THE (TUESDAY) MORNING GOALIE

YEAR-END THOUGHTS

1 – SEASON OVER:  It’s taken 36 hours to get my head around Sunday’s 18-10 Roughrider loss to the Edmonton Eskimos in the 2014 CFL Western Semifinal.  When the season ends – and I’ve been through 33 of them between football and hockey – it’s always a jolt, and a numbing feeling.  Win or lose.

On the way home from Edmonton I overheard a lot of players asking each other what their off-season plans are, when they’re leaving, etc., but nobody had any answers because they were totally unprepared for the season to end.  Put me in that group.

With the quarterback battle of Kerry Joseph vs Matt Nichols on Sunday, I thought that gave the Roughriders the decided edge.  Not to mention Saskatchewan had double the amount of playoff game experience than Edmonton.  No matter, the oddsmakers installed the Eskimos as 7-point favourites and I was scratching my head about it before the game.

And then they covered the spread.  Hey, I’ve never said I’m impartial.  I think the Riders will win every game they play.

2 – HOW DID THEY DO IT?:  In Friday’s column I wrote the Eskimos would win if they surprised Kerry Joseph with new looks on defense and smashed the ball inside with tailback John White on offense.  That was sort of correct.  White had 134 yards rushing but a lot of it was outside and slotback Kendial Lawrence was their workhorse catching plenty of swing passes and of course returning a punt 84-yards for a touchdown.

The Eskimos were blitzing seven and sometimes eight defenders on first down often. You heard Corey Chamblin talk about Edmonton’s “Run Blitz” where they were bringing those defenders in the gaps where the Riders intended to run.  They completely neutralized the Riders’ ground attack.  Saskatchewan ended the game with 47 yards rushing.

Chamblin talked about wrinkles, and having to withstand them.  Well Edmonton had as many wrinkles as George Burns while the Riders had the same amount of wrinkles as Kim Kardashian.  On offense anyways.

And Kerry wasn’t prepared.  Although he put the gun to his own temple and took the blame for the loss due to his five interceptions, he didn’t fully have a grasp of the offense in only a month’s time.

However his place in Rider history is unmistakeable and his legacy won’t be tarnished from this game.

3 – LOOKING BACK:  Coming out of training camp, something was missing.  I’m not sure they ever found it but you can’t overlook the team’s 8-2 start with Darian Durant at the helm.  And then, with Durant gone for the season, the club went 2-7 without him.

Do we really need to look any further than that?

I was stunned to hear Corey Chamblin say after the game this club may be looking at a rebuild for 2015 but he would know far better than me.  I’m must saying had Durant stayed healthy, we’re not having any of these discussions.  How or why did the whole team sag without him?  That’s something Jeremy O’Day will address further down in this column.

CKRM analyst Mike Abou-Mechrek mentioned on Monday the Riders should have an experienced back-up quarterback on the roster in the years ahead to prevent this from happening again.

That’s great.  But who?  If it were that easy, the Riders would have done it.  They had a chance at Kevin Glenn but passed.  Who expected Durant to get hurt when he’s started 93 out of 100 Rider games?

The season went down the drain when Durant got injured.  He’s the heartbeat of the franchise.  How many times do you need to hear it?  If there’s too much importance placed on this guy then that should be addressed but that’s the way it is.

4 – FURTHERMORE:  Some players will tell you the troubles of the Riders in the second half extend well past the injury to Darian Durant.  When you factor in the injuries to Neal Hughes, Kevin Regimbald and Scott McHenry (all special teams aces) along with the departures of Graig Newman and Craig Butler in free agency – all Canadians, I might add – it was too much of a depth issue to overcome in one season.

I just have a tough time playing the injury card given what other teams have been through in 2014.

Draw your own conclusions there but it still seems to me the Riders put all their eggs in the 2013 basket and rolled the dice for the biggest season in franchise history.  And they won!  Now they’re still sorting out the price of it all and maybe that’s why a rebuild is on the horizon.

However I refuse to believe this regime doesn’t know what it’s doing.

5 – FOUR LAST THOUGHTS:  When I saw Eskimo quarterback Mike Reilly walking down the hallway outside Edmonton’s locker room on Saturday he was dragging his right foot like the Penguin does in the new TV series Gotham.  Perhaps he was acting since he saw my Roughrider coat but I was certain there’s no chance he’d see the field and the report I got of a high ankle sprain seemed very accurate.  Then lo and behold he comes out and plays on Sunday.  He’s either a great actor or one tough S.O.B. … Regarding shoddy attendance in Edmonton and Montreal for the semifinals, the answer is to blackout the games.  End of story … I’ve heard 2014 Grey Cup organizers in Vancouver are none-to-pleased that both the B.C. Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders won’t be playing in the game because now no one is going to care about the big game.  I refuse to believe that.  Grey Cups are always fun no matter who’s involved … My prediction for the Grey Cup is Hamilton beating Calgary.

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Roughriders Assistant GM Jeremy O’Day provided an interesting glimpse into the team’s mindset following a very strange 10-8 season.  Jeremy made his comments on CKRM’s SportsCage Monday afternoon.

“We started off a little slow the first three games and then we started playing pretty good football,” O’Day recalled.  “And then, as I look back at it, we weren’t a team that was winning by a whole bunch.  We were finding ways to win in that stretch but we weren’t winning by a whole bunch.

“And then there was some red flags in there with some of our losses where they weren’t close games.  That’s something that’s a bit alarming when you’re going through the season.  You should always be able to compete with teams and have a chance to win but when they’re lopsided losses, you start to wonder.

“But we were finding ways to win and then we took the hit at quarterback and we’re not the kind of group that’ll use injury excuses.  We have to do our job better and have the right people in place to continue to win.”

These were some very honest, candid thoughts by O’Day and what he said next is something I’ve been harping on for the past two months.

“We can’t be a team that you lose one player and the season’s over.  We understand that,” O’Day mentioned.  “We were close in the end but weren’t finding ways to get it done and that’s kind of the way our season went.  We came close but just came up short.”

And now the club has 27 free agents to deal with – which I’ll list below – which means the start of a very busy off-season for Rider management.

“We do have a lot of free agents,” O’Day admitted.  “We typically do have a lot of free agents but this year is particularly more than usual.  What will happen from here going forward is the conversations will take place where we’ll decide if we have enough good players on our roster and how many roster moves need to be made.  Everything gets evaluated.  Myself included.  We’ll all be evaluated and go through the entire team and organization and see what we’ll have to improve on.

“Just like anyone, we’ll have to look ourselves in the mirror and check yourself and see what you can do better and take it upon yourself to get better.  The guys that do come back have to remember this one through the whole off-season and let that fire them for the next year and hopefully remember the feeling of coming up short and not wanting that feeling again.”

And what about Corey Chamblin’s comment that the Riders may be entering a tear-down or rebuild phase in 2015?

“Is it a complete tear-down?  That’s yet to be determined,” O’Day said calmly.  “I think that conversation will happen with Brendan and Corey and they’ll provide the direction of where we’re going and how we’re gonna do it.”

According to the Winnipeg Sun, the Riders list of free agents is as follows:

Tristan Jackson, Tyron Brackenridge, Rod Williams, Carlos Thomas, Woodny Turenne, Brandon Boudreaux, Trevor Guyton, Hilee Taylor, Ricky Foley, Tearrius George, Tim Cronk, Neal Hughes, Kevin Regimbald, Brian Peters, Sam Hurl, Diamond Ferri, Tristan Black, Chad Rempel, Josh Bartel, Dan Clark, Ben Heenan, Kerry Joseph, Tino Sunseri, Jerome Messam, Scott McHenry, Korey Williams and Weston Dressler.

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Here are the postgame comments from CKRM’s Rider Radio analyst Carm Carteri on Sunday’s loss in the WSF:

– They just didn’t come out to play unfortunately.  Defensively the Riders did a great job of staying in this football game but anytime your offense gives up the ball six times and your punt cover unit gives up an 84-yard touchdown return, you would think it would be a 50-0 blowout.  But the way the defense played, it helped keep the Riders in it.

– They weren’t good enough this afternoon.  The Edmonton Eskimos weren’t great but they were better than the Riders.  The Riders just unfortunately folded in the biggest game of the year.  It was really their offense that couldn’t get it done.

ON THE FINAL GAME FOR KERRY JOSEPH

– That’s unfortunate for Kerry.  We all love him and he’s done a great thing for the Roughriders coming in with short notice and essentially trying to help this team get over the hump.  Boy it didn’t happen against his old team.  Everything was lined up right for him but for whatever reason he made some bad throws out there.  There were bad reads, throwing into double coverage and throwing to Edmonton defenders with a couple of wide open Rider receivers.

– It’s something we can’t explain, it’s just playoff football.  The Riders had more experience than the Edmonton Eskimos but boy it didn’t look like it.  The Edmonton Eskimos won this football game and really the score flattered the Riders.

READY FOR THE OFF-SEASON?

– Not really.  I was expecting at least another week.  I wanted to go to Calgary and put a scare into that Red Machine but it’s over.  It’s unfortunate they can’t defend their Grey Cup title.

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Many folks have asked what’s up for yours truly now that the season’s over.  Well, we’ll be broadcasting the SportsCage live from Grey Cup in Vancouver which will be a lot of fun.  Then on Dec. 5 the SportsCage Marlin Travel Ultimate Sports Trip IV heads to California as I’ll be taking 57 listeners to L.A., San Diego and Anaheim.  We’ll be broadcasting the Cage live from those locales and Rider players Brett Swain and Chris Getzlaf have promised to come on air live.

There will also be a couple of trips to Las Vegas and one to Mexico and hopefully we’ll get to Arizona as well.  As for next season, who knows?

I may take the odd Monday and Friday off here on the blog over the winter but we’ll see.  I usually say that, but never do.

Regardless, thanks for following along all season long!

RP
@sportscage