THE WEDNESDAY THRILLER … WITH PHIL ANDREWS
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| Voice of the Pats Phil Andrews |
– Big Congrats to former Regina Pats and Calgary Hitmen forward Pavel Padakin on signing his first pro contract in North America. Padakin inked with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers. Padakin is taking part in the team’s development camp this week, as are four of the five Pats drafted this year. The only one absent is Sergey Zborovskiy from the New York Rangers camp. I understand he has yet to obtain a VISA and as a result cannot travel to the United States. He is stuck in Calgary.
– Big news out of Kelowna this week as head coach Dan Lambert is headed to the Buffalo Sabres as an assistant coach. Lambert head coached the Rockets for just one season and had them within an overtime goal of winning the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup. It’s a surprise in the sense it happened so soon but I’m told he has some good NHL conections so maybe not a huge shocker. I wish him all the best.
– The Riders 0-2 after two home games to start 2015 against Winnipeg and Toronto. What’s been the difference? The 4th quarter in each. Saskatchewan was tied with Winnipeg after 3 in week one and then led Toronto 21-11 after 3 in week 2. They have been outscored 24-10 in the 4th quarter so far this year.
– Even further to that, the Green and White should not have come close to losing Sunday against Toronto. Put the pick six and penalties aside. The Riders had the ball, 2nd and goal from the Toronto 1 with 1:22 left on the clock. Mistake One: They snap the ball with 17 seconds left on the play clock. The play does not go for a touchdown however the Argos lined up offside and Saskatchewan got a fresh set of downs. If I am Corey Chamblin, I kneel down on 1st down, Toronto then takes their final timeout leaving about 1:00 left. Then you kneel down again, run off another 20 seconds. Then let the play clock run another 20 seconds and kick a short field goal on 3rd down to take the 31-28 lead. In my math that leaves roughly 20-25 seconds left if you include the 17 seconds remaining on the play clock on the initial second down. What is more important? The extra four points or the 60 seconds they could have ran off the clock? It was a bad display of clock management, the team could have all but sealed the win if they elected to milk the time left and go ahead by 3. Toronto would have had two, maybe three plays to get into field position for a field goal from the ROOKIE Ronnie Pfeffer. I don’t disagree with what this team does very often but in this instance I really do.
– It wasn’t all negative on Sunday, Kevin Glenn looked unbelievably good under center. Ryan Smith too is havign a break out year. The dfeence actually made some plays when compared to week 1. Jake Doughty the interception, sacks from Alex Hall, Derek Walker and Macho Harris and then some big hits from Tyron Brackenridge and Tristan Jackson. They let one get away on Sunday but this is not a bad team.
– So weird knowing the Riders were coming out on offense in double overtime to play for a tie. I think the CFL should do away with the draws and play until someone wins. Didn’t matter in the end on Sunday but ties suck. For how fun that game was to watch it, a team should always win.
– Love what Paul McCallum did in his return going 4 for 4. That’s what you should expect from your kicker. He’s exactly what the doctor ordered.
– The Calgary Stampeders look very average through two games of the season. They are lucky Hamilton gave one away in week one and got them a win. Bo-Levi Mitchell is struggling and Jon Cornish isn’t getting the ball enough. I’m sure they will figure it out but I was not expecting their slow start.
– I am thoroughly impressed with the Ottawa RedBlacks. Really good to see the team have some early success in year two. Do I think they are a playoff team…. Not convinced yet but it’s good for the CFL that they are playing well.
– The East swept the West in week 2. My how the tide has turned from last year. All four teams out there have improved and with some young guys having a big impact. How about Rakeem Cato in Montreal? At first I was disappointed the Canadian Brandon Bridge didn’t get the start but it was obvious why the coaching staff believed in Cato. Again it’s only one game and it’s early in the season so a lot can change but the parity in the league seems pretty good so far.
– The Riders will get their first win on Friday in my opinion. I expect the Lions to be better than they were against Ottawa this weekend but the Green and White will be better as well.
– Vladimir Tarasenko got an 60 million dollar contract from the St. Louis Blues over 8 years yesterday. A young guy that has become one of the best goal scorers in the NHL. Big money for a big player.
– Did you see the goals Connor McDavid scored in the Oilers inter-squad game? He had 5 and wow I can’t wait to see what he does in his rookie season.
– The Toronto Blue Jays won a one run game last night!!! I don’t remember the last time that happened. Felix Dubront pitched a great game in his first start as a Blue Jay and Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson provided the 2 runs needed for the win. The Jays are a game and a half out of first in the AL East. They have hung in there through suspect pitching for parts of the year. They need to add some arms, home runs don’t win playoff type baseball, pitching does.
That’s it from me, have a great week!
Phil
@PhilTheThrill18
Hair on ya Phil for questioning Chamblin's clock management but you didn't even mention his defensive schemes. He needs to be jacked up about lots of his decisions.
Hmmm ? Rekeem Cato ? That name seems to ring a familiar bell. Hmmm ?
Was he ? No can't be. Hey ? Wasn't he with the Saskatchewan Roughriders this past spring ? Hmmm ? Did the Rrs buffoon gm release him before he even got the chance to wear the green/white ? Oh yeah !!!! that …. was him !!!! No wonder the Rough on a slide to the CFL West Division basement under current bt non direction.
McDavid looking good against his own team – too bad he he can't play the Oilers in the regular season.
Phil! Rockets website has Lambert as an assistant in Buffalo.
Beaver face Bro
Sunserei over Cato? Really??
Stick to talking about the WHL. It's better for everyone that way.
agree with you on clock management. dumb coaching.
You are so right, "this is not a bad team". Coaching lost this game. Cory is in charge of the defence, the time clock management as head coach, the blame game, he is not a rookie coach any more. Many games we have been outcoached this has to stop. Cory must step up the job he is doing…..head coach, defence, 4th quarter game plan, aggressiveness of the team….in post game he need to take responsibly not blame the offfence that were fine but his game and that of Chick & George …where were they is what he should be looking… Read more »
It's semantics and really easy to look back. I will buy what Phil is selling but also counter offer this. With the field goal the Argo's take the ball at their own 35 yard line … no time runs off on a kickoff. Now only needing 3 points Trevor Harris needed to gain 40 yards in 25-ish seconds, which he did anyways! No single error lost that game. A bunch of them compounded resulted in a loss. I actually like the reality check for the Riders right now. I think they are a group that needs to humbled. IMO –… Read more »
I'm going to call you on your math there Phil. You're assuming that Toronto would still have been offside if SK hadn't gone hurry-up and snapped the ball early on the 2nd and goal play. More likely, TO lines up properly and it's 3rd down with 1:05 on the clock. TO calls their time out. SK kicks the field goal leaving TO with 1:00 for their final drive. If SK quick snaps and gets the offside call with 1:22 on the clock, the clock doesn't start until the snap of the ball after a penalty, so if they take a… Read more »
Jason, this Is the CFL your talking about, clock management? Hit or miss from the timekeeper bench/teams in play. Saskatchewan Roughriders, drastic miss, Argonauts victory, end of story. BC ?
But there is the option to decline the penalty. The clock would then start. Yes…there is a way to get the clock to tick off 20-25 seconds, as he is suggesting.
I suppose Kerry Joseph was a better option than Rakeem Cato.
Toronto marched down the field at will in the fourth quarter because they were playing against an eleven man defense. Chamblin had Breckenridge line up so far from the ball that he didn't count. Chamblin is making Greg Marshall look like a genius.
Jason,
Do not snap the ball with 17 seconds left on play clock, let it run down to 1:05. Get new set of downs. Kneel, Toronto takes timeout. Kneel again, clock runs down to 45 seconds. Then allow the clock to run to 25 on 3rd down before kicking field goal…
Phil, I get what Jason is saying. You have no way of knowing wether the Argos would have still been offside if you would have gave them another 17 seconds. If no offside, it's third down. He has a point. But say they did still go offside after you ran the clock down to 1:05. First down, clock won't start because of a penalty till the ball is snapped, so we're at 1:02 ish. Second down, Toronto takes its time out, so we're down to :59 seconds. Third down, run the 20 second play clock plus a few seconds, and… Read more »
BOOM ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Again, you're assuming that Toronto will line up offside and stay that way for 17 seconds while the play clock runs down on 2nd and goal. That's a huge assumption to make. I believe the only reason that TO was offside, thus giving the Riders a new set of downs, was because the Riders went hurry up and snapped the ball quickly, before TO could get properly set up. It ends up being one or the other, either you run off 17 seconds, run your play, and it's 3rd down if you don't score, or you snap it quick, catching… Read more »
Cato was not at the camp this past spring. He failed to show up. For the story, go to the riderville website and reads today's article by Rod Pedersen to find out what happened.
Old Hank
It's right that no single play cost the game. It truly was a comedy of errors. Ill timed penalties that cost big plays and a TD, not running Messam up the gut n the 1st quarter, poor defensive play, and time management to some degree. The absolute killer was the pick6. It flipped the score and field. It also gutted the defensive effort the rest of the way. This was the second pick in the red zone in two games. The defence is probably the single biggest concern right now. Too many yards and too many points every game. The… Read more »
Toronto moves close enough for a FG in 25 seconds quite easily. Hell, they could probably get a TD in that time the way defense played on the final drive.
Phil, your Rider views are welcome. Provides good fodder for debate.