OUT OF THE TUNNEL: SNATCHING VICTORY FROM DEFEAT

BY: RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF

In one of the more entertaining CFL games of the year, the Riders were able to pull victory out of the jaws of defeat yet again on Saturday. This time knocking off a vastly improved Montreal Alouettes squad 27-25.

It was a bit of a grind in the first half, but the two teams shed the offensive shackles in the second half which allowed them to harken back to their great battles of the 2000’s.

The first takeaway from the victory is it might be the most important win of the season for the Green and White.

The Riders were coming off a humiliating defeat at the hands of the beat up Winnipeg Blue Bombers and could have just limped into their final bye-week of the season. Instead they may have played their best overall game of the season.

The offence was incredibly well-rounded, led by the team’s most outstanding player of 2019, William Powell. He had 124 combined offensive yards on just 18 touches of the ball and two touchdowns. As the season heads into its twilight and the weather begins to chill, look for #29 to see the ball more and more (and teams will also game plan for him, much like Winnipeg did).

Cody Fajardo was efficient and smart with the football and has led the Riders on last minute game-winning field goal drives in the Riders’ last two wins.

Defensively the game plan was to shutdown the Alouette running game which was the second-best in the CFL coming into the week averaging 131 yards per game.

They did, and made Vernon Adams try to win the game with his arm. He almost did.

The special teams were solid and had a hand in the tipping point of the game. The Boris Bede botched snap early in the fourth quarter with the score tied 18-18 flipped things around. The Riders needed two plays (both by William Powell) to put the ball in the end zone for a 24-18 lead. It was a big part of a 17-point fourth quarter that helped the Riders to the win.

The final thought on this victory for the Riders before heading into the bye-week; it feels right to have the Riders and Alouettes rekindling their rivalry. The CFL was at its peak when Darian Durant was battling Anthony Calvillo twice a year in some of the league’s most storied games.

With Cody Fajardo, Vernon Adams and a bushel full of young players on both rosters, let’s hope we will see more in the upcoming years because it’s great.

There wasn’t much hype leading up to the game except for a bit of a twitter beef between Roughrider punter Jon Ryan and play-by-play man Derek Taylor.

It started pretty innocently with Taylor putting out a stat showing Ryan almost dead-last in an advanced punting stat. Ryan took issue with it. The confrontation made enough waves that 3DownNation reported the spat and fans were abuzz over it.

Such an odd situation. So here are a few thoughts:

It’s great that Taylor is finding ways to get the nerdy football fan into the Canadian game. There isn’t much out there in advanced stats or extensive player and game x’s and o’s analysis (except for Marshall Ferguson’s quarterback pieces) so it’s welcomed. He should continue to do so but tread a little more lightly.

This isn’t a very Canadian thing to say but as the home radio play-by-play man, you are the team’s biggest cheerleader. Be honest, but you’re going to have to pull out the pompoms. The job is to sell the team and the game to your fans. To shred one of your own is not a good thing within the Rider organization and locker room.

Taylor is in a difficult spot. He has to be the team’s biggest cheerleader but also host a daily sports talk show and have some insight and analysis and be entertaining. If a player is playing bad, he has to talk about it.

Now to the stat itself. This is tough because the biggest American football advanced stats site – Football Outsiders – doesn’t have one to judge what a punter does. Neither does Pro Football Reference.

So, the stat involves placement of the net distance of the punt against the league overall net average punt from the same distance. There are a few flaws in this. First, a single 15-yard no-yards penalty in a game can drop that. Six in a season and there’s 90-yards and that’s not on the punter. The same can be said for blown coverage for a big return.

Singles are mostly on the punter. Blast it too far and tack on 35-yards. A lot of the time it is a mistake but knowing how a lot of the Canadian special teams coaches work in the CFL, the single has been used for just getting points on the board in tight scoring games.

The only advanced stat we could find that could be adapted to the Canadian game is target distance punted from Inside the Pylon. It takes into account both the punt distance and target distance as well where the punt is coming from on the field. It takes out the returns and penalties, but singles would still be included.

We here at Out of the Tunnel are nerds, but not big enough nerds to go over every 2019 punt and every other punt in the past ten years to have supportive evidence.

Finally, we don’t know what is being said or asked for by the punter.

As for Ryan, he should just continue to do what is asked of him. It doesn’t matter what any member of the media or fan base says, he is doing the job that is asked of him. The best case scenario is to extend an olive branch to Taylor and show him some of the things that goes on in the punting unit. It will be good for them, and the fans.

This Week in Canada West

The Saskatchewan Huskies came into Mosaic Stadium and made a statement by thrashing the Rams 44-9. It was the Huskies defence that led the way with four sacks and a pair of interceptions, one for a touchdown that was the big difference maker in the game.

The Alberta Golden Bears win their second in a row with a thrilling 29-26 victory over the Manitoba Bisons. A game winning, four play, 75-yard drive that was capped with a Brad Laundardt 30-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Bubelenyi with just six seconds left was the difference.

The Calgary Dinos remained undefeated by rolling over the winless UBC Thunderbirds 47-13. Adam Sinagra had his best game of the season completing 26/38 passes for 237-yards and four touchdowns in the victory.

Week 3 Schedule (all times local):

Friday, September 20th

Regina Rams (1-2) at Calgary Dinos (3-0) 7:00pm McMahon Stadium

Saturday, September 21st

Saskatchewan Huskies (2-1) at Alberta Golden Bears (2-1) 1:00pm Foote Field

UBC Thunderbirds (0-3) at Manitoba Bisons (1-2) 2:00pm IG Field

This Week in the PFC

A quiet week in the Prairie Football Conference with just one game. The Edmonton Huskies grabbed a strangle hold on second place with their victory over the visiting Winnipeg Rifles (28-14).

Everything will get going for the stretch run in the PFC this week.

Week 6 Schedule (all times local):

Sunday, September 22nd

Edmonton Wildcats (1-3) at Winnipeg Rifles (1-3) 1:00pm Maple Grove Park

Edmonton Huskies (3-1) at Regina Thunder (2-2) 1:00pm Mosaic Stadium

Calgary Colts (1-3) at Saskatoon Hilltops (4-0) 1:00pm SMF Field 

Canadian to Watch in the NCAA

DT – Neville Gallimore (Rs-Sr)
Oklahoma (Big 12)
6′ 2″ 302lbs.
St. Catherines, Ontario
High School – Canada Prep Football Academy

This week, Gallimore was ranked as the number one prospect in the upcoming 2020 CFL Draft.

In 2018, he was a stalwart on the Sooners defensive line with 50 tackles, five for a loss and three sacks and was named as an All-Big 12 honorable mention.

So far in 2019, Gallimore has two tackles for a loss and a sack in three games, all Sooner victories.

Gallimore was a four-star recruit out of Canada Prep Football Academy and was the first Canadian to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl for the top high school seniors in the United States.

/=S=/

Larry “The Pool Master” Schwentke’s Week 14 Round-Up:

(RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF)