Today is the day the Calgary Stampeders get to make the choice about their season. They can start to compete in the West or they can decide that their only real goal is to win Labour Day.
Which Burris will step up? Back-foot or 400 yards? Will any of the bobsled team step up and lead? The biggest question:
Calgary’s discipline has improved in 2008 but it’s still not at a satisfactory level. The Stamps have been flagged 61 times for 481 yards, which projects to 183 penalties (sixth in CFL) for 1,443 yards (seventh).
Stampeders Game Notes (PDF)
Now, the question on the Side of Angels is “who’s at receiver and when are the try-outs?” With a bye week coming up, the Riders have to just make it through the game. We’ll need our players for the home and home against Winnipeg. The win last week guaranteed that the Riders are going to make the play-offs in the West, it’s just a question of in what place.
6 The Saskatchewan Roughriders have started their season 6-0 for the first time since 1934. The team has never started a season 7-0 since their inception in 1910.
Riders Game Notes (PDF)
What the Riders must do: Pressure! Pressure! Pressure! I love it when TSN zooms in on Back-foot’s wild-looking deer eyes. Get him moving and your defence will get two picks.
What the Stampeders have to do: Stop Cates. Period, end of story. If they don’t they will lose.
Riders by a TD. You can not under-estimate the home-town fans, especially when the home team are the Riders and Mosaic Stadium is sold out.
Cheers,
lance
oh yeah. here we go.
thanks for the reminder, I was thinking there was a reason I needed to donate blood this week.
for a view of what a truly historic winning season is like…
http://stampeders.com/search/?searchTxt=1948
(nice analysis Lance)
Lot more nervous about this game than I was last week. I would be astounded, but not surprised if the Stamps manage to pull it off.
Go Riders.
So much for unbiased journalism. I like it.
Riders by 17
a 6-0 team vs a 3-3 team. this record after winning 22-21 against the 3-2 team.
way to go riders?
cast-off QB’s on both teams.
yeah, i’m excited. :o)
CFL multiple winners (since 1954): Edmonton (13); Hamilton (8); Winnipeg (7); B.C. Lions, Ottawa, Toronto (5); Calgary, Montreal (4); Saskatchewan (2)
puddin and pie
Just because a team is 5-0 (at the time), it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will pound every team by 40 points.
The fact that they beat Calgary 22-21 should be considered an upset given the injury situation and the fact that Calgary was at home.
I am hoping that the Riders are going to make it 7. It has been great to watch them roll along.
Lance,
We are actually going for 4th place in the WEST, since the EAST sucks. We’ll meet you in another WEST vs WEST (see last year, Winnipeg is Eastern Canada?) Grey Cup.
As for the penalties, lets give a 25 yard penalty for NOTHING.
As for Burris (backfoot as you call him) maybe the receiveras can actually catch a pass that hits them in the hands. I know y’all want to dump on him but Saturday was not his fault by any stretch.
One final comment, it being a weeknight, maybe your watermelon heads won’t be quite so gunned as they were in Saturday. Took friends from England to the game and there were too many people (Mostly Rider Fans, not all) splilling beer (It wasn’t Pilsner)all over them.
GO STAMPS, BTW we can all agree Eskimos suck.
This should be a close game again,unless the refs decide to kick out a Stamp or two right off the bat again. Last week the officials contributed as much to the green shaft as Cates.
Also,I work with a couple of good ol’saskatonians,and neither would take a bet on the game.
WallyJ said, “Last week the officials contributed as much to the green shaft as Cates.”
Yeah, Wally, cause losing 1 player at the beginning of the game obviously spells disaster for the whole game.
The Stamps were beaten by a better _team_, the Riders may not have better players, but they have a better team.
We’ll see just how much of the Austin/Miller philosophy that, “if you make the team we expect you to play as if you were starters”, the players have bought in to. Our offence quite a bit worse off than last week.
Man, I’ve heard of spotting points in the beer and rec leagues, but never handicapping players to help the worse team in the pro’s.
Must be a new rule this year.
If the Stamps don’t come out and dominate this game they deserve to be in last place and no amount of “5 plays from first place” is going to make that medicine taste any better.
Cheers,
lance
Come on Lance!
Let’s have your starting middle linebacker sit the game out and see if it makes no difference to your defence!!!
If Calgary decides to actually play for the full 60 minutes, the Riders will lose.
I’d love to see the ‘Riders go 7-0 but I can’t bring myself to wish ’em to go out there and break a leg. They’ve got too many of those already.
Who are the Rider receivers going to be?
Is Dominuque out for a while?
Does anyone know the best blog for rider info?
“Last week the officials contributed as much to the green shaft as Cates.”
That’s crap. The refs only got 14 yards rushing and NO yards passing. Cates had way better numbers.
Eric
Having your starting middle linebacker sit out the game makes that much of a difference??
How about the starting wide receiver (Dominguez), the two starting slotbacks(Fantuz and Flick), the starting left tackle(January),the starting defensive halfback(Johnson), the starting defensive end(Chick),the backup fullback(Hughes), and the number one kick returner(Dressler).
You think the Stumps could hold up to that?
Cry me a river.
Let’s have your starting middle linebacker sit the game out and see if it makes no difference to your defence!!! Posted by: Eric at August 7, 2008 4:39 PM
Eric, actually we lost the best D lineman and best linebacker in Perry and Hunt. We lost the MOP in Joseph. We lost Fantuz, Flick, Chick, Johnson…
We’ve won with second and third string QBs.
Hasn’t made a difference.
If one player makes or breaks the success of a team, one would have to conclude it isn’t a team. Its an individual.
That ain’t what Rider Pride is about. But then, one would have to have green blood to understand that.
matt, the best rider “blog” is the free fanboard, riderfans.com.
Stamps fans can get their fix at gostampsgo.com
Cheers,
lance
matt
Receivers will be Dressler, Grant, Bowman, Palmer, and Bagg.
Grant may have to leave at the last minute as his wife is about to give birth and she’s in Hamilton.
Dominguez is done for the season and probably forever….torn ACL for the third time in four years.
Apparently, the Riders deserve to have an asterisk beside their win last week because “Under” Armour go shafted.
I realize that Calgarians have made a living off of feeling superior to Saskatchewanians, but you folks just gotta come back down to reality.
Not everything in Calgary is better . . . your football team, for instance, is behind Edmonton in the standings.
Cheers,
lance
Saturday’s game was Calgary’s loss, NOT a Saskabush win!
They were lackluster after the bad call, they dropped passes, and they hand off the damn ball on 3rd and short! Idiotic! If Calgary plays up to their potential it will be a watermelon massacre.
Oy ve. Again with the “we beat ourselves” schtick.
The Calgary Stampeders: best unbeaten 3-3 team in the country.
I realize that Calgarians have made a living off of feeling superior to Saskatchewanians
Actually, most Calgarians are Saskatchawians… We feel superior because we were smart enough to get the hell out of the socialist abyss directly to the East!
GO STAMPS!!!
It’ll be fun to watch Cates run through Armour and have another 100+ yd game. I’ll be able to hear the post game whining all the way in South Calgary.
Rider Pride in Cowtown!
“Lot more nervous about this game than I was last week. I would be astounded, but not surprised if the Stamps manage to pull it off.”
Lots to be nervous about here
If the Riders win this weekend, they won’t have a meaningful game for the rest of the season. I’d be more concerned about complacency when the playoffs come along.
clair voyant:
Let’s hope both teams play for 60 minutes.
Wouldn’t want to be the Rider’s kicker.
Indiana,
After tonight, there are eleven games left in the regular season. I don’t think complacency will set in when we’re not even half way through the season.
Richard,
You should be able to at least spell Saskatchewanians before you slag our “socialist abyss”.
Richard,
The highest per capita millionaires in the world are in Moscow. They were the ones smart enough to stay in Russia until Communism was dead and they reaped all the rewards.
With all due respect, with our new found capitalist government and wealth of oil riches, the early movers to Calgary may have, to euphemise, blown their wad too early…
“After tonight, there are eleven games left in the regular season. I don’t think complacency will set in when we’re not even half way through the season.”
Coop
You misunderstood me, I’m saying there is nothing to worry about tonight and if they win this weekend they are all but guarenteed a playoff spot; therefore, the Riders won’t have any meaningful games for the rest of the season. Rider fans only need to start worrying towards the end of the year if they have nothing to play for. That is when complacancy sets in.
Mr. “Happy Feet” Burris was no treat to watch here in Chicago. They couldn’t drop him to third string fast enough. Phenomenal athlete here, but he was an obviously lazy student of the game. Even with yeoman running backs to cover his errant arm under pressure.
Do NOT get me started. I am still a Chicago Bears season ticket holder.
But, good luck to him. Run fast.
Mr. “Happy Feet” Burris was no treat to watch here in Chicago. They couldn’t drop him to third string fast enough. Phenomenal athlete here, but he was an obviously lazy student of the game. Even with yeoman running backs to cover his errant arm under pressure.
Do NOT get me started. I am still a Chicago Bears season ticket holder.
But, good luck to him. Hope he can run fast, still.
Oops, so much for the editing ability.
Let me get this straight, taking out probably your top defensive player at middle linebacker and moving a defensive lineman back to take his place and then shuffling the dline at the start of the game shouldn’t impact the outcome. Using your logic you should be able to take Cates out of the lineup after 2 plays, replace him with one of your offensive lineman and juggle your offensive line and it won’t make any differenct to the outcome of the game. I don’t think so! Having said that good teams find a way to win, Riders do, Stamps haven’t congrats riders.
Ben, yes it’ll effect the game, it won’t +decide+ the game.
The Riders did the deciding.
We’ll leave it up to MR. Cates: Care of Rod Pedersen’s Blog
Cates: “If one man makes their defense then I feel sorry for them. They’d better put him in some bubble wrap or somethin’ and make sure he stays healthy. But um, I don’t really know what it is. I think it’s the O-line and our receivers comin’ off the ball blocking. If you look at the film, it’s obvious. It wasn’t nothin’ spectacular about it. It’s not like they were running out of my way or something like that. They were playing football, we were playing football and we won the battle. Sorry we couldn’t lay down and give them their 60-yard average but we got games to win.”
Mind you, this was in response to Armour’s comments:
“The (Riders’) rushing game is dead,” Armour said after yesterday’s practice. You can definitely write that up. “All those yards he got last game? He’s not getting those this game.”
Heh. Smack-talk. I love it.
Who cares?
Stamps by 20! Get your excuses ready.
I’m not a football fan or an expert on sports. HOWEVAH!! Tonite’s game was not a horseshoe game. A one point advantage is a win!! No matter what way you look at it!! Good shootin’ fellas!!
30-4 for the good guys in the third.
GO STAMPS!!
Your right 5 points in 4 quaters clerarly shows who has the better team
Go Stamps!!!!
well that was more like it!
Well, the perfect season may have come to an end but, as a Stamps fan, I can still say this – the Riders are the most exciting team to watch this season.
Richard,
You should be able to at least spell Saskatchewanians before you slag our “socialist abyss”.
Yeah, you can slag my spelling all you want but our Stamps just beat your greenbitchasses 30 – 25. I might care tomorrow but, right now, not so much…
:op
Well, the Stamps earned their win tonight. Good on them. I had hope in the fourth, but like all the teams that lost to us previously, if you don’t play 60 minutes, you lose.
Bad on the Rider Offence. Absolute crap. Special Teams getting the first TD . . . in the fourth quarter? What the hell about that, eh?
The bye week is long awaited and let’s hope that our offense gets back in gear. They need to.
See you next time Stumps.
Riders dominate in 7th win of Season.
http://www.theonion.com
Hey Lance:
Mind you, this was in response to Armour’s comments:
“The (Riders’) rushing game is dead,” Armour said after yesterday’s practice. You can definitely write that up. “All those yards he got last game? He’s not getting those this game.”
What did Wes have? 5 yards before JoJuan left the game?
Yup, write it up.
Poor game untill the fourth. But another broken leg. WTF??? Get healthy guys esp. Ronny! (23)
GO STAMPS GO!!!
Five broken legs so far this season,wow. If I wasn’t a Calgarian and a bit of a homer(not Simpson) I would be pulling for the Riders. An entertaining game,my favourite tsn moment,the comment that Joffrey Reynolds was comparable to Michael Jordan.Give me a break,but not a leg.
this is the moment.
that the green sea stopped rising.
this is the moment ….
Marcus Barrackandle.