Craig Dickenson summed up Saturday’s victory over the Edmonton Elks as workmanlike.
The offence made enough plays to win. The defence was stout until the fourth quarter. The special teams were excellent.
The Riders continue to struggle to find an effective way to start a game. For the second game in a row they tried a long pass to open the game. Two weeks ago against Montreal, Kyran Moore dropped the pass. On Friday night the pass was intercepted. Based on the number of times he was targeted Friday I expect this coming Saturday they will open with a short pass to Shaq Evans.
Against the Elks, the Rider offence once again began moving the ball in the 2nd quarter and took the lead. This week there was no interception to spark the offence. They just started playing better. I do believe Jason Maas is doing excellent work at adjusting the Rider offence during games.
Cody Fajardo and the offence are doing well in limiting turnovers. The only turnover versus the Elks was the game-opening interception.
Everyone was excited to see Duke Williams win a 50/50 ball for a long completion. He said he needed that catch, having left one on the board when he did not catch a pass in the end zone against Calgary.
His success on contested catches and onside kicks is a reflection of his concentration. He said he only sees the ball. He doesn’t hear anything or know what is going on around him.
As he is a man with ready opinions I asked him on Zoom what makes Fajardo so successful in these close games. Williams said you can’t teach toughness. It is the dog in Fajardo. He said you can see it in his eyes. He finished by saying that Cody is a monster.
Williams described himself as a dog and he is going to be that way all of his life.
On defence the Riders bent in the 1st quarter as they learned about Elks running back Walter Fletcher. He had some early success but the Riders made it harder and harder for him to run.
After the first quarter the Elks struggled to move the ball for two quarters. I believe the Rider defenders would have comfortably finished the game but for an inability to get to Edmonton quarterback Taylor Cornelius on a third and 10 with just under hree minutes to go in the game.
While he did not refer to this play, Dickenson spoke of the defence getting a touch tired late in the game. He said they would be working on their conditioning.
Rider special teams had a strong game especially in pressuring Elks punter, Hugh O’Neill. They went after several punts and partially blocked a punt that set up the field goal that provided the winning points. Dickenson said they had been running returns most of the season and wanted to give the coverage team a chance at blocks. He said they felt they could get home and wanted to be aggressive. He continued they went after some areas they thought they could exploit. I hope they go after punts again. O’Neill looked vulnerable to a block all through the game.
The Riders did break one late game habit. In the previous two weeks after Duke Williams caught onside kicks the Rider offence could not get a first down. On Friday after he caught his third onside kick (surely a league record for consecutive games) the Riders had 1:12 to go in the game.
Dickenson said they were aware Edmonton had no timeout left because of a failed challenge but the Riders did not want to return the ball with even 20 seconds on the clock. He said they wanted to finish the game with the ball in their hands. They were ready to be aggressive. On second and six Dickenson said Maas told him they had a pass play he liked and Dickenson said go ahead. Fajardo said it is one of their best plays. He said he had Shaq one-on-one and Duke going deep if Shaq was covered. Shaq was open and the ball was on time and the pass completed and the Riders had the ball to end the game.
I like teams that go out to win games at the end of the fourth quarter rather than trying to hold on.
