THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE

1. ROUGHRIDERS BIGGEST OFFSEASON PICKUP SO FAR: Jason Maas. Football is the one sport where a coach’s impact, or in this case an assistant coach’s impact, can be enormous. The Riders new offensive coordinator has already spit out twice as many 30-point outbursts as all eight of his counterparts around the league so far. On Saturday night, we saw them go heavy with the deep ball to Shaq Evans and Kyran Moore early on. When it wasn’t there, they switched to 10-and-15-yard outs for Canadians Mitchell Picton and Brayden Lenius. And on a handful of occasions, when he couldn’t find anyone open, Cody just tucked it under and ran. It all worked out. That variety kept the Ticat defence guessing and the Rider fans feeling like they’ve been vindicated for heckling last year’s play-caller, Stephen McAdoo. Football is the sport where players are used by coaches as instruments to move the ball. So far, maestro Jason Maas has shown a masterful command of his new orchestra.  

2. WHY FANS ARE STAYING HOME: Is it because of COVID? Farmers out combining? Ticket and beer prices, maybe? Delays over scanning to get people into the park, perhaps? Marijuana becoming more and more acceptable all the time and making it easier to entertain ourselves at home? The answer: It’s all of these things. However, let’s not overlook the fact the Riders are playing their first four games at home and that’s never good for anyone. The 2015 season had a similar scenario when the Roughriders played four of their first five at Taylor Field, due to the Pan Am Games out east, with both fan interest and the team that season getting off to a rocky start and never recovering. This year’s team is off to a much better start and labour day is already a sellout. Nobody should make too much out of this anytime soon.    

3. VACCINE PASSPORTS FOR RIDER GAMES: I would prefer the Riders and/or the province require proof of double vaccination in order to get into the park. And just because I feel that way doesn’t forfeit my right to be at the park or take my mask off. Just like it didn’t forfeit the right of those NDP MLA’s who got roasted for doing the same thing in week one. Must’ve been a slow news day for Tammy Robert, John Gormley and CJME radio who blew that molehill up into a mountain.    

4. ALBERTA CFL TEAMS STRUGGLE: I’m not great on twitter and probably never will be. But holy dyna did the tweet I sent out Saturday night ever spread like wild fire! The subject: Alberta’s CFL teams haven’t combined for an 0-4 start, like they have this year, since 1966. And that year ended just fine for the Roughriders. You know world truly is upside down when. Is Alberta Premier Jason Kenney going to blame this on Trudeau, too?  

5. ERRORS FROM LAST WEEK: As BC Lions Communications extraordinaire Matt Baker pointed out, I incorrectly stated the BC Lions had failed to list Michael Reilly as questionable on the injury report for week one. They did, in fact, list him as questionable. There is much debate about whether or not the Lions are handling their quarterback injury reports properly but by the letter of the law, they appear to be in line. I also mentioned the Vancouver Canucks, along with the Leafs, were one of two Canadian sports franchises doing more merchandise sales than the Roughriders. In fact, it’s the Montreal Canadiens and not the Canucks in the top two. I’ve been thinking about ditching the Canucks after being a fan of theirs for 30 years and so they’ve been on my mind a lot lately, hence the error in that note I presented last week.     

6. THIS WEEK I’M JEALOUS OF: Almondo Sewell. Guy shoots his mouth off by trashing Trevor Harris, takes a dumb penalty, gets proven right and then shoots his mouth off some more. Wow! Who’s got it better than that guy? Noooobody!  

7. DINWIDDIE SCREWS UP HIS QUARTERBACKS: How on earth could the Argo sideline general in good conscience bench his starting quarterback, McLeod Bethel-Thompson, one week after scoring a dramatic monumental win at McMahon Stadium? Unbelievable that Dinwiddie would use two quarters of sub-par offence against what will likely be the CFL’s best defence this year, early in a season that had no preseason and offences everywhere are struggling to keep up. Nick Abuckle, to me, looked no better en route to that Toronto loss in Winnipeg. Two games into his head coaching career, Ryan Dinwiddie has already created a quarterback controversy. Worst decision he’s made since throwing toward James Johnson so many times in Grey Cup 2007. Oops, did I say that out loud?  

8. STEINAUER MIGHT SCREW UP HIS QUARTERBACKS: Keeps balking at naming Jeremiah Masoli HIS GUY. What does the Ticats head coach expect to gain by this? Did he miss the dreadful performance by Dane Evans in the last Grey Cup? If In-Jeremiah-We-Trust was good enough for June Jones, why isn’t it good enough for Orlonda Steinauer? Will be interesting to see how the defensive guru continues to handle this quarterback situation in Hamilton. 

9. KHARI CARES: Good communicator. Was a great buffer between quarterback Darian Durant and offensive coordinator George Cortez on the 2013 Grey Cup champion Roughriders and now he’s a great buffer between the Alouettes and the media. Defended Almondo Sewell’s right to trash-talk and has created an environment for his own resident Rockstar QB, Vernon Adams, that no-one in Montreal thought was even possible. Alouettes have to be the biggest threat coming out of the east this season.  

10. DID YOU KNOW: Jason Maas was once Ronnie Lancaster’s quarterback? He (Maas) must walk around the new stadium, look at Ronnie’s statue and think ‘I was THAT GUY’S QUARTERBACK, once upon a time?! Wow!’ 

 (Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)