THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. RIDERS EARN RESPECT IN LOSS TO ARGOS: Like football coaches and fans, we in the media just love to rip apart the losses. In fact, I’ll never forget leaving CJME after the 2007 season only to see the Riders begin the next season at 6-0 for the first time in modern history. Then I bumped into Mitchell Blair (who was still doing the CJME thing) and asked him how the call-in shows were going, to which he responded “Terrible. It’s so boring!” He was right. We all love a good tire fire but that’s not what we have after the Roughriders Week 7 7 loss to the Argonauts. Unlike the previous week, the Riders punched above their weight and nearly found a way to win despite having no business in doing so. The playcalling was proper (take a bow Jason Maas), most of the decision-making was sound by quarterback Jake Dolegala and for someone making his first pro start on 48 hours notice, he did okay. From a pass rush led by Charleston Hughes who could’ve pouted over his healthy scratch a week earlier to a linebacking core that punished Andrew Harris and again showed why they are the league’s best, the defence did its part. And Mario Alford has nothing to hang his head about after returning a missed field goal 112 yards and then got bit trying to do too much on his last return. To summarize, the Riders fought like hell on a night they could’ve just as easily mailed it in. And the penalties were few and far between, too. The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost on Sunday night but it sure feels like they gained back a bit of the respect that seemed to be lost by the previous two weeks events involving Garrett Marino and Duke Williams.        

2. WHAT LOSING TO THE EAST MEANS TO SASKATCHEWAN: If a tie is like kissing your sister, then the Riders might as well marry the girl this week. All 3 of the Rider losses have come against eastern opponents. This is kind of a big deal when the west division is 14-3 against the east division and Saskatchewan has all three losses. Even the Elks are 2-0 against the eastern teams for Pete’s sake and they had to win both games on the road. And yet, some way, somehow it feels like the Riders could still be a serious player in it all come November. Just another wrinkle in what is aligning to be perhaps the most Jekyll and Hyde Roughrider team since the ’89 Grey Cup squad that beat the greatest team in 18-game schedule history one week (Edmonton went 16-2 that year) and then lost to the CFL’s worst the next (Ottawa went 4-14 that year). Not a bad omen, I guess.

3. VERNON ADAMS JR TRADE RUMORS: It’s an interesting thought that the Roughriders would trade for VA and a change of scenery from Montreal would make some sense with Trevor Harris now firmly in charge of the offence out there. But not so fast. Let’s not forget that it was Chris Jones who had a big enough fascination with Adams’ athletic abilities to bring him here in the first place and so a trade with the quarterback-needy Elks would probably make more sense at this time. Let’s also not forget that Alouettes sideline boss Danny Maciocia had his finest hour in winning a Grey Cup back in 2005 after he masterfully used his backup quarterback (Jason Maas) out the bullpen to bail out his starting quarterback (Ricky Ray) on several occasions including the playoffs. Point being: Coach Macioc (rhymes with coach, get it?) just might want to keep both of his quarterbacks around if history is any indicator.    

4. WHO SHOULD START AT QB FRIDAY NIGHT: Mason Fine all the way. The Riders need to figure out what they have in him and getting Duke Williams back will give him a fair shot despite going toe-to-toe with one of the league’s most exciting programs behind a shaky offensive line. Jake Dolegala is a project that we know is not yet ready and Cody Fajardo needs more time to heal his left knee. Tossing Cody back into the fire just before the bye week wouldn’t make any sense at all.

5. THIS WEEK IN REGINA RED SOX BASEBALL: After a 4 for 5 Alberta road swing through Brooks, Edmonton, Fort McMurray and Medicine Hat, the Sox are within striking distance, only two games back of first-place Moose Jaw. The Regina Red Sox have abused the Moose Jaw Miller Express over the years and are in serious contention to run them down again this year with 10 games still left to play. The season series is deadlocked at 5 wins apiece and they will meet on the 2^ndlast day of the season to award the first ever Trans-Canada clash trophy. I suspect some big crowds at Currie Field for the Tuesday and Wednesday night games this week against the Medicine Hat Mavericks before the Red Sox head out to Lethbridge for a pair against the Bulls later in the week. The Sox pitching has been good all summer and their bats went cool in June but have heated up in July now boasting the league’s top RBI machine in Nate Bach who enters Tuesday with 42 and the WCBL’s top hitter in Mike Kenney who’s batting .402 in his flirtation with Teddy Ballgame-like numbers. Where has the summer gone?!     

6. TICATS QB NOT GOOD ENOUGH: Dane Evans has always looked the part, sounded the part and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats have given him every opportunity to play the part of starting quarterback. But for some reason, it’s becoming more and more clear by the week that he just isn’t a fit for the part. Never was that more clear than after several missed throws and poor decisions in Hamilton’s loss at BC on Thursday night. The Ticat defence did their part but Tabbies just couldn’t seem to do his. Maybe they’ll get Vernon Adams JR. Would be a better fit for VA than Saskatchewan.    

7. HOCKEY CANADA SCANDAL: I’ve had concerns going back to about 2006 with Hockey Canada for reasons very minor and completely unrelated to the ongoing scandal. Number one, what have they done to push for older age ranges so that we don’t have a bunch of 16 and 17-year-old kids interrupting their high school years to cheapen the WHL product for us poor suckers who buy tickets? (Connor Bedard notwithstanding) Number two, why does the World Juniors always have to be nothing more than a cash-grab by the IIHF and Hockey Canada by hosting in the same few big Canadian cities each year instead of moving it all over Canada and the world the way it was meant to be in the first place? Toronto/Montreal, Edmonton/Calgary and Vancouver are not junior hockey cities and give the tournament no festival feel at all. Whatever happened to places like Red Deer hosting the tournament like they did a bang-up job with in 1995? London, Ontario has a beautiful 9,000 seat arena and they’ve been told to forget even trying to ever host a World Juniors. How ridiculous is that? Just imagine the Olympic village feeling the event would get from being played in Moose Jaw or Brandon or even dare I say Swift Current or Prince Albert? This is a much smaller issue than what Hockey Canada is being raked over the coals for today and I don’t think we can compare the issues for even a nanosecond. However, it does speak to the overall systemic culture within Hockey Canada of one organization that I can’t help but wonder if it has lost its soul.       

8. HE SAID IT: “Sometimes I think podcasts were created by people that really like to talk but no one wants to listen to. I listen to several that are well done, informative, entertaining and professional. Unfortunately, many are a lonely person reading a long boring monologue, guys drinking beer and talking in their garage, or old guys solving their world problems over coffee at McDonalds.” —Alabama CFL fan and overall good guy Ron Montgomery

9. PICK FROM THE DOC COLLECTION: Just got through parts one and two of Once Upon a Time in Queens 30 for 30 of the four-part mini-series on the 1986 New York Mets. I must say the first two parts are fantastic and I just can’t get enough of Gary Carter and the 1980s New York Mets. You can find this on the TSN app.  

10. IN THE HUDDLE THIS WEEK: We will grill this week’s guest Don Hewitt on his creation of Gainer the Gopher and the bizarre season that is unfolding in Riderville. Did I mention I was the only one to pick the Argos this week? Watch us Tuesday nights at 7 on the Access Now channel or the Access Now app.

(Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)