STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – REHASH THE SAME PROBLEMS – The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost for the fifth game in a row and for the ninth time in eleven games on Friday night, dropping an 18-14 decision to the equally inept Hamilton Ti-Cats.  By now, you don’t need me to rehash all that’s wrong as it’s the same story week after week after week.  Some people are left to wonder where did it all unravel.  I go back to Week 1 when I said their lack of discipline could only hide so much.  The better the team, the longer it takes to expose the warts.  Turns out, this team wasn’t very good at any point.

2 – SEASON TURNING POINT – Speaking of points, the turning point was the Garrett Marino hit on Jeremiah Masoli.  If you are of the opinion that the Riders should have released Marino immediately after that hit, I won’t argue with you.  But, they didn’t.  And, because they didn’t, there isn’t a satisfactory reason for releasing him when they did.  I believe that was the final straw for the players, who definitely appeared to have Marino’s back. 

3 – TOUGH LOVE – I listened to one of the mainstream radio post game shows on Friday night and a caller indicated he may no longer be willing to fork over money for the Roughriders, to which one of the hosts replied that’s a really bad idea because if that’s how we treat our sports teams, it won’t be long before they fold and we don’t have professional football to watch.  I used to agree with this sentiment but the recent financial report by the Riders indicates fans aren’t a main driver of revenue.  Furthermore, if you went to a bad restaurant five times in a row and they gave you a bad meal all five times, would you be willing to try them a sixth time?  Most wouldn’t even make it to five.  I’ve often felt this is why Canadian teams never win the Stanley Cup anymore.  They don’t need to.  The arenas are full of fans and everyone is just happy to have the pro team to support, even if it stinks.  It may sound harsh, but if you want your favorite team to smarten up you need to speak with your wallet.  If enough do it, they’ll smarten up.  

4 – NFL COACHING – A friend of mine and I were recently discussing the fact that it seems there are a lot of NFL teams with bad head coaches and it prompted me to create a list.  Denver’s Nathaniel Hackett has to take the cake.  He has no idea how to realize the capability of quarterback Russell Wilson and the organization has already brought someone in to, basically, do some of his job for him.  I have Charger head coach Brandon Staley next on the list of worst coaches and he’s promptly followed by Matt Eberflus of the Bears, Matt Ruhle of Carolina, Josh McDaniels of the Raiders, and Arizona’s Kliff Kingsbury.  In the case of the Bears and Chargers, they’ve had back to back horrible head coaches and it’s not necessarily because these guys don’t know what they are doing.  It’s because they trust math formulas and spreadsheets more than their own eyeballs.

5 – NFL COACHING II – The elite coaches are Bill Belichik, Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh, Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur, and Andy Reid.  Yes, I put Andy Reid in this category despite having reservations about it due to the fact he has no idea how to manage the clock at the end of games, but Reid is also nearly unbeatable when coming off bye-weeks, which shows his level of preparedness.  He’s also won a Super Bowl.  There are a couple of potential up and comers in Brian Daboll of the Giants and Nick Sirianni of the Eagles.

6 – JAYS CHOKE – The Toronto Blue Jays blew an 8-1 lead to Seattle on Saturday and were eliminated from the playoffs, falling 10-9 and being swept in the Best of 3.  $20-million a year starter Kevin Gausman was lifted after 5 ⅔ and journeyman Tim Mayza, who makes $1.25-million was brought in to rectify a potentially sticky situation as the manager found an algorithm that indicated he needed to remove his starter after 95 pitches and a 7 run lead.  Trusting a Cy Young-level hurler to get just one more out was too risky.  Mayza gave up a three run homer to make it 8-5 and then in typical baseball fashion, the rest of the bullpen was subjected to roles they didn’t fill during the regular season and they imploded.  I have no sympathy.  This needs to happen with more regularity otherwise baseball will forever remain broken and run by computer nerds who have no clue about how sports actually work.

7 – RUSH RECENT OFFSEASON MOVES – Forward Austin Murphy, who had moments of promise last year, has been signed by Panther City.  The top three picks from the 2022 Draft are all now signed with Cam Badour (Transition) being inked to a 2-year deal.  Top choice Austin Madronic and second rounder Isaac Ngyou signed last month with Madronic being a player to watch as the Rush will need to inject some new blood into their offense and Madronic is a prime candidate to be part of the solution in this regard.  Meanwhile Jordi Jones-Smith was traded to the New York Riptide for a second round pick next year.  Goaltending depth shouldn’t be a factor with Eric Penney slated to return and free agent Alex Buque also coming over from Vancouver.  The new NLL season begins December 3.

8 – FANTASY DARK HORSES – I don’t have a very strong track record in my fantasy sports leagues in recent years, but that won’t stop me from passing along the odd tidbit of advice and you can take from it what you want.  I’m in a 14-team keeper league that has 30-rounds so there are a lot of picks.  My last two were Jake Neighbours of the Blues and Alexander Holtz of the Devils.  When you think about potential Calder Trophy candidates, these two won’t come immediately to mind but both appear to have secured spots in the top nine forward ranks for their respective teams.  Other potential rookie favorites went, in my opinion, way too early and so I dropped my last two on Neighbours and Holtz rather than take a veteran who I can scoop up off waivers anyway in the event these two don’t pan out.  FWIW, Holtz scored in the Devils’ preseason finale Saturday night.

9 – HEALTH PROBLEMS – Arizona Cardinals linebacker JJ Watt needed a defibrillator last week, but did end up playing in Week Four.  This week, NCAA Michigan RB Coach Mike Hart suffered a seizure on the sideline.  These normal, but sudden health conditions that are affecting healthy people are a new phenomenon and we should talk about them, if for no other reason, than to debunk the wild and outlandish conspiracy theories that are out there, but as long as we pretend nothing strange is going on, you can expect more and more people to jump aboard the bandwagon of overall public institutional mistrust.

10 – BROADCAST ADVICE – Without purposely slagging anyone in the industry, I just want to say the absolute best calls by play by play announcers are ones where the moment is not scripted or planned for.  Here are some of my favorites:

Joe Buck – “Damon running to the plate, and he can keep on running to New York, Game Six tomorrow night.”

Joe Buck – “Ortiz into deep right field, back is Sheffield, we will see you later tonight.”

Jim Robson – “Tonelli to Nystrom, he scores.  Bob Nystrom.  Scores the goal.  The Islanders win the Stanley Cup.”

Dan Kelly – “Lemieux ahead to Gretzky, has Murphy with him on a 2-on-1 to Lemieux, in on goal, he shoots, he scores.  Mario Lemieux.  With 1:26 remaining.”

Bob Cole – “Here’s Lemieux, Penalty coming up, look at Lemieux, Oh my heavens, what a goal, what a move.  Lemieux.  Oh baby.”

I’m no Joe Buck, but if I have any advice for aspiring play by play announcers it would be this – the moment you are calling is the memory, not the call of the moment.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)