Riders kick off the season in style!

Toronto kicked off their season going to Montreal where Chad Kelly had broken his leg in the 2024 Eastern Final. The Argos are an interesting team of whom not much is expected, but they have the potential to surprise especially if teams are looking past the Argos to their next opponents.

The Argo offense was OK, but the Argos lost this game due to special teams’ mistakes. The Argos have some pieces in place, but they need to learn to play together under a new system. Montreal is ready to book their flights to Calgary for the Grey Cup but may have to tap the brakes because Davis Alexander may be susceptible to injury the way he likes to push plays.

The Riders unveiled their 2025 Grey Cup banner, uh, nameplate, at home in front of the BC Lions with both teams playing their first games of the season.

The Riders scored two touchdowns and one field goal to jump out to a 17-0 lead, then the Lions came back to take the lead in the fourth quarter, seemingly following the script of the 2025 Western Final. Then Trevor Harris, throwing for over 400 yards, hit Samuel Emilus for his third touchdown of the game and a 31-27 win.

A few notes of concern, starting with the shoulder injury to Rolan Milligan resulting in changes in the defensive backfield. Milligan will be out against Calgary but hopefully the Riders have better backups, and the Riders still have Tevaughn Campbell and Marcus Sayles in the backfield.

The Riders’ running game was not up to the same level as the passing game, but looking at stats does not tell the whole story. AJ Ouellette is apparently coming off ankle surgery so the zip may not have been there, but his blocking helped Harris get over 400 yards passing.

The other thing to note is the Rider game plan was to take advantage of the Lions weakness, their secondary. The Lions were starting a rookie corner back and Emilus should send some Pils over to the Lions as a thank you. Marc Mueller, the Riders offensive coordinator, is taking a page out his grandfather Ron Lancaster’s offensive playbook where Lancaster said you keep doing the same thing until they stop it.

The Milligan injury had Nelson Lokombo move to defensive halfback and Jaxson Ford to safety and the changes showed how much continuity matters in successful offensive and defensive units. The Riders will be bringing some reinforcements off the practice roster, but also signed Canadian long snapper Mike Benson who has played for several teams with their regular snapper Aaron Crawford out with an injury, the Riders need to watch their ratio.

The Riders showed how important continuity is, especially on offense. The Riders also have an attitude which seems to say last season is over, we are looking at going 1-0 each week this season.

I have not seen this attitude on the Riders for a lot of years where they don’t hit the panic button when they fall behind. I thought after watching two weeks of practices this year’s edition of the Riders looked better than last year’s team and continuity and confidence is the reason why. Let’s see how it works this week.

BC goes to Hamilton for the Friday night game in an interesting match for both teams. TSN will likely bill this game as a potential Grey Cup matchup, which is possible, but both teams have defensive secondaries which are questionable.

Barring any unforeseen weather catastrophe, both teams should demonstrate their shoot-out capabilities and the winner should be the team that best exploits the weaknesses in the opposing defenses. Hamilton is looking to solidify their status as a Grey Cup contender by first knocking off the Bombers at their tin shack, then, beating the 2026 presumed most outstanding player Nathan Rourke.

BC flew to Regina for their first game, went home and went out to Hamilton. That is a lot of travelling and on a short week for the Lions, I like Hamilton to win this game 31-28 in a shoot-out.

There is a triple-header on Saturday with Toronto going to Ottawa kicking things off. This will mark Ottawa Head Coach and GM Ryan Dinwiddie first game against his old team.

Dinwiddie lost the locker room in Toronto last year by talking about making changes, but not following through. Now he can bring players in he likes, not former player personnel guy John Murphy in Toronto and his favorites.

Ottawa lost to Edmonton in a torrential rainstorm showcasing former Rider back up Jake Maier, who summoned up the ghosts of his Calgary Stampeder career. Ottawa has upgraded its talent but not its depth while Toronto may have brought back some of the old band, but unfortunately, they are older and not quite the same they were when they beat the Bombers in the Grey Cup.

Both teams will be looking to scramble out of the basement and somewhat into playoff contention. Both teams are relative question marks in terms of where they will finish, so let’s go with another shootout and an Ottawa 30-29 win.

Montreal goes to Edmonton in another interesting game where Montreal is 2-0 and Edmonton is 1-0 after winning their first season opener in uh, years. Elk quarterback Cody Fajardo faces his old team and back up in Davis Alexander who other than losing to the Riders in the Grey Cup, is undefeated in the regular season.

Edmonton may look at establishing their running game and take some deep shots at new members of the Montreal secondary. Montreal would like to unveil their running game eventually, but their intermediate passing game is a lot better than people think.

Montreal is a more solid team and I like them in a third close game 28-26.

Finally, Saturday concludes with the Riders going to Calgary. Calgary lost to Winnipeg because they did not have their starting defensive tackles and the Bombers used that to whet the rhetoric on the TSN panel about the Bombers being Grey Cup contenders.

The Riders will not benefit because Calgary’s defensive line is reunited, and the Stampeder defensive tackles made life hellish for the Riders offensive line last year. The Stampeders though will be missing a couple of receivers and the Rider defensive secondary injuries and shuffling will not be a big a factor.

The game will be decided on the line of scrimmage and if the Riders defense can play with the Calgary offense, the Riders will keep it close and the Riders may make an early statement by beating the team they could not beat last year 30-27.

A couple of things to keep in mind is the City of Regina will be looking at $8.2 million in stadium upgrades, like new turf and moving goal posts. The Riders have probably lost money last season, with costs coming from the postponed smoke out game with Calgary, and costs from the Grey Cup.

The Riders will unveil their jersey for the white out game against Toronto on Friday sometime early next week. I would hope for a white retro jersey and apparently the Riders will come out with a jersey to mark the 60th anniversary of their first Grey Cup win in 1966.

The first two weeks have been great in the CFL. It makes one wonder if the current rules and field are doing their job to make this an entertaining game?

by Greg Urbanoski

Riders kick off the season in style!

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