To Rider Nation

Stop it!

No seriously. Shut. Up.

There is a lot of ruffled feathers in Rider Nation today. In fact, we as a collective group are downright grumpy.

And perhaps we have a right to be. 7 - 5 is not where we thought we'd be now. Or where we would have liked to be.

However.

I want to be adamantly clear here: Kerry Joseph is not responsible for last night's debacle.

Ok?

Got that Rider Nation?

Stop. It.

Our propensity to pile on the QB after a loss has got to end. The QB can't do his job if his protection decides to call in their game from the dressing room. The QB can connect every pass, move the ball effectively and yet still come up short if the defensive has an off night and allows the opposition to run wild.

KJ may not be the best ball tosser in the league. I don't even think he would argue with that. But he has developed a poise I haven't seen in one of our QBs for a very long time. He doesn't fold under pressure. He doesn't meltdown after a bad drive.

He goes out there and gets the job done.

He's not going to make every pass... or every play. But let's look at what he DID do last night, k?

Out of 36 tosses he made 23 completions. Not bad. For a total of 354 yards in the air and 40 yards rushing. What the freak is wrong with that? On most nights nothing. It's enough to win.

But when your defense stands around twiddling their thumbs looking for someone to make a play, nothing the QB does is going to be good enough.

No one in Saskatchewan would be upset at those stats had the defense not had a huge mental lapse in the dying few minutes of the game.

In fact, if we had won this game those stats would be looking mighty fine, don't you think?

So to all my readers who are Roughrider fans, take note: We are better than this. We are not Edmonton fans. We are not Calgary fans. So let's stop acting like it. Act like Roughrider fans, pete's sake.

You want to complain about something... how about the lack of leadership on defense! You want to complain about something... write the CFL about the chronically pathetical state of officiating in the league right now.

You want to complain about something... cheer for Hamilton! They got enough to complain about to last you all year.

Stop whining like a bunch of little school girls. Cuz, those boys in green and white just lost a heartbreaker on home turf. And I know KJ did everything in his power to prevent that.

KJ deserves better than this after each loss. It's time we as fans stepped up to the plate.