joe? Joe is back.
Keon. Shaffer Baker is back.
The receivers they want are back in their roster,
but they're all kind of adjusting and maybe the rhythm is off.
I know that Trevor Harris completed a lot of passes.
I'm still not sold on his arm as 100%,
and I still think that it wouldn't be a bad idea
to rest him even though he doesn't want to, obviously.
But what do you think about that idea that maybe all these guys coming back
is just kind of takes a little bit of adjusting for them?
Yeah, I would say he's got chemistry with them.
Um, but is it there right now?
I don't think necessarily.
Uh, I do think Dante Myers and Keyshawn Johnson have not taken, not let off at all.
They've had great seasons.
They're both over 1000 yards.
But getting MLS and Shaffer Baker back,
it does always take a game or a little bit just to get back into the rhythm,
and for those guys to get their legs back in their hands, back and everything.
So whether that's chemistry or whether that's
the actual player getting used to more reps,
I know they've been practicing for, what,
3 or 4 weeks in a row now where they've had that time to develop that chemistry.
So I wouldn't blame, um,
any sort of lack of execution on on lack of chemistry.
I just think it takes takes a little bit
for for everyone just to get back into the rhythm.
So a little bit of both, I guess.
Yeah. You know what,
uh, and we're talking about the passing game.
How many yards they got.
I thought the, they didn't get a lot of rushing yards,
but they got tough rushing yards.
And I think we got to give a lot of credit to AJ for the the type of game he had.
He got the yards they needed when they needed them.
Uh, lining up as a tailback or sometimes because Tommy Stevens was out,
he had to he lined up as a short yardage quarterback and they throw the quarterback.
They'd bring in Jake Mayer and throw him out as a receiver.
Uh, and Oulette would get those crashing tough yards.
So kudos to him.
He also had three catches,
I think, which, uh,
some of them were short handoffs basically,
so contributed mightily, I think.
And the, the, one of the plays of the game was that, uh,
I don't know why the Rough Riders,
they moved down to the Ottawa's five yard line and they're throwing the football again.
Sometimes they just overcoach themselves and it turns
into a fumble that is returned by an Ottawa player.
And you think, oh, six points, right?
A pick six or a fumble recovery for six.
And you look up and AJ let's just given it.
Chasing downfield to catch Carter the defensive end and caught him saved the touchdown.
A huge motivational play for the riders wasn't it.
That was to me that was like the play of the game.
And I asked Corey Mace about it after and he said that is
exactly what we embody in the culture of this locker room, and that's what we want.
So I know he was championed after,
I think is the word he used. Uh.
He also swore.
Yeah. I was going to say, yeah,
he also had a curse word in there, but.
He says he doesn't swear. I always get a kick out of that.
And then he then his eyes kind of sparkle when he says that.
Yeah. So that to me, um,
along with the, say, Dante Myers touchdown.
That was like the play of the game where it said like, okay.
Like this team is still we're you know,
we're not folding it in just because they potentially had
a I mean that didn't that wouldn't have lost them the game.
It saved them four points. They still.
It might have turned things around though because.
Yes you never know about the momentum right.
And the momentum changes.
So he essentially saved them four points with that tackle.
But who knows? Yeah, like you said,
all about the momentum of that, that game.
I thought that was one of the best plays of the year.
Yeah, yeah, you could see that. And uh oh.
Let's talk quite a bit to you and me about his conditioning.
How in the off season he he's slimmer this year and it's,
and he's stayed healthy all year and he's faster and quicker.
And when he was Carter's a pretty good runner but
oh caught him you know in a 40 yard dash.
They might be about the same. But over the that was about 60 yards. They were running.
And it just kept gaining and gaining on him at the end as Carter was wearing down.
So good sign of conditioning by you and and determination.
Right. That's the one that you're right the players will be talking about.
They'll show that one on film a few times and pat him on the back.
And he always plays hard, man.
He's just he's a real warrior out in the out in the field.
And I think now as the games get colder and you need the running game more and more,
he's really proving his worth.
Yeah, I think it was about 80 yards,
maybe 81 because they haven't shortened the field yet.
Uh.
So wait until a couple of years when the field shortened,
then it'll be a 60 yard.
Would have been a touchdown, probably.
Yeah, he he would have already been there.
Exactly. The shortened field.
Um, I and going back to the short yardage,
I, I think he handled everything successfully.
Mace kind of criticized him after for always wanting to jump over the pile.
And sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.
He protected the ball. He got the job done.
I don't think you want him as your full time short yardage player.
I think he's it just adds more hits and gets him more banged up, gets some more tired.
I think you save him for wanting to run the ball.
So it would be nice for the writers to get Tommy Stevens back,
but in a pinch, it certainly worked.
And probably more effective than Jake Mayer or Jack Cohen, I guess.
Um, just because they haven't got a lot of reps.
So put him in.
And we've seen that throughout the year where they've
tried to use AJ in those short yardage packages.
Then all of a sudden it was all the time he's handling them all.
So I wouldn't want to do it over an 18 game season.
But in a pinch I think it's fine.
Yeah, down the stretch now and it's a nice little change up.
If Tommy Stevens is healthy, then you can, you know,
they they key all week the opposing team's key all week to stop Tommy Stevens.
And then all of a sudden AJ outlets there.
And you have to think a little bit differently.
So uh, yeah.
Interesting. Uh, that's one of the things that they've added
to their offense that probably helps it in the long run.
So because we've been quite critical of the offense the last few games,
but, uh, I think that was a,
uh, it wasn't a great offensive performance,
but it got done what it needed to get done.
Yeah. Opening drive touchdown sputtered.
But then honestly that pass to Dante Myers,
that and the tackle were one of the plays of the game.
He made that catch, broke a tackle.
And then there was four guys kind of closing in on him
and that speed and that separation that he got.
You know in his first three strides after that,
breaking that tackle was I mean,
you'd be you put up him up against the fastest guy in the league and he'd be up there.
Maybe not Tavon Campbell's speed necessarily.
But.
He's one of the fastest receivers.
Yeah. The amazing burst. You're right.
Uh, Tavon Campbell I think may be the fastest guy in the league.
Still, they miss him though don't they.
They've had to juggle their roster not having their starting all star,
probably all star defensive corner.
And he's a Canadian. So it shuffled it and made them put CJ Reavis back at safety.
Because they cut Kosi Onyeka without
obviously breaking team rules that they don't want to talk about obviously.
But that's something that really a bold move to to maintain the culture.
But it ends up making them adjust their defense and the adjustments worked out okay.
Reavis looked pretty good at safety and they moved
Antoine Brooks junior to Reavis old spot at outside linebacker,
gets an interception and returns it 85 yards for a touchdown.
So, uh, Brooks has worked pretty hard all season.
They haven't really relied on him in the secondary very much.
They've even tried him out as a running back because they love
his enthusiasm. Uh, it was good.
Nice of him to see him contribute all the work he's done and to
show that the the juggling didn't really disrupt the Roughriders defense.
Yeah. Brooks started at corner what
week it was earlier in the season right against Calgary.
And he was okay. It wasn't an outstanding game.
Um, then they went you know took him out.
So when Sales and Campbell got hurt a couple of weeks ago.
I was sort of surprised that they didn't try out there again.
They went with Exum and Sapp,
and we saw how one of those players fared in that one performance.
But Sapp has continued to play out there,
but so I was sort of surprised that Brooks didn't get a second opportunity.
But then he comes in and plays Sam linebacker,
and I think that's more suited to his style of game.
And I mean great interception.
Made a made an outstanding play and returned it all the way for a touchdown.
That really made up for a lot of
the lack of offense when they were able to build up that lead.
Had they only been leading by what, seven?
Nothing. I think Ottawa would have had
a little bit more momentum and potentially got back into the game.
But, um, yeah, Drew Brown just didn't look right.
He almost threw a a pick right earlier to to Sapp to who almost came down with that.
So basically had four interceptions in the first little bit of the game.
So uh good on you know Brooks Thurman Allen for capitalizing on those plays.
And yeah coming down with him and and yanking Brown from the game.
Yeah. Not often your three linebackers get the yeah that was weird right.
So so a really nice job by them.
And you're right Knocking Brown on the ground.
Brown. Brown doesn't look that great lately.
And the Redblacks aren't a great football team.
So that's why I think we're harsh on the Roughriders a little bit.
The Redblacks have just been fading badly and
you think well why didn't they just pulverize the Redblacks?
And they didn't and I think they're a little upset about it.
But the victory ends that two game skid as we talked about.
And I think that that that's a good starting spot for them to head down the stretch.
Yeah yeah. You don't it's not like they lowered themselves to their opponent.
Oftentimes you see that or you sort of bring your game down.
This game was never going to be this emotional built up game.
It was just another game on the road against an eastern team.
Um, you think about the the hype and the momentum going into,
say, the Labor Day Banjo Bowl rematch
where you just felt it or even the Hamilton game prior,
where you knew there was so much on the line,
you felt some extra juice,
as they like to say,
this game didn't have much going in and it didn't have much during it.
It doesn't really have much going out, but it was a win.
They come away with two points and now they get set to come home
and potentially wrap up or clinch first place on on Friday.
So it didn't have all that build up and I think that sort of showed.
Yeah. Let's see if it builds up again after
the Toronto game is on the schedule. They got to play it.
The Argonauts are out. Nick Arbuckle their quarterback as
we're recording this looks doubtful for that game.
Um or maybe for sure out for that game.
Uh, but the two games after that,
when you're talking about hype and build up the Winnipeg Blue Bombers going
to Winnipeg and then the BC Lions coming here,
BC seems to be the hottest team,
and you wonder how that game might play out.
They might not mean anything in the standings at that stage,
but there are two teams ready,
ready to rock and roll for the league championship,
so it might be fun to watch that one.
I don't know if they'll be hype. I don't know if they'll back off with their starters.
Depending on on the schedule.
That's something that we'll be watching for.
But those games, I think,
are a little bit circled,
more so on the calendar than the Ottawa and the Toronto games are.
Yeah. So riders host Toronto on Friday.
They have a chance to clinch first place with a win. It's as easy as that.
But if they lose and BC BC is on a by this week, right?
Yeah. Yeah. So if they lose then BC sort of has a chance.
BC faces Edmonton before uh,
coming here for the final week of the season.
So will that game mean anything?
Could it be a potential West final preview based on how BC is playing?
I think if you're the riders,
you want to beat Toronto this week and take two weeks off to do whatever you want,
and then you don't show Winnipeg anything,
you don't show bc anything,
you play some of the backups.
Um, sure. You want to pick up two more wins to end the year on a high note,
but then they'll enter potentially a bye week in
the first playoff week of the season or the playoffs.
So do you want to maybe.
Yeah that. And then we talk about load management.
Right. So do you want to maybe rest
your starters for two games or one game or one and a half games.
And then you'll have that bye into the playoffs.
It's uh it'll be an interesting, uh,
decision to make when it comes to how they're going to
manage these players with that much time potentially off.
Yeah, yeah, there's so many different ways to think about it.
Right? Like, maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves because.
But I'm sure they've talked about what they might do.
You have to have those plans in place.
But until you win or lose your next game and get your destiny assured,
I don't think you're going to make those changes for sure.
Who do you rest? Who needs a rest?
Sometimes is what it comes down to,
but you don't want to take too many games
off at the end of the season, especially with that.
Bye. So it's going to be fun to see
their strategy and what they plan to do throughout it.
Let's ask the big question what are they doing with their kicker?
We'll see it in practice.
Yeah, we'll we'll probably find out later today on Monday.
Um, we're recording this.
Okay. So we're we're we're admitting right
now we're recording it before we see what they're doing.
So what would you do with the kicker?
Well, if Brett's back is okay,
he's got to come back.
I know he was limited or didn't practice last week.
Um, he has to be the guy. So you give him a week off?
Campbell fair misses those two converts,
and they elected not even to try to melt there for a field goal,
when they probably could have later in the game.
Yeah. Yeah. So you just hope at this point in
the season that Brett has found it back or some of it back and is able to be that guy,
and that's all you can do at this point. I don't think you.
Can do anything. Exactly. They're kind of stuck aren't they.
I think as I wrote earlier this year,
they've left it too late,
I think, to make a real drastic change.
If Campbell Fair had been excellent,
well, maybe they would have made the change,
but I'm still not sure that they they were planning to.
Is Brett Lauther hurt? Well, that's the big debate.
They put him on the injury list and and had him miss a game.
And he gave Campbell fair that opportunity and he failed miserably at it.
So uh, you have to go with Brett Lauther.
They've talked all year about his career rate.
He's an 81% kicker and he's usually been pretty good in the clutch.
He's only cost them one game this year.
So. So, uh, I'm pretty sure that they'll put him back in,
see how it goes, and, uh,
cross their fingers that he doesn't miss a crucial kick somewhere down the line.
Yeah. Or again, it sort of goes into
that load management where maybe you give them another week off and you try.
Campbell Fair again this week, because to me,
I don't see any reason why the riders won't be clinching first place. They only can get.
They need one win in the next three.
Yeah, they have sort of an easier game against
Toronto who has been eliminated from the playoffs. Then they go into Winnipeg.
That is a weird game and I could see them resting some players for that game.
If BC manages to beat,
if the riders manage to lose to Toronto and Winnipeg,
and all of a sudden BC manages to beat Edmonton,
then that sets up a crazy game for the last week of the season for that would be fun.
I am looking forward to that one.
The BC Lions are the are the hottest team in the league right now.
They look unstoppable, right?
And the only team that we think could stop them is the Rough Riders.
And they haven't been playing their best.
So yeah, that that matchup is the one that I'm looking forward to. But you're right.
The situation might evolve so that it doesn't mean anything to either team.
So then what do they do then?
They might just be stashing things away for the for
the playoff meeting that they're probably going to face. Yeah.
Actually know that now that I think about that the riders have the season series.
So that game wouldn't mean first place Calgary can still catch the riders.
Yeah, but.
BC can't catch.
Calgary. Doesn't look like.
BC could only finish with 11 wins and the riders already have 11.
So that game wouldn't mean first place,
but Calgary would need to beat Hamilton,
Toronto and Edmonton, which is doable.
Yeah, and then they would potentially tie the riders for first place with 11 wins.
If the riders were to go zero and three,
and then Calgary would win first place based on the tiebreaker.
So that now that I think about it,
that last game against BC wouldn't mean anything.
Yeah.
Unless the rider unless Calgary does their handle, handles their business.
Alright. But still there's I mean there's lots lots to play for.
You can't just mail it in.
Although I do think you should potentially not mail it in on Friday but
potentially load management decisions this Friday even though it's at home. Right.
Hey you talk about Calgary though. Oh my goodness.
Yeah. They've fallen off.
What's happened to the Stampeders.
They are. They are who we thought they were at the start of the season.
Oh Are you? Yeah, they are who we thought they were.
Yeah. We didn't think they were a contender.
And then they know. And they smoked the Roughriders twice.
And everybody go, oh what happened?
We were the same thing. What happened?
That defense hasn't played the same.
Uh, the offense is just Vernon Adams throwing picks again.
Uh, he just it seems to happen at the most inopportune times.
And they they fall apart. People are talking.
Uh, sorry. This is this might be unfair,
but Craig Dickenson's their coach or one of their coaches over in Calgary,
and everybody says, what's his record after Labor Day these days?
Because they went in those horrible skids when he was coaching the Roughriders.
So I don't know what happens to but,
uh, and it's probably not his fault, but, uh,
it's just strange to see the Calgary Stampeders falter so
badly as the season has been getting more and more important.
Yeah, and I mean, we all know it.
Trevor Harris has said it a hundred times this year alone.
It doesn't matter how you start,
you always got to feel good heading into the playoffs.
The BC Lions are probably feeling the best
that of any team heading into the the stretch run.
Here they are. They are going to be a tough out in the playoffs, whoever faces them.
Yeah. Um, it to me it looks like they're going to be hosting the West semi-final.
Will that be against Calgary?
Will that be against Winnipeg?
Who's going to head east to the crossover to face Montreal?
Who is going to be a tough team.
Um, very very enticing semifinal matchups for sure.
Looking at the schedule.
They always are and who's ready who's healthy. And you're right.
And uh, we've seen 9 to 9 teams,
uh, the Rough Riders in 89 or 9 and nine team.
So you can if you get hot at
the end of the season and put things together with the Rough Riders in 89,
got all their injured players back was the big thing.
And you know the Rough Riders are getting their guys back now.
And I think that's a huge part of of this team's potential.
So if they get everybody back who they need,
they've pieced things together pretty well.
But getting everybody in place is going to be a huge part of that of the playoffs.
Interesting. Um, so I was just looking at the standings again.
Technically three teams could finish with 11 wins, right?
Yeah. So then that sets up a different tiebreaker.
Yep. I think in that case.
Because BC doesn't play Calgary anymore.
So BC, Calgary and.
Winnipeg, could they finish with 11?
There's a lot of tiebreaking formulas.
Listen we'll worry about that.
It's like trying to explain the designated import.
One week at a time. One. And oh they just want to go one and oh this week.
And we just want to record one podcast at
a time and do it right and not worry about the standings.
So let's just figure out what it is this week and then figure it out next week.
They can clinch with a win this week. As easy as that.
I like your focus. That's way easier Taylor. Yeah good job.
Yeah I started looking down the rabbit hole of okay,
if this happens then this happens, then this happens.
Well then if this happens, then that happens.
So one week at a time they can
clinch first with a win and we'll leave it at that. How about.
That. Sounds good to me.
All right. Practice.
All right. Enjoy the weekend.
Uh, we'll record the next episode of the podcast next week.
And we'll talk about all those scenarios next week.
We'll leave it at this week.
Uh, appreciate the time, Darryl.
And have a great week.