Scruffy’s This N That

1 – THE BRETT LAUTHER SHOW: Remember earlier this year when some in Rider Nation thought Brett Lauther should be put on a rail car and shipped out of town after a bad night against Montreal? I said then that everyone has a bad day at the office and to cool your jets a little. I ask now how many field goals under 50 yards has he missed since that game?  The answer on Saturday at Mosaic was ‘none’ as his seven three-pointers helped the green-and-white to a big 29-16 win over Ottawa on what was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon for football. Can we have more 1 o’clock starts?

The game was rather blah as there were very few big plays, but the Riders came up with the majority of them especially on the defence as they picked off Jeremiah Masoli three times.

While Lauther kicked seven field goals, Trevor Harris had a tough time getting his team into the endzone.  Teams need to score seven and not three at this time of year. The offence simply wasn’t good enough on this day. If they had been, it would have been worse than it was for an Ottawa team that was rather hum-drum on the day.

The win not only moves Saskatchewan into 2^nd spot – one up on B.C with themselves, the Lions and the Bombers each having three games left with one of those games a visit to Mosaic from the Lions in what now could be a game that determines who hosts the Western Semi-Final. With Hamilton sneaking up on everyone, it was a big two points as well to prevent having the Ti-Cats chase and pass Saskatchewan for a crossover spot.

2 – LOGAN FERLAND: I’ve talked at length before about how good Logan Ferland is and how good he is going to be. Now there is talk that the next-great born in Saskatchewan offensive lineman should be considered as the team’s nominee for most outstanding player.  That isn’t going to happen, but if he isn’t named the team’s top lineman and arguably the West’s best lineman, I’ll be shocked. If he isn’t the West’s best lineman now, he will be soon.

3 – F-YOU KEENAN: CJME’s Jamie Nye had a great interview this week with Mike Keenan. I don’t think there is anyone in sports I despise more than Mike Keenan and it goes back to his days as the head coach of the Peterborough Petes and his team throwing a Memorial Cup game to Cornwall many, many years ago (1980) starting a near-riot at the Agridome in a night I will never forget.

Jamie asked Keenan if he was ready to bring closure to that night and admit he told his team to throw the game to avoid a matchup with the Pats. Instead, he doubled down and put the blame on the Pats head coach Bryan Murray. He also takes time in his book, which is why Nye was interviewing him, to take a run at the organization.  F you Mike Keenan!

4 – BEDARD YEAR 2: NHL training camps are underway with the season about to get underway shortly.  The buzz around Connor Bedard is not as high this year as it was last when he was going into his rookie year, but many want to see what CB98 has in store in year two after year one was cut short by injury. Going into camp, Bedard says he is more prepared to enter his sophomore season as he knows what to expect which is more than fair.

The books have Bedard set at an over/under line of 82.5 points. I think he passes that easily if he stays healthy.

5 – FAREWELL OAKLAND: Baseball in Oakland came to an end on Thursday afternoon as the Athletics beat Texas. Baseball’s history in Oakland officially ends sometime Sunday afternoon when Game 162 of the season ends in Seattle. Team owner John Fisher says he tried to negotiate a deal to stay in Oakland, but everyone knows for the most part he is full of it as he knows a brand new stadium in Vegas will bring him the dollars he craves. He is willing to take short term pain in Sacramento to get long-term gain in Vegas.

Meanwhile, a fanbase that lost the Raiders to Vegas and the Warriors to a new shining arena in San Francisco has nothing now. At least Expos fans had the Alouettes and Canadiens and while the Jets did come back, Winnipeggers had other teams to throw their support around. That isn’t the case in Oakland. It’s just an ugly situation.

One other thing, Krazy George was at the final game doing his thing. I thought that old guy was looking down on us. Does anyone reading this under 35 remember him?

6 – BUH-BYE BLUE JAYS: A season that I expected from the Toronto Blue Jays is over. So many wanted to eat up the crap that the Toronto media tried to spew back in March about this team being a playoff contender again. I told you that team would be garbage and they were, but they were admittedly better in the second half.   If John Schneider is still the manager of this team by the time the playoffs begin I will be surprised and GM Ross Atkins and President Ross Shapiro should follow.

This team needs a thorough cleansing. If you can find a way to keep Vladimir Guerrero Junior and Bo Bichette than so be it. Personally, I think Vladdy stays and Bo goes, but who knows. The team has to be active in free agency this year and not pin their hopes on two players who had no intention on continuing their career in Canada.  That might be the biggest problem for the Jays is convincing players that you can succeed north of the border.

As the playoffs begin, I’ve got the Padres and Guardians meeting in the World Series.

7 – NFL WEEK 4: Here are some items to look at as you watch the NFL this weekend –

• The Vikings can begin 4-0 for the first time since 2016 and the fifth time since 2000. Last week, Minnesota became the third team since 1990 with at least five sacks in each of their first three games, joining the 2001 New Orleans Saints and 2000 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. No team in NFL history has five-or-more sacks in each of their first four games of a season. The Vikings lead the NFL with 16 sacks this season and can become the third team since 2000 with at least 20 sacks in their first four games of a season, joining the 2020 Pittsburgh Steelers (20 sacks) and 2001 Green Bay Packers (20).
• New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers has 59,679 career regular-season passing yards and on Sunday against Denver, he can become the ninth player in NFL history with 60,000 career regular season passing yards. Including the postseason, Rodgers has 65,573 career passing yards and with 299 passing yards, can surpass Pro Football Hall of Famer Dan Marino (65,871 passing yards) for the seventh-most passing yards in NFL history, including the postseason.
• Last week, Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels completed 21 of 23 pass attempts (91.3 percent) for 254 yards and two touchdowns with a 141.7 rating, the highest completion percentage in a game by a rookie in NFL history (minimum 20 attempts), surpassing Dak Prescott (88.9 percent, 32 of 36, on Dec. 18, 2016). Daniels has a passer rating of 90-or-higher and a completion percentage of 70-or-higher in each of his first three career games and can join Dak Prescott (2016) as the only rookie quarterbacks in NFL history to reach those marks in four consecutive games.

8 – HENDERSON HAS SCORED FOR CANADA:  There have been a lot of big goals scored when it comes to Canada in international hockey. The younger generation thinks of Sidney Crosby in Vancouver, Jordan Eberle in Ottawa at the World Juniors and Mario Lemieux at the Canada Cup, but to me and many others the biggest goal was scored September 28, 1972 in Moscow. 

Paul Henderson’s last minute goal gave Canada the 72 Summit Series in a month where this country was more united than ever as our game had been threatened by the Russians. No one thought they were that good. They were wrong! I have read many books, written some reports and watched documentaries on the Summit Series.   What a crazy month it was. 

9 – TOMMY JOHN SURGERY: Believe it or not, the Tommy John surgery turned 50 this week. How many pitchers have had that done to their arm to keep their careers going over the last 50 years?

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• The Washington Nationals ended shortstop CJ Abrams’ season after demoting him following the players decision to stay up all night before a day game in Chicago as he decided to spend some time at a casino. I can’t be the only one going the 86 Mets wouldn’t have made it to June 1 without being demoted for similar reasons back in the day.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, do a Google search
• Who had Sam Darnold leading the NFL in touchdown passes after three weeks?
• Does Mathieu Bertrand-Hudon remind you of Chris Szarka back in the day? He sure does to me! Give him the ball and success usually follows.
• Seeing Damar Hamlin get an INT on Monday Night Football was spectacular considering what happened the last time Hamlin played in a Monday night game.

Have a great week all!