For the second straight year, the Riders are off to a 2-0 start following a dramatic and eventful 28-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
As it always is for the Green and White, it wasn’t easy but wins in June matter just as much as in October. So, the team will take them any way they can get it.
Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ second win of the season.
The Good
If there’s one thing you know about me, it’s that I like a good beer. Another, and more important, thing in this context is I’m always the first to admit when I was wrong.
In this case, two players sure showed me what’s up in Hamilton: returner Mario Alford and running back A.J. Ouellette.
Without both players having the game they did, it’s entirely possible the Riders could have left the Steel City with their first loss of the season. Instead, Alford set up his team’s offence with great field position in the second quarter with a 23-yard run to Hamilton’s 47. A good return doesn’t always have to be a touchdown or even a long rumble. Sometimes, picking up 20 yards can be the difference between giving the offence a chance to score and not. This return from Alford fell into that category.
On the next play, Ouellette had his best run wearing green as he bulldozed his way to a 47-yard touchdown and brought the Riders within one point. (Why only one? We’ll talk about that later.) The run was also a career-high for the Ohio native.
Ouellette finished the game with 96 yards rushing. Even if most of his yards came on one long run, the Riders could have lost the game without it. Quality over quantity applies this time around.
Alford finished the night with a combined 113 return yards.
One game doesn’t necessarily mean anything in terms of how the rest of the season will go for anyone, but these are positive signs for both players nonetheless.
The Bad
I don’t think there’s much of a surprise about what we’re going to talk about here.
Riders’ kicker Brett Lauther had another game to forget. His 100th as a member of the Riders is one he won’t look back on fondly as he missed three of his five field goal attempts and shanked a point-after try as well. Leaving 10 points off the board will hurt any team and ensured the Ticats had a chance to win this game late in the fourth quarter. I’m sure Lauther felt a sense of relief knowing that his no-good, very bad day only made the game close and didn’t lead to a loss.
Here’s the thing: at this point, I’m not worried about it. Lauther has had a number of these kinds of games throughout his career and they always seem to come early in the season. It almost feels like it takes him some time to get into the rhythm of a new season — or perhaps the Nova Scotia native isn’t a fan of the summer heat.
When push comes to shove, Lauther should rebound and basically won’t miss when the chill of early fall starts to blanket the prairies.
Obviously, Lauther would prefer not to have these kinds of games. It seems to be par the course for him, unfortunately.
The Dumb
It’s always fascinated me that sometimes the best plays in football are often also the worst plays.
It feels like broken plays — usually on kick returns — lead to some of the better outcomes. We saw that from the Hamilton Ticats on Saturday evening.
In the fourth quarter, a bad snap bounced by Ticats quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell forcing the veteran to chase it down — a situation you don’t want to find yourself in often.
Mitchell did more than make the most of it, he found star receiver Kenny Lawler downfield and connected with him for a 39-yard reception at the goal line. That set up a one-yard touchdown run on the next play, making it a tie-game with over 13 minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
The play was chaos in its purest form and you know that I’m always here for that
