Good news! I can just retype what I stated in the previous post:  The Seven Horsemen of the Apocalypse over at the cfl.ca bestowed the kiss of death on the Saskatchewan Roughriders by unanimously predicting a victory over the visiting Ottawa Redblacks.  And, like clockwork, the Roughriders wasted a spectacular performance by Duron Carter by losing to the Ottawa Redblacks.  Ta- Daaa!

When I anticipated, in my last post, a Roughrider loss (of course they would lose, of course), I also repeated my only three rules for predicting CFL game results, two of which are particularly apropos on this Friday Night of football:

• You will never go broke betting against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, except 2013.
• The Calgary Stampeders will beat whoever they are playing but they will usually find a way to lose the Grey Cup if they are having a really good year.

In my previous post this week, I also wrote:  “Well shit.  It looks like those damned Redblacks are a pretty good team with Trevor Harris around.”  Well. Double shit.

In my previous post this week, I also wrote:  “The only concern I have here is that I want the Saskatchewan Roughriders to cross over to the East Division playoffs, but if the Ottawa Redblacks start playing like a real professional football team, that takes all the fun out of playing them in the playoffs.”  I guess the Ottawa Redblacks are a real professional football team.  Triple shit.

At this time, I believe it behooves me to point out that Mr. Cullen over at tsn.ca ranked the Redblacks fifth in the CFL in his power rankings, much higher than our friends over at cfl.ca.  While I did not mock Mr. Cullen, I did not exactly endorse him, either.  I now see the error of my ways.

Anyway, notwithstanding this kick-to-the-nuts loss, I prefer to focus on the positives.

First, this loss enhances the Roughriders chances of getting a crossover.  I appreciate the irony of hoping for a crossover after losing, at home, to the Ottawa Redblacks, but I still think the Roughriders’ road to the Grey Cup runs through Ontario.  So I guess I don’t really appreciate the irony. Not one bit. In fact, irony can go fuck itself.

Second, this loss drives home the point that while the Roughriders are a very good team, they are not good enough that they can ever relax and coast to a win.  This game was almost exactly one minute too long for the Roughriders.  Furthermore, the Roughriders can never think that they will win games against good teams on field goals.  Finish drives or else.  So, this was a humbling experience, and they needed that. Good teams win close games; bad teams lose close games.  Just ask the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Or better yet, the Calgary Stampeders.

Finally, may I suggest that this week in practice, the Roughrider receiving corps spend less time practicing those force push first down celebrations (or whatever they are called) and more time practicing how to score touchdowns?  Again, just a suggestion.