The Rider Happy Hour is back! This week Peter Klein looks at how the Riders got their first win in 7 games including the big game from Ryquell Armstead. Then, after a look at the injury report, Peter goes over the keys to the Riders game against the Ottawa REDBLACKS this week and he explains why it is such an important game.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Welcome everyone, to the Ryder Happy Hour, my name is Peter Klein, thank you very much
00:14for tuning in today.
00:16We are going to be looking back at the Ryder's win, because we can get those, over the Ottawa
00:22Redblacks last week, a quick look at the injury report, and then on to this weekend against
00:26the Ottawa Redblacks.
00:27When I said Redblacks, who they beat, it was actually the Calgary Stampeders.
00:31Either way, a team that wears red and black, so you know, it checks out.
00:35Either way, it's going to be a fun show, so thank you all so much for tuning in today
00:40here on the Couch Potato Diary Sports Network.
00:42Alright, so last week, Raquel Armstead was the star of the show in his Ryder debut.
00:49I wrote this in three down, but it's a nice joke to make twice.
00:55Paraphrasing long-time WWE announcer, the late Gorilla Monsoon, it was the unstoppable
01:00force against the very movable object, as Armstead carved up the Calgary run defense
01:06for 207 yards.
01:09It was an unbelievable performance, and I kind of made the oops last week, saying that
01:15it was going to be Hickson in the lineup, that was not the case, obviously.
01:18Armstead comes in, and he looks electric.
01:22And the biggest difference that he was able to make was on first down.
01:26Every time we have done these, and I know it hasn't been as consistent as we want,
01:29but every time he has done, or every time we have done one of these, we have talked
01:33about what?
01:34The Ryders being too, too, too reliant on running on first down.
01:41And they did that again here.
01:44They just actually got results from it, which was honestly a nice change, a nice little
01:50change of pace, that they were able to get that.
01:53Looking a little bit deeper into the numbers, they had 25 carries with Armstead.
02:0217 of those came on first down.
02:05On those 17 carries, he went for 137 yards, averaging 10.5 yards per carry.
02:12And there's one big run in there, but obviously that tips it over the 10.5, but it's not
02:18like one big run bolstered a big average, like he went for 70 yards.
02:22It was a 39 yard run.
02:23There were a lot of very effective ones.
02:25When I do the NFL preview on the flagship show here, Couch Potato Diary, I look at runs
02:33that are successful, or success rate, for offenses.
02:36And in the NFL, that is half of what you get, or half of what you need, is considered a
02:40successful play.
02:41And so, if we take that into here, where a successful run on first down is 5 yards,
02:48he was successful on 14 of the 17 carries.
02:5214 of those were for over 5 yards, giving the riders so many different options that
02:57they could go to on second and short.
03:00He was an absolute game changer for the Saskatchewan Roughriders offense, and no point was that
03:06more obvious than late in the game, when they were running the clock out and draining things
03:11away from the Calgary Stampeders.
03:14And everyone in Western Canada knew the run was coming, and no one on Calgary could stop
03:19it.
03:20And that was a matchup that we had kind of focused on coming into the week, and it was
03:22one that the riders were able to exploit, again, in this game.
03:26So a fantastic performance from Armstead that really made life easy on Trevor Harris.
03:31He needs only 248 yards and a touchdown to get the win, and get this team to 37 points.
03:38And again, he was able to spread the ball around.
03:42Key and Schaefer-Baker has another good game.
03:44Keyshawn Johnson, I like that they went back to him after a couple of slips against Winnipeg,
03:48maybe cost them.
03:49He did get a touchdown in that game also, but he was very effective.
03:54It is difficult to kind of pinpoint which rider receiver is going to get the ball on
03:59any given play, or on any given game.
04:02Emelas looked like he was going to break out after a couple good games against Winnipeg,
04:06he gets to just two targets.
04:07And now, like, Myers is going to be back, Bain is still not as much a part of the offense
04:13as I thought he was going to be, and I still think, and maybe this has changed now, and
04:18we just don't know the full scope of what Myers can do, and what Keyshawn Johnson can
04:22do.
04:23I still think when everyone's healthy and everyone's going right, Bain might be the
04:26most talented receiver this team has, but I do think other teams are noticing that and
04:30taking him away, and Trevor Harris, being the vet that he is, is just taking what is
04:34open and getting those opportunities.
04:37I still can't stand the amount that they throw it short of the sticks on second down,
04:43but I think part of that in this game was Calgary bringing some pressure on Harris,
04:47forcing him into some of those situations, and causing some frustration for me.
04:51But overall, this was, I mean, they put up 37 points.
04:54This was a good offensive effort from the Stampeders.
04:58On the defensive side of things, they did a good job as well.
05:01For sure, don't let them get a 70 yard quarterback sneak off the right side to kind of get things
05:06going.
05:07But then after that, the defense shut down, and Calgary was able to get a couple of scores
05:12late in this game to make it closer than probably it was.
05:16This felt like a game that Saskatchewan was the better team in, through the entirety.
05:20And one of the things we talked about was our concern going in, was that there is no
05:24Milligan, that there are a couple of other injuries on the defensive side of the football,
05:29and they were still able to come out with a really really really strong game.
05:35And this was, this was what they needed.
05:37So again, some of the injuries, so the defense against the run wasn't as strong as it normally
05:44is, from a Saskatchewan standpoint.
05:46But overall, you look at the overall picture, this was a well played football game by the
05:50Riders.
05:51And a seven game winless streak does kind of, I think, lead you to believe that there
05:59have been some times where this team hasn't played all that well.
06:01And I don't, I've said it before, I don't think that's the case.
06:04I actually think Saskatchewan has been playing some pretty good football, it has just been
06:08that winning time thing that has been giving them a bit of an issue.
06:13And they got that, I think, for the most part, kind of figured out, with Armstead being able
06:17to run out the clock there.
06:20And ultimately, like look, they needed a win so bad, given how everything has gone in the
06:25last little bit.
06:26And now you get that.
06:28Armstead, it's a huge addition right away.
06:31I'm going to assume we're not going to average 200 yards a game on the ground with Rock Armstead.
06:36I feel pretty good about that.
06:38But he gives you another high level weapon.
06:42And I think, Hickson, off the injury report, I don't know what Ouellette is going to be
06:48going forward, but it is, like you just, you can never have too much talent.
06:53And I think this gives the Riders a little bit more room for creativity, which over the
06:58last little while has not really been a strong suit of theirs, and I think it just gives
07:02you a little bit more of a dynamic playmaking ability.
07:05Him and Hickson, I think, are going to be an interesting duo, and then when AJ Ouellette
07:08comes back in, interested to see how it all kind of plays out.
07:11But you look at how it sets up for everything now.
07:14The offense gets another toy to play with.
07:16The defense is going to be getting healthier.
07:18They're not forcing the turnovers that they did, but Milligan's going to be back in the
07:21lineup, Lanier's back, they have a couple guys who are injured right now, but there
07:25is still a team, this is still a team that is getting healthier now, at the right time,
07:30and it does kind of feel like you've put Calgary in the rearview mirror.
07:33A lot can change, and we have seen, when you assume anything with this Saskatchewan Rough
07:37Riders team, it tends to not really go that way.
07:40And we all know, if you're watching a Rider show, or listening to a Rider podcast, you've
07:45probably been through it a little bit, with this team.
07:47There is a general understanding that it never quite goes the way we think it's going to
07:51go in Saskatchewan.
07:52And so to just assume that it's done with Calgary is probably whistling past the graveyard
07:57a little bit, but this is a, it gives you a bit of breathing room, and it sends them
08:01like way far back, and creates a whole lot of doubt in this city that I'm in, based out
08:06of Calgary, in the next couple of weeks.
08:08But also, it gives you that breathing room, you are now three points up on Edmonton, and
08:13now Hamilton, for third place in the West.
08:16You still have BC right in your crosshairs, and while I do think the Lions are going to
08:21get out of this little slump that they're in, and I think, honestly, we're on their way
08:25to doing that, and just had a bit of a speed wobble against Toronto a couple of weeks ago,
08:29you are still right there.
08:31If they aren't getting it figured out, if they don't get it figured out, you're still
08:33right there to take advantage of it.
08:35And as we talked about, you have one road game left.
08:38And now, at the beginning of the year, one road game in Edmonton looked like a whole
08:42lot better of an opportunity than it does now, but that is going to be A, a gigantic
08:49But B, after that, aside from that, you are home Ottawa, you are home to BC, and you are
08:56home to Calgary.
08:57So, some tricky games in there, for sure.
09:00But having most of them be at home feels very, very good, from a Saskatchewan Rough Riders
09:04standpoint.
09:06On the injury report, Aju Aju is out, or Ajo Ajo, sorry, is out, the riders do have a lot
09:12of wide receiver depth, and so it gives him a chance to kind of get all the way back,
09:16all the way healthy.
09:17Obviously you would rather him be out there and be playing and be contributing, and even
09:22just during the week be practicing and be a part of this offense and continuing to refine
09:26some of the skills that you can get very excited about around this kid.
09:30You would rather that be happening, but, with all due respect to the kid, with him being
09:36out this week, you're not going, oh no, who is Trevor Harris going to throw the ball to?
09:40That's just, that's not, that's not the conversation that's happening right now.
09:43So this riders team, if you're going to lose one spot, it would be in the receiver room.
09:49Other than that, basically, everyone, the injury report is filled more with people coming
09:54back than it is going out.
09:55Milligan is back after the birth of a child, which is fantastic, Lanier coming back as
10:00well, Rivas, looks like he got sick during the week, he was fine, wasn't even listed
10:06on the injury report on the first practice, and then I believe it was limited the next
10:11two because of an illness.
10:14So we will see if he is ready to go, that would be a bit of a bummer, going up against
10:18Ottawa here this week.
10:19But overall, getting Milligan, getting Lanier back is very, very helpful.
10:24So now, it sets up for a game against the Ottawa Red Blacks on Saturday afternoon at
10:29Mosaic Stadium.
10:30It's going to be the CTV game, the riders have already played a couple of those, also
10:34so has Ottawa.
10:36They're definitely doing an east lean to the CTV games, which is what it is, it's
10:42fine.
10:43They haven't really been clicking so far, TV audience wise, which is a bit of a bummer.
10:46But nonetheless, riders, Red Blacks, we already know what happened the last time these two
10:50teams played, it was a tie.
10:52Poor Rod Smith, on three occasions said the game was over.
10:56TSN put up the lower third, final!
10:58This team won, this team won, and it only was true once.
11:04It was a very weird game.
11:06Since then, Ottawa has been on a rollercoaster.
11:10They won a couple in a row after that, but they do seem to have been falling off as of
11:13late.
11:14While Saskatchewan, we know, it didn't, it wasn't going great to that point, and
11:17then it continued to not be great after that until very recently in Regina.
11:22But obviously, the big star of this one, coming out of the win over the Calgary Stampeders,
11:26is Rock Armstead.
11:27He'll be going up against an Ottawa run defence, that when you just look at the overall
11:31numbers of what Ottawa has been doing against the run, it looks pretty good.
11:36But they are getting beat to shit, injury-wise, right now.
11:41And Darius Pickett is out, and that didn't help them last week against Montreal.
11:46Basically, like, Santos Knox and, um, uh, God, I just said his name.
11:53And Pickett.
11:54Both being out.
11:55Like, they had one point in the game a couple of weeks ago where none of their starting
11:57linebackers were in the lineup.
11:59And they are very close to that again, with the injuries that they have.
12:02And so because of that, they have struggled against the run.
12:05Montreal just doesn't run the football.
12:07I realized that getting ready for my three down piece this week.
12:10But they just kind of don't do that.
12:13So that's not really a good test to see what Ottawa's run defence is.
12:18In the games before that, they've allowed a runner to get to 90 plus yards in three
12:22of their previous four games.
12:25Obviously, the big angle of this one is going to be Armstead is facing his former team,
12:30and so that is going to get all the revenge stuff up.
12:33Coming off of a record-breaking performance.
12:34He wasn't one to talk about that all that much, but that's at least going to be played
12:38up in the next couple of days as we get ready for Saturday.
12:43So that's what happens when the offense has the ball.
12:45I think Armstead is going to be another big part of what Saskatchewan is looking to do.
12:52Because of the injuries that Ottawa has.
12:54I do think this is also, quite frankly, a secondary that can get a little exposed at
13:00times.
13:01I saw some plays against Montreal on the weekend where Rambo, they were like, oh it was a skinny
13:06post and look at that, and he kind of just looked one way and then just drifted a little
13:09bit and that was far too much for the defensive back to wrap their head around.
13:15So I do think that this is an Ottawa defence that continues to get banged up and continues
13:19to have some problems.
13:20And so I think if you can get them a little off balance with Armstead, even with Hickson
13:24coming in and providing, not that he would generally be the, I guess it would be the
13:29thunder in a thunder and lightning backfield, he is certainly more thunderous than Armstead.
13:34They're both a bit more on the quicker, shiftier side.
13:36But Hickson at least feels a little bit more like one cut and go than Armstead where it's
13:42a bit jitterbuggy.
13:43Both of them are excellent.
13:44I hope that I didn't use any descriptors that make it seem like I don't think, because
13:48I like both of them talent-wise actually quite a bit.
13:50But I think that you can have Ottawa be a little off balance with that and then be able
13:55to attack them in the pass game with the wide range of receivers that Saskatchewan
14:01has.
14:02I actually think this is going to be a good day for the offense.
14:04Defensively, the Riders, as I mentioned before, they're not creating the turnovers that
14:09we have seen in the past.
14:10They've only created two in the last three weeks.
14:13But I do think defensively they are playing some pretty good football.
14:16I expressed a little bit of frustration before on some of the underneath stuff.
14:21That was kind of all they gave up against Calgary and that certainly helped and they
14:26were able to limit things.
14:27For Ottawa though, this offense has not been moving very well.
14:31They have 21 points or less in three of their last four.
14:35Two of their last four they've scored 12.
14:38They've also turned the ball over nine times in the last two games.
14:42And that's why I bring up the part about the Rider defense only creating a couple of turnovers.
14:46This isn't what it was at the beginning of the year.
14:48But A, Milligan is back.
14:50And B, this is a team that is really struggling to hold onto the football right now.
14:56Now Jeremiah Massoli is checking in at quarterback this week.
14:59Brown continues to be a little bit banged up and so the Riders really have only had
15:03to face Drew Brown for a couple of quarters this year, although it is unfortunate that
15:07it's been based off of injuries, that this has been happening.
15:10Massoli has really found a bit of a reclamation in his couple of outings.
15:15The fill-in game against the Stampeders and some kind of mop-up duty against the Montreal
15:22Alouettes.
15:23But now having Corey Mace being able to, A, have about six quarters of film on him, not
15:28that that's a ton, but it's enough.
15:30And just, I think we do need to remember, while I have always been a fan of Jeremiah
15:35Massoli's talent, he has been the all-star on the I Can't Quit You team, I do think we
15:40have to remember that in two of his three full seasons with the Hamilton Tigercats,
15:44he had double-digit interceptions.
15:46So to come out and say, oh, well, the Ottawa Radblocks have struggled to hold onto the
15:53football, but here comes Jeremiah Massoli, would just be a little disingenuous.
15:59And so I think that there's just a little bit of misremembering going on with all of
16:03that.
16:04And so again, I feel like, I just feel like Saskatchewan's catching Ottawa at a good
16:07time.
16:08And then you look at how Ottawa has struggled on the road this year, they have two wins,
16:11both of them came in the province of Alberta.
16:14One was a victory over the Calgary Stampeders, who again, are last, and their other one was
16:19against Edmonton, who was last at the time.
16:22So it's not like these big dominant road wins.
16:25They won those games by a combined five points, and their average margin for defeat on the
16:29road so far this year is 16 points.
16:32So not great for Ottawa on the road.
16:35All of it kind of stacks up, looking in Saskatchewan's favor.
16:38The one thing I will say is, you cannot look ahead.
16:43It is a monster matchup next week against the Edmonton Elks.
16:47And this is the last game against an East opponent this year for Saskatchewan.
16:52So there is a real concern about looking ahead to the final three weeks of the regular season.
16:59You are not locked in a standings battle with Ottawa.
17:03No one can catch you this week.
17:05And so there is a little bit of human nature, where it might be a little bit easy to, oh,
17:09just beat Calgary, we got some big games coming up, but we got some breathing room, this isn't
17:15a direct whatever, it's just a game, let's just, we can take a breath.
17:20And you absolutely cannot.
17:21No more breathing until November for this team.
17:25This cannot be a look ahead spot.
17:26Saskatchewan has to be focused on this game.
17:29They have had a couple of those little blunders, and it led to a seven game winless streak.
17:33So this cannot be the time where Saskatchewan looks past an opponent.
17:38This is a great opportunity.
17:40Edmonton is facing a very difficult test in Winnipeg to kick off the week.
17:46So you will have an understanding going into this game of, and I think that kind of helps
17:51a little bit, of are you going to be having an opportunity to kind of maintain a three
17:57point lead in the standings, or are you going to be able to do what you just did to Calgary
18:03and kind of put them out of mind, and just be able to focus ahead on the BC Lions.
18:09If they, if Winnipeg can beat Edmonton again, which now Edmonton's heading into Winnipeg,
18:16and it doesn't get easier playing in Winnipeg as the year goes on.
18:20So I do think that you have to look at this, oh likely spam calling me, lovely.
18:24I do think you have to now look at this as a real opportunity, and while maybe the team
18:28in front of you isn't the one you are battling with, there is a chance that if Edmonton
18:32loses, you can just put them away.
18:35And if they don't, then you're only one point clear of them, and it can maybe lead to you
18:39focusing a little bit more on the Edmonton game as you're going into Saturday, but it
18:43also kind of puts a little bit of that pressure on to keep that distance and make that game
18:47in Edmonton mean just a little bit less as you get ready for next week.
18:52But it's going to be, it's going to be a fun one.
18:54I gave my full pick on, against the spread and all of that on three downs, so I'm not
18:59going to do that here.
19:00I'm just going to say that I think the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, and you probably figured this
19:03out, I think the Riders do pick up a win in this game.
19:06So, that is going to do it for the Rider Happy Hour today.
19:09Thank you guys so much for tuning in, whether you are watching this on YouTube or listening
19:15on the Couch Potato Diary podcast feed, all of these are going to live right in this spot.
19:19If you are just looking for Rider content, you can find that on, for those watching on
19:24YouTube, you can find that, it's a playlist, just kind of down below there, so you can
19:29go check out all the Rider stuff.
19:31In terms of what's coming out tomorrow, here on Couch Potato Diary, it's Fights and Football
19:35Friday.
19:36And so, it is going to be full NFL preview, full CFL preview like this, and then we're
19:40going to be looking at some boxing storylines, and some fights to make, coming out of a monster
19:44weekend last weekend in the world of boxing, and it was a big week in the world of professional
19:48wrestling, so we're going to run down some of the more interesting things happening in
19:52that world right now.
19:53And then, hoping to debut a new show over on Kik as well, kik.com slash primetimepk.
20:00And of course, the podcast is now streaming live, not these team-specific ones, but the
20:04podcast is streaming live now on twitch.tv slash primetimepk.
20:08This outro has already been way too long, thank you guys so much for tuning in, and
20:11I will talk to you all next week.
20:13Have a great rest of your day, everybody.