Courtesy CFL Digest:

Well, the Riders did it yet again. When most media people had written off the season for the Riders, sighting to much off-season loss, they came out and buried the Eskimos in week 1. But was it enough? Probably not. Last year it took pretty much until the playoffs for the media outside of Saskatchewan to show the Riders any respect. So why should it change this year? I mean with Marcus Crandell at the reigns he’ll never rush for even 737 in his career……..Hi Dunigan!!!

Well newsflash, the boys are back in town! The Riders looked very good on Saturday night. Sure Crandell tossed two INTS that could have been avoided but guess what, QB’s throw picks every now and then, it’s part of the game. The interceptions didn’t phase Marcus as he continued to played his game, which is what a QB needs to do. Don’t beat yourself up over an interception, come back out and do your thing and win the game your way.

Sure it was just the Edmonton Eskimos, but apparently they made all sorts of strides this off-season. I wonder who decided that the Eskimos made strides but the Riders failed to replace the missing pieces. Alas, all the talk is over as Steven Tyler would say, Talk Is Cheap, Shut Up And Dance. And dance the Riders did.

So I’ve watched the game three times this week and have a few points that I’d like to touch on. First and foremost, easily the best player of the game and quite possible the best player to play this past weekend was Wes Cates. You know what I’ve said in the off-season, but I’m going to say it again, Wes Cates is the best player on this squad. He did it all, rushed, caught balls and blocked. Wes Cates is the real deal. The block he made on the opening D.J. Flick TD was beautiful. The guy does EVERYTHING right. He just goes out there and does his job, no questions asked. He played through massive injury last year in the Grey Cup game. This is the kind of player that any head coach wants on his team.

James Johnson is a player, a baller, and he WILL be an All-Star. What a game he had, a lot of people including myself were wondering if James Johnson was a one hit wonder. Would he be able to have another game like he did in the Grey Cup? Well he did. James had two interceptions in the game and had chances at a couple more. Johnson could very well lead the league in interceptions this year, he’s just got a great eye for the ball and a great step on it. To be fair the entire secondary played great. Kudos to Richie Hall for having the boys ready. The defense in general played very well like I imagined they would and we didn’t not see any drop off at Reggie Hunt’s old spot, in fact we looked improved in that area.

Fred Perry who? I’m not going to lay into Fred too much as I still own a jersey that needs to be worn with his name on the back. That being said, I think it’s safe to say Eric Tillman traded the man at the right time. He wanted big money and quite frankly his play dropped off last year.
John Chick is a beast, he’s going to be dominate this year, in fact I’d nominate him for linemen of the year if Glen January hadn‘t come to town. WOW, domination pretty much sums up what this guy is all about. I look at a import like Rob Murphy who dominates on the line and I think that January has the potential to be just as good. We all talk about how great it would be to have an all Canadian Line but having an import like January on the line is a bigger payoff in my opinion. Mark my words, he will be our linemen of the year nominee and possibly the winner of the leagues prize at the end of the year. The Kerry Joseph trade looks better and better each day especially with the Riders first pick in the 2008 draft Keith Shologan signing a 3 year plus option deal.

And how can I forget the receiving core. Adarius Bowman is a treat. I remember hearing about him a year ago, saying he was the best receiver in the draft……the NFL draft. A few problems arose and the NFL looked the other way when it came to Bowman, and boy have the Riders reaped the benefits so far. He is still adjusting to the Canadian game and had one heck of a night on Saturday. His TD was a thing of beauty, the way he went stride for stride with Jordan Younger and gave him a nice stiff arm as he took it to the house. Let’s not forget about DJ Flick and Andy Fantuz who both had a strong games. The Rider nation is already pretty pumped up for the return of Matt Dominquez who will be suiting up for the first time since September Friday night. The Riders will be lining up, Bowman-Dominguez on the outsides and Flick and Fantuz on the insides. Can someone point out a better receiving core in the CFL?

The final thing I wanted to touch on was one of the biggest things that stuck out for me in the game. Special teams. Over the past couple of years the Riders haven’t had the greatest cover teams on kickoffs or punts but on Saturday we saw one of best performances that our special teams guys put together in probably the last five years. Let’s hope they only build off this game.

With that being said, I’m Brodie Hallett signing off.