Riders again believe their own clippings
So reality has set in for Rider fans following a four game winning streak being snapped 30-25 by an Ottawa team that as it did in week two, treated the Rider defense like a whiney kid wanting the balloon that creepy clown was handing out on the corner.
For Rider fans leaving Mosaic Stadium the bitter tears were born from the feeling that maybe, just maybe, they had been fooling themselves and the team that fell short of a Grey Cup appearance last year will again fall short because the Riders offense is not operating at the same level of the defense or offense. You cannot expect a team to have almost half of its scoring coming from special teams and defense and then have an offense that if it can’t score, should at least move the team down the field to give the defense enough time to get its collective breath back.
Rider GM/Coach Chris Jones tended to blame penalties for the offensive short-comings, avoiding the subject of the composition of the offense, which is handcuffed to an extent by Zach Collaros contract. The Riders traded for and then slightly renegotiated Collaros’ contract which is still the highest in team history and somewhere in the 400 K to 450 K neighbourhood.
This is significant because last year Kevin Glenn was probably making at best half that, which allowed the Riders to spend on a supporting cast that included Duron Carter, Trent Richardson, Bakari Grant. The releases of players like Grant and free agent signings like Travis Bond, former Winnipeg offensive guard who was released and then went to start in Edmonton, were salary cap movies to readjust the roster to factor in Collaros’ contract.