Pure sour grapes IMHO. Sure there was holding by the OL. You could call that on any play in any game. If you take off your blue tinted glasses and look at things objectively at least IMHO the Riders are getting better on offense and the defense is pretty dang good. You can not push this off on the OL holding by the riders as their reason for the win at least IMHO.
It's not so much the holding by the O-line that is being pointed out, it's the obvious holding by their receivers on sideline plays that the officials are ignoring. Shut that down and the Riders have little, Fajardo can't move the ball downfield with his arm.
First, no sour grapes as I have no dog in the MTL/SSK fight. I don't mind seeing SSK win when they do it legit, like weeks 1 & 2. Look at SSK in the 1st half when they played a traditional (not much running) Maas O. They were outplayed by MTL, who looked like they were going to be walking away with a win. Then after haltime they just go run after run down the weak side.
TLB is right: the holding is by everyone: OL, receivers, ST. Everyone. It's one big mega hold fest. You can tell they coach this up year after year. It's beyond "blocking". Literally compare with any other team on the field.
And this is the problem for refs: they see every single SSK player doing this holding simultaneously and they just don't call any of it because then it's "normal" and/or who do they single out?
Before you saw "just normal holding"... I watched every single "big" run play 5+ times on my computer PVR focussing on a different OL each time. Almost every big play has a callable hold or four. Same with any receivers the carrier passes. If you do this on even 1 or 2 plays, you'll see what I mean.
They weren't doing this in the other weeks. It's literally like they just got the green light. Or maybe it's a "playing at home - must win" thing. I don't know the cause, but it's painfully obvious when you look at it. Like I said before, it's like that game a few years ago where they did the same thing to us to steal a win when they literally stunk.
Maybe it's the reffing crew. I'm making a note here: Foxcroft. We'll see if this max-hold shenanigans coincides with Foxcroft. I'm pretty sure Proulx wouldn't put up with this garbage.
Man, I'm rewatching some of the runs right after halftime right now and it's freakin' crackback block, illegal block, defender-tackling, holding crazy town. So much cheatin' going on. And the refs are blind.
The other big tactic that SSK coaches is to hold and then when it gets untenable to push/trip down the defender. I'm not sure on the legality of that, but nearly every guy shedding his SSK blocker ends up face down on the turf. In just the 1st (TD) drive of the 2nd half for SSK I could screenshot you at least 6 (basically every play) egregious affected-the-play holds and illegal blocks.
The alternative is you think Morrow is the best RB the CFL has ever seen -- almost single-handedly marching 70y on 6ish plays for a walk in untouched TD against a decent MTL D... because he's just. that. good. Pfffft.
