Sunday Morning 'Rider Blogging

Let's start a quick post on yesterday's game with a bit of relative optimism that figures to be lacking among 'Rider fans. Yes, the drubbing at the hands of the Tiger-Cats made for the team's first truly poor all-around performance of the 2011 season. But the relative strength of the two teams wasn't anywhere near as bad as the final score made it appear.

As poorly as the 'Riders performed offensively, they did manage to drive the ball into the red zone several times, while also posting a couple of near misses which didn't show up in the game stats. Which means that even after an almost completely ineffective first half, the 'Riders' embarrassingly low point total had as much to do with turnovers and strategic considerations (in trying to come back from a huge deficit) as with any obvious structural problem with the team's offence.

And Saskatchewan's defence actually played better than it had in the team's previous two games. Indeed, it combined at least some level of pressure on Kevin Glenn with relatively sure coverage and tackling to keep the game close in the early going, then hold the Ticats short of the point totals posted by Edmonton and Hamilton in the 'Riders' first two games.

All of which is to say that contrary to some of the frustrated comments following the game, the 'Riders are still a long way from the down times of years long past.

No, the 2011 team isn't a true bottom-feeder which gets dominated in the trenches on both sides of the ball to the point where the efforts of the team's skill players seem irrelevant. Instead, yesterday reflected a game where the breaks went almost entirely the Ti-Cats' way to overwhelm the effects of a mostly evenly-matched contest - and a couple of relatively subtle changes (say, the 'Riders being the ones to convert on their chance for an early interception on their opponents' end of the field, and Darian Durant's out-of-bounds bomb to Weston Dressler connecting) could easily have changed the complexion of the game.

Of course, that doesn't mean the 'Riders don't have plenty to improve after a bad loss against a team which was also at the bottom of the CFL standings. And it's particularly worrisome that the offence which has been the 'Riders' relative saving grace produced next to nothing until the game was out of reach.

But while there's an awful lot to be done to fix mistakes in all phases of the game, the 'Riders have at least showed enough in the first three games of the season to suggest there's still hope of getting there. And it'll be up to the team's coaching staff to keep the focus on what can be done, rather than letting frustration drive the team to the point where it truly isn't competing.