STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – RIDERS FAIL IN BC – The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost 19-9 to the BC Lions on Saturday night in a game where the Riders really failed to muster even a threat of offense either via the ground or through the air. Brett Lauther made 3 field goals and Mason Fine passed for just over 280 scoreless yards on 32 completions (I think, depending on whether or not you can trust the Mickey Mouse CFL stats program).  There are many fans already calling for Jake Dolegala to start next week against Toronto, but it’s tough to give up on a quarterback after just one start when you still have most of the season yet to play. It’s just me, but I would have put Dolegala in for the second half and then you have a bit of game action to judge Fine against Dolegala and make a determination for next week. Instead, I think you have to start with Fine again but not hesitate to bring in Dolegala at halftime.

2 – FINE SHOULD BE FINE – Regardless of what you think of Fine, the Riders shouldn’t be in the horrible position they find themselves in. Remember, the brass decided Fine was better than Cody Fajardo at the end of last year and Fajardo is just one of four starting quarterbacks in the CFL that is still starting for his team, with the others being Chad Kelly in Toronto, Zach Collaros in Winnipeg, and Jake Maier in Calgary. The rest of them are hurt, so Fine should still be in the mix as one of the better QBs in the league when you stack him up against all other teams’ second, third, and fourth stringers that have, suddenly, become starters.  Nevertheless, Ottawa does look like they’ve stumbled on to something with Dustin Crum.

3 – COACH SCRUTINY – There has been heavy criticism of head coach Craig Dickenson every single week for various decisions made in-game, including several on Saturday in the BC loss. To me, I am seeing a man who is practically begging to be fired at this point. He looks heavily-stressed and being relieved of his duties would probably feel like a big weight off his shoulders. After all, the Riders are 3-and-11 in their last 14 games overall and 1-and-11 if you throw out the two games this year against CFL frauds from Edmonton. I’ve written several times about how easy it is to win for teams that are truly serious about doing it because so few are trying as hard as they can and the CFL has only three teams from what I can see that are playing like they want to win: BC, Winnipeg, and Toronto. The jury may still be out on Calgary and Montreal; the others are a lost cause at this point but they don’t have to be. Also, for those critical of the offensive coordinator, just remember many individuals turned that position down during the offseason due to the fact the staff currently in place was headed into lame duck year and it would appear, at this juncture, those that said ‘no’ were wise to do so.

4 – EDMONTON CFL – While I’m no expert, the free advice I would give to all sports teams and leagues is ‘know who your customers are’. We’ve seen over and over for years that a lot of the leagues and teams ignore who is actually giving them money and instead bow to the woke mob who hate sports and demand their form of virtue. Last week, one of the commenters on my blog posted a quote from the Edmonton’s CFL team’s Board Chair that would be straight-up racist if it was addressed to any other ethnic group. I did some research on it and it came from 2021 but it goes a long way towards further understanding all that is wrong with Edmonton’s CFL team. I don’t know if it can ever be repaired. They’ve alienated their fan base so bad that token apologies probably aren’t good enough. What can they do? Well, you can never go back and rename the team to what it once was. Imagine the uproar. Sadly, I think the only way this gets rectified is if they can somehow restore winning ways for multiple years as winning does seem to cure everything. Failing that, I don’t think they can come back. I think they are going to die a slow death as a franchise and then maybe they can come back as something completely different with a brand new identity, brand new team colors, brand new people in charge, brand new everything, including an appreciation for the fans and appreciation from the fans who may miss watching professional football. This disaster of an organization could have been completely prevented had they just paid attention to who their customers were and appreciated them. Those comments from 2021, if the Board Chair was that ashamed of who the fan base was, should have resulted in the team closing the doors immediately and walking away in shame for providing a product that only old white men enjoy, leaving out everybody else.

5 – ROURKE/McGOUGH – CFL stud QB Nathan Rourke drew some criticism signing with Jacksonville in the offseason because Trevor Lawrence is cemented as the starter, but what a lot of people don’t understand is that the path to be Lawrence’s back-up is clear with only CJ Beathard standing in his way. Rourke is, likely, to emerge as the number two QB for Jacksonville sooner rather than later. The same may hold true in Green Bay for USFL MVP Alex McGough, who worked out with several teams and opted to sign with the Packers this week. Call me intrigued as the Packers have no viable options behind Jordan Love, who is also far from solidified as an NFL starter.  

6 – BABCOCK MOVING LAINE?  – I’m in a fantasy hockey draft keeper league where I have a lot of Columbus Blue Jackets players so I’m naturally extra interested in that franchise, but I’m even more intrigued ever since they hired Mike Babcock. In an interview with The Athletic this week, Babcock alluded to moving Patrik Laine to centre. Laine, who has spent most of his offseason in Columbus, was coy when asked about playing centre and didn’t confirm or deny although he did play centre in his last two games before getting hurt this past season. I think he has the ability to be a very good one, but he will need to work more consistently. For his part, Babcock talked about how he likes to have two players on every line that are capable of playing centre. If Laine can do it and assuming Adam Fantilli makes the team out of training camp, the Jackets do have the depth to try such a thing.

7 – RATTLERS STILL ALIVE – I’ve really got to hand it to the Saskatchewan Rattlers, who were 4-and-9 and lifeless a couple of weeks ago. They go into their final game of the season this upcoming Friday versus Calgary at 8-and-11 with a chance to qualify for the playoffs should they pull out a win and Edmonton loses their last two (Calgary, Winnipeg). They could really use Devonte Bandoo for this one. Bandoo was signed almost two weeks ago but hasn’t played yet (I’m assuming because of an injury sustained earlier in the year).  Meanwhile, the support for Justin Wright-Foreman has been accomplished by committee as they try to fight their way into the postseason. Wednesday night against Vancouver Trey Niemi stepped up with his best game of the season and Quentin DeCosey also carried a hot hand. If they somehow squeeze in and if Bandoo is on the floor, the Rattlers become a very dangerous team that nobody will want to face in the playoffs. For what it’s worth, the Rattlers are averaging around 2000 fans a game. A sellout would be 3900. Hopefully this Friday is packed. I maintain this league is the best bang for your sports dollar that you will find anywhere in Canada.

8 – JUNIOR FOOTBALL – The Canadian Junior Football League regular season starts this Saturday with the BC Conference getting started a couple of weeks ahead of PFC and Ontario. Teams in BC play 10 games as compared to the PFC’s 8. There may actually be a little more parity in the PFC this year with Regina and Saskatoon expected to be challenged by the Edmonton Huskies, who are normally competitive but not a powerhouse, as well as the resurgent Calgary Colts, who have brought in Vanier Cup winner Greg DeLaval to be their head coach and former CFL coach Tom Higgins to be his assistant.  It didn’t receive a lot of press, but back in March an expansion application from Lethbridge was denied by the PFC so there will be no new teams in the near future.  Other interesting tidbits include current CFL running back Andrew Harris has taken over the Vancouver Island Raiders as Head of Football Operations.  He will be the team’s coach in 2024.  Former Roughriders’ punter Jamie Boreham has been hired in Prince George to not only be the junior team’s coach, but also to oversee a football academy for players of all ages.

10 – ARTISTIC SWIMMING – I’m late to the party on this one, but apparently we’ve changed the name Synchronized Swimming to be Artistic Swimming and we will have men competing in the next Olympics.  Are they competing against the women or is it a mixed duet type of thing? I don’t care enough to investigate and I know most of you will see this as ‘progress’ and that’s fine. Others will roll their eyes and that’s fine too. I’m just telling you the slippery slope is very real and until someone is willing to say enough is enough, there is no end.

BONUS: JASON ALDEAN – I’ll end by giving my two bits on the Jason Aldean song that is in the ‘news’ all this week: I haven’t listened to it because I don’t like country music. I also haven’t listened to the countless other songs out there that glorify the abuse of women, shooting of police officers, and never ending use of the N word because I don’t like that kind of music either. I’ve always said if you don’t like what I write, don’t read it. If you don’t like the lyrics of a particular song, why are you listening to it? Sing about what you want and your sales will dictate whether you have offended people or not. Growing up, I liked hard rock and heavy metal but I also drew the line as far as the thrash metal bands who glorified Satan through their lyrics. I didn’t complain about it, I just didn’t listen. Wasn’t hard. My advice for those of you upset about Jason Alden is to do the same. Nevertheless, I see Aldean’s song is at number one this week on the iTunes charts. Call it a rare loss for the left wing, I guess.

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