Well here we are 6-1 with the bye week. I'll take that record any year.I could live without the broken legs though. We gotta start putting our guys through a bone density scanner before we sign them.

But the best thing about 6-1 is that this team hasn't played up to it's potential yet. And how could they with the injuries? No time to gel together. But we should be getting some guys back soon and then look out for the Green Machine.

Earlier this year I said Cates was the man and he has really proved it so far. Not a flashy RB but damn he's effective. And he gets stronger as the game goes on, fantastic conditioning.

Our D-line needs to get it together quick though. Chunky is playing decent and Kitwana is OK but damn we need something from the other two. Schultz is half the player he used to be and I blame that on the front office making him drop weight this offseason. Somewhere along the line he dropped most of his game too. He's getting owned by guys he used to smack around and it aint pretty to watch. I'm hoping he spent the bye week at a buffet. We need Chick back soon.

Our LBs are great run stoppers. Nobody can run against these guys and that's great. But they just plain can't cover the short inside stuff. I could get open on these guys and I aint fast. It's painful to watch when we get a team in second and 7 and you know they are throwing inside and you know it will be complete. Got to get that fixed or the 6-1 start will be just a nice memory.

Our DBs are solid for the most part. But damn Morgan you got to play tough. No more backpedalling BEFORE THE SNAP. You just aint got the closing speed anymore to make up for the soft ass cushion. Lose the cushion and rely on the safety to help out if they beat you deep but don't give up 7-15 yarders by being soft. The longer the pass the easier it is for help to arrive but on the short stuff it's just you and a 7 yard cushion makes it too easy.

I aint even gonna look at the O because of injuries. The line, the QBs, the receivers, the back up RBs, they have all went down. And still managed to win 6 games. Thank you Wes Cates.

Special teams has the potential to be great. But right now that potential depends on the blocking. And so far it aint there. Give Dressler a crease and let him run. The kid is excitement waiting to happen but he can't run through walls.

That's it for today folks. And anybody that wants to party this weekend it's my 40th. We are starting in my backyard Saturday around 5 and then hitting The Drink later on.

Well that was not pretty but it is a win. A costly win though. Losing Flick aint good no matter how you look at it. And Leron Mitchell never got a chance to show what he could do. Losing Crandell for 3 weeks could hurt more than both of the other guys. Jyles showed he aint got what it takes to run this O. And Durant is still a question mark. But we can get some answers about him next week against Hamilton. Thank the football gods for this schedule!! The perfect game for a raw QB to start. Hamilton has some talent but a major dropoff from facing B.C.'s front 4 so Durant should look much better next week.

As for our D. They played back on their heels for the first half again. What is up with that? But after halftime they came out and played aggressive, again. Our D-line was only half alive this game. Chick and Chunky were very good. Kitwana looked OK but never made an impact like the other 2, and Schultz was owned. We need these big guys to step up and kick some ass or it's gonna be a long season. LBs got killed by the crossing stuff again early but picked it up better late in the game. DBs with one exception played great all game. The exception was Burnt Morgan. Way too much backpedalling right off the snap and he just aint got the speed anymore to make up for that. Eddie played like he plays, 10 years younger than his birth certificate. Frazier was the stud this week with 2 picks and Johnson was solid. I likes that Johnson kid. And as for the safety I didn't notice him much at all and that's the way it should be. Our D is the best in the league and they have to be even better for the next couple of games while the O gets a chance to gel again.

Wes Cates deserves his own paragraph this week. He won this game. Once they tried to stretch his runs outside the D had to respect it and not stack the box against him. And that opened up running between the tackles which is what he does best. Power and elusiveness is his game and it was on display in the second half. And good hands out of the backfield. He stepped up when the rest of the O looked worn down and turned eveything around. Thanks you Wes.


And hey I can't end this without a shout out to Luca Congi. 4 for 4 on the night is great. Gotta love the kid.

Thanks for reading and if you want to comment go ahead.

Ok it's time for another pointless ramble about Riders football.

One game in and they picked up nicely from where they left off last year. The O looked good for the first game. A few mistakes but it was against Edmonton so they didn't hurt us. After another week of practice with Matt D. back in the lineup the O will be scary good this week. My prediction is another 30+ point performance. And another 250+ yard passing day for Marcus. This O will easily surpass last year's version.

The D looks OK so far. The line will eat whichever poor sap B.C. lines up at QB and spit out the bones. And that is the key, pressure from the big guys up front. Because our LBs need another game to get the coverage on the quick inside stuff together. They played better in the second half against Edmonton but the first half was bad. And our DBs weren't much better in that first half, back on their heels waiting for the receiver to come to them. I don't know what Miller and Hall said at halftime but it worked. The second half of that game was in your face aggressive D. And it worked well. There was one huge bright spot in the secondary though. Mr. James Johnson was incredible. Yes I really said that. I was not a big Johnson fan early in his Rider career but he has made me a believer. The Grey Cup was no fluke. The man is the real deal and I'm glad I was wrong.

So this week we play the Lions. And it will be another Rider victory. The Lions are a team on the downside of the curve and really should not be a challenge. So the Riders open 3-0 because Hamilton is the free space on the bingo card next week.

Anyway thanks for reading.

It almost that time again. Rider football starts soon. And the defense of the Grey Cup should be fun.

I had a chance to talk to Ken Miller(new head caoch) and I'm impressed. He is a little older than I would like for a rookie head coach but he can't control his age. What he can control is his attitude and I like it. A very smart, competitive man so I think we are in good hands.

And we start training camp with Marcus Crandell as the number 1 QB. I know a lot of people are nervous about that but I'm not. Marcus has the tools to do very well in our system. That's what he was missing previously, a good system to work in. When he was with Calgary it was a circus and it showed with what they tried to make him do. Right now we have a lot of talent around him and coaches who know his strengths and weaknesses. They will do what they have to in order to let him succeed.

One last thing for a Sunday morning. If you haven't bought it yet Terry Mcevoy has updated his fantastic book Rider Pride on the American Side. He came out with the Grey Cup Edition which is available online at www.northernroadpress.com Check it out.

Anyway thanks for reading and I'll try and update this thing more often now that football season is coming up.

Wow I haven't updated this thing since August. But of course nothing much has happened since then, right? OK the Riders won the Grey Cup and Austin left the team but those things happen every 20 years or so.

The previous paragraph was not to be taken seriously. Grey Cup was amazing. And I have zero hard feelings with Austin leaving. Football is a business. Miller should be able to do the job depending on the talent available to him. And speaking of talent free-agency starts tonight. My man Reggie is a free agent if he doesn't sign in the next 14 hours or so. I have a bad feeling about it though. If we don't sign him I'm pretty sure that our D will suffer this year. There was a reason that he was playing hurt all season. And that reason is that Reggie Hunt at 75% is still better than the guys behind him at 100%. The coaches know that but some of the fans just don't get it. How do I know it? See previous comment about the coaches. Yep coaches are a pretty good source. Sign Reggie.

As for the other Rider news. Kerry Joseph had a tryout with the Saints. Yeah it took longer to type that than it did for the Saints to say "Sorry Kerry" and send him on his way. He went public about his being unsatisfied with his current contract that he renegotiated last season, two demerit points for using the media in contract negotiations. He signed it off his own free will so he should play it out. Have another big season and then ask for big bucks.

And the newest Rider related news is that a group of Saskatoon business people are planning on building a 32,000 seats stadium. Yeah they should lay offf the meth. Now way the Riders move and now way Saskatoon gets an expansion team. But if this gets more tickets sold in Toon town then it's all good.

Time to get ready for work. Thanks for reading and as usual if you have something to say go ahead. But try to keep it clean.

Well I don't have much to say but I'm bored and may as well update this thing a little bit.

My daughter is doing great after last months scare. Typical toddler getting into everything and smiling as she does it.

My son is starting to get bored with summer holidays. He just loves school. And I'm looking forward to him starting this year because his new principal used to be my grade 5 and 6 teacher. I was in his first class that he ever taught. Mr.Strachan is probably my favourite teacher I ever had. The first teacher to ever keep me after school and make me catch up on my work. It helped a lot later on.

The Riders are tied for first place in the CFL right now. September 22 is looking like it will be a HUGE game, get your tickets now. And this Saturday is going to be fun. A Saturday NIGHT GAME at TF against the freaking useless, hated, ugly, smelly, I hate them with a passion, Edmonton Eskimoes. They are beatup and will probably be without Gass so it's the perfect time to hurt them some more and take the two points.

Anyway thanks for reading, I should get some sleep because when I wakeup I'll be another year older.

Yeah my daughter is home. She got released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. And being a typical kid you would never know that 3 days ago she was running a high fever and not eating or drinking. Today she is running around and bugging her big brother and just having fun. She got to see her two cousins today and was super hyper. I'm still forcing her to drink just because of the extreme heat, but I'm forcing my son to drink too, and when I make them drink I do too.

This heat is damn awful. I've had heatstroke before and I could feel the effects starting again earlier today. So I got into some air conditioning and had a milkshake, good milkshake.

Nothin really new in Rider news yet this week. They took an extra day off because of the extreme heat. And I totally agree with that. No sense having players go down for something that can be avoided. They can still get in 3 good days of practice and maybe the longer break will bring them back with more of an edge. They need to smack the Esks in the mouth and just make an example of them. Show them that last week was a fluke and it won't happen again.

The biggest Rider related news was Tillman/Hillbilly that Rod Pedersen blogged about. I admire Rod but this time he was totally wrong. He said Hillbilly didn't have the nads to use his real name when in the Riderville post that Tillman went off on he signed it J.J Voss. Yep that's hios real name. Then the next day he blogs that he made a mistake, no apology for the "no nads" comment though. Then he pretty much says that J.J. should be fired from his gameday job running the Maxtron sound just because he got into it with Tillman. What he didn't mention was that Tillman had gone off on a few people over the last month or so for no real resaon. Every time he reads something that "could" be taken as critical he loses it. Not good. He needs to stop posting so late at night because at 3AM he is very prickly and takes things the wrong way and won't back down later when it's pointed out to him that he took it the wrong way. He says that he's not going to post anymore, but then he's said that a few times before. He's like the kid playing baseball and he's gonna take his ball and bat and go home. Then when another kid says he's got a bat and ball he decides to stay. Eric is afraid that he will become irrelevant on Riderville so he'll be back.

Thanks for reading. And hey,flame away if you don't agree. Just keep it sorta clean.