Friday night in Edmonton was certainly something to behold.  The Calgary Roughnecks rolled to a 22-10 win over the Rush, improving their record to 7-2 on the season.  The most incredible thing about Friday’s game was that score…it flattered the losers and doesn’t tell the story of just how one-sided an affair it was.

As the Roughnecks started their torrid scoring pace in the 1st quarter, it was clearly evident this was not going to be a close game.  One team had prepared to a ridiculous degree and was out there to put the game away right from the get-go.  It was 10-1 after the 1st quarter and 14-3 at half.  We have a seen completely dominating spans for the Roughnecks this season, but not to as consistent a degree as we saw Friday.  There wasn’t a doubt for 30 straight minutes followed by another message-sending 15 in the 3rd quarter.  Calgary simply put it in neutral for the final frame.

The score probably would have resembled something like 18-5 or 17-4 had we not been witness to how the 3rd quarter began.  Clearly on order, the Rush started the second half by jumping all 5 members of the Roughnecks, starting 5 seperate fights.  It was something that did not go over well with Calgary, and for good reason.  Instead of scaling down the offence and going into shut down mode, the Roughnecks kept the throttle open a little longer, scoring 6 more times in the 3rd quarter.

But as crazy good as Calgary’s offence was on Friday, the most impressive thing was just how intense they looked defensively.  So far this season, we have seen teams have trouble with Calgary’s defence and get frustrated by the lack of room it creates.  But Edmonton looked completely shell-shocked by the coverage they were seeing for the first half, and completely lost for the remainder of the game.  The Rush had no answer to the tenacity of players like Mike Kilby, Devan Wray, Mike Carnegie and Bruce Codd.  The amount of forced loose balls was very noteable, and Calgary’s profiency in scooping those LB’s up was even better.  Head Coach Troy Cordingley told me after the game it was probably the best defensive effort he’s seen this team put forth.  It’s tough to argue with that logic.

Now with 2 consecutive wins, you could probably make a safe bet that Calgary has put their 2 game slump behind them.  At 7-2, Calgary has a 1.5 game lead on top of the West Division, with Portland sitting second.  But for the Riggers, it’s all about carrying it over now.  They have the Colorado Mammoth on Saturday night (7:30 pm, The FAN 960), one of the 2 teams to beat them this season.  It always ends up being close when those 2 teams hook up.

Of note on Friday, Dane Dobbie tied a Roughnecks team record with 11 points in a single game (7,4).  Dobbie joins John Kilbride and Lewis Ratcliff as the only 2 players to do that.  Scott Ranger was right there with 10 points (5,5).

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