Saturday, August 13, 2005
Gades notes
Whoda thunk it? With the Alouettes' win over the Argos last night, the Renegades retain sole possession of first place in the Eastern division 8 games into the season. It was an exciting and occasionally nerve-wracking game on Thurday night. A few notes:
- I've yet to see the interception in the end zone on the Gades second drive. It was into (IIRC) Yo Murphy's hands and as we started to celebrate the 14-0 lead, the Riders fans in the neighbourhood made sure to let us know that it was instead a INT. None of the highlight shows replayed it, but it must have been a great rip out of Murphy's hands.
- has there ever been such a dramatic turnaround in a defence in one year? The D, especially the secondary, has gone from extremely suspect to spectacular. Their ability to whip out the big play on demand is uncanny.
- Jason Armstead made a spectacular drag and lunge for what should have been a first down. Unfortunately, the ref gave a brutal spot and they had to convert on 3rd.
- will the real Matt Kellett please stand up, please stand up.... Slim Shady (chances of putting it through the uprights lately). Take good care of that groin Matt (not like that), we're going to need you to make some kicks at some point.
- the Sask D did a great job stopping Josh Ranek
- the brutal "Sweet Caroline" lounge singer was gone. Possibly as pennance for booing him off the field last game, the music department did its best to take the crowd out of the game by playing hurtin' songs from the 1950s through the first half. With the sole exception of the eternally cool Man in Black, the tune selection left most fans scratching their head.
- A very cool story from the maintainer of the super-useful Ottawa Renegades Fan Page. I'm going to include it here since the front page content changes pretty freqently and as far as I can tell it's not archived. You should go visit anyway. Anything you need to know about the Gades (roster moves, neg lists, awards, stats, etc.) is all there. His encounter is a great example of why the CFL is so fan friendly:
Next up yet another radio-only game on Friday, in the Peg, against the Blue Bombers.
- I've yet to see the interception in the end zone on the Gades second drive. It was into (IIRC) Yo Murphy's hands and as we started to celebrate the 14-0 lead, the Riders fans in the neighbourhood made sure to let us know that it was instead a INT. None of the highlight shows replayed it, but it must have been a great rip out of Murphy's hands.
- has there ever been such a dramatic turnaround in a defence in one year? The D, especially the secondary, has gone from extremely suspect to spectacular. Their ability to whip out the big play on demand is uncanny.
- Jason Armstead made a spectacular drag and lunge for what should have been a first down. Unfortunately, the ref gave a brutal spot and they had to convert on 3rd.
- will the real Matt Kellett please stand up, please stand up.... Slim Shady (chances of putting it through the uprights lately). Take good care of that groin Matt (not like that), we're going to need you to make some kicks at some point.
- the Sask D did a great job stopping Josh Ranek
- the brutal "Sweet Caroline" lounge singer was gone. Possibly as pennance for booing him off the field last game, the music department did its best to take the crowd out of the game by playing hurtin' songs from the 1950s through the first half. With the sole exception of the eternally cool Man in Black, the tune selection left most fans scratching their head.
- A very cool story from the maintainer of the super-useful Ottawa Renegades Fan Page. I'm going to include it here since the front page content changes pretty freqently and as far as I can tell it's not archived. You should go visit anyway. Anything you need to know about the Gades (roster moves, neg lists, awards, stats, etc.) is all there. His encounter is a great example of why the CFL is so fan friendly:
Very cool indeed.
Thanks you to the folks who showed up at our tailgate last night. We weren't quite as visible as I would have liked, since I couldn't fly the Renegade Nation flag as well as I wanted (or at all, for that matter) but I appreciate the effort and hope to see you again down the road. I guess it'll be a ways down the road since the next home game isn't until September 8th. Yikes.
I want to take a second to thank WR Yo Murphy for doing something extremely cool for our little group. Yo always gets a warm welcome from Renegade Nation as he drives into the stadium to which he typically responds with a smile, a wave, and a honk of his car horn.
Yesterday afternoon, he responded by bringing us a case of drinks. :-)
As you can imagine, that was totally unexpected and appreciated (and put to good use). A big part of the appeal of the CFL is its accesibility, and Murphy obviously gets that. Many thanks
Next up yet another radio-only game on Friday, in the Peg, against the Blue Bombers.
