It was a big Saturday afternoon for the Riders as they traveled to Nova Scotia to take on the Argos in this year’s edition of the Touchdown Atlantic. Once again, the exit from the western part of the country proved difficult for the green and whites as they fell 30-24 to Argos, dropping them to 4-2 on the season. It was a loss they could not afford to suffer in what is shaping up to be an extremely tight West Division. Are the Riders solidly in the middle tier of the CFL right now? Probably. Here’s the good, the bad and the silly of the Riders’ second loss of the season. The good For a game in which the Riders were missing much of their starting defensive line with Garrett Marino serving the first part of a four-game suspension and rush end AC Leonard slow, you’d probably suspect the defense was a problem. But, it wasn’t. While I’m sure defenders will continue to say they could have done more to help their team win, they were far from the reason the Riders lost. There’s no question the unit didn’t have its best game of the year. Argos quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson got a lot more time than anyone on the defensive line wanted to give him, and he made them pay for it at times. They also had a couple of fumbles on back-to-back plays in the second quarter, one of which resulted in a touchdown. After that the unit calmed down and played a pretty sold bend-but-don’t-break style. It wasn’t as impressive as we’re used to seeing from this unit, but given the personnel he had, defensive coordinator Jason Sievers deserves credit for getting the most out of his undermatched squad. Ultimately, this team needed offense to win this game and it didn’t. The bad The offense has been saved from appearing in this section of my post-match column, as instead we’re going to talk about some extremely unruly nonsense once again. In their first game since the Marino fiasco, you’d think the Riders would come into this game on their best behavior, trying to put all of that behind them. Instead, before the game even started, we had receiver Duke Williams — who was lauded for his leadership last week — throwing a helmet at Argos defensive back Shaq Richardson. Video of the incident quickly began circulating on Twitter when it was posted by Ben Grant. For some reason, the incident got a quick report from TSN early in the first quarter and they didn’t show the footage until almost halfway through the first quarter. That was confusing, but not as puzzling as why Williams was eligible to participate in the game. While we don’t really know the details of what happened before the play, helmet throwing is a pretty serious offense and should have been treated as such by the refs. Didn’t the league want anything to derail a marquee game on its schedule? Did they honestly think it was no big deal? Either way, it’s not a good look. Matthew Scianitti of TSN reported that the championship felt as it ended quickly, there would be no launch. Boys will be boys is definitely not a good reason. If the situation had been handled properly, a lot more foul play could have been avoided later in the game, when another spat between Williams and Richardson resulted in Richardson hitting Williams in the head. After the game, the Argos accused Williams of spitting on Richardson in both incidents. None of these resulted in bounces or a flag. You just knew Williams and Richardson were going to make an impact in this game after all that. Williams scored what was the game-tying touchdown and Richardson came up with the game-ending interception. Hopefully next week we can get back to football. The dumb In the NFL, we often wonder what is a catch? Right now, CFL fans are wondering, what bothers the passer? We had a couple of weird calls in this game, one I think the refs got right and one they didn’t. Early in the game, Cody Fajardo was sacked by Argos defensive lineman Shawn Oakman. It was a play that looked awkward as Fajardo twisted to the ground, further damaging an already injured and strained knee. Dickenson contested the play looking to sack the passer as Oakman made contact with Fajardo down low, but it was more of a grab than a hard hit as stated in the rule. The result was simply unfortunate. Later in the game, the Riders got a tough call when Fajardo was hit late by Argos defensive end Shane Ray. Normally, this is a clear and easy call, but Fajardo was also called for an illegal forward pass as he was clearly over the line of scrimmage. Can the passer be roughed up if the quarterback is no longer able to pass? I do not know. It’s a weird game that probably shouldn’t have been penalized and may not be seen again for a long time. Bonus Good Thanks to the time difference between Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, the game started at noon here in Regina. I don’t know if it’s because we’re so conditioned to watch hockey at night — to the point where there are fans who complain about afternoon kickoffs — but the early afternoons are far superior. More of these, please.
