RIDERS CANNOT STAND OUT UNLESS OFFENCE STEPS UP
Defence can only do so much when team has managed just eight offensive TDs
REGINA Offensively, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are taking what the opposition gives them — headaches, basically.
How long will this be sustainable?
The local CFL team has a championship-calibre defence and an elite special-teams co-ordinator (Craig Dickenson), so everything is dandy with respect to two facets of the game.
But that offence ...
It improved Aug. 2 during a 26-19 loss to the host Edmonton Eskimos, but that is not the ultimate compliment. When a 19-point showing constitutes progress, you know there are issues.
Head coach and general manager Chris Jones has made it clear that the team will have to lean on its defence, which he happens to coordinate.
A Jones-coached defence is a solid foundation for any football team, considering his well-established credentials as a co-ordinator.
The problem, though, is that the offence has not carried its weight for the 3-4 Roughriders.
Saskatchewan is averaging 17.6 offensive points per game. Only the feckless Montreal Alouettes, at 14.3, are more anemic. (Yet, the Alouettes won 23-17 at Mosaic Stadium on June 30. That one continues to baffle.)
Only Montreal has registered a greater number of two-and-outs — 46, or two more than Saskatchewan.
Worse yet, the Roughriders are dead last in the nine-team league in offensive touchdowns (eight) and first downs (110).
It did not help matters that No. 1 quarterback Zach Collaros missed 4 1/2 games due to a concussion, a period in which Brandon Bridge and David Watford handled what may charitably be described as the quarterbacking.
Neither Bridge nor Watford received any assistance from Jones (who used all-star receiver Duron Carter primarily as a cornerback) or offensive co-ordinator Stephen McAdoo (whose game plan is seemingly designed to bore the opposition into unconsciousness).
Sans Collaros, the Roughriders’ offence was expertly built to fail and, sure enough, it did.
Collaros returned to the Roughriders’ 44-man — oops, make that “43-man” — roster for the Edmonton game and looked competent, a showing that offered some encouragement.
Carter’s return to the offence also provided some life, as was evident when he caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from Collaros.
That was part of the Roughriders’ 19-point, uh, eruption.
Perhaps the offence will continue to make incremental progress with Collaros at the controls. It helps matters that the offensive line, a porous unit earlier in the season, has become more reliable. Saskatchewan allowed nary a sack in Edmonton.
But even on a night in which the pass protection was solid, the offence showed some spasms of competency and the Roughriders (accidentally?) called for some throws exceeding 10 yards, it wasn’t enough.
Jones’ defence created discomfort for Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly, who was sacked four times and struggled on many occasions to complete even the most rudimentary of passes.
It mattered not in the long run. When the Eskimos absolutely needed a scoring drive, and when it was critical for the Roughriders to register a stop, the offence won out.
It was a rough reprise of the 2017 East Division final, in which Saskatchewan created all sorts of issues for the Toronto Argonauts’ future Hall of Fame quarterback, Ricky Ray.
Late in the fourth quarter, with the game on the line, Ray found enough cracks in the Roughriders’ armour to march his team for what proved to be the winning touchdown.
Oftentimes, that is how it is done in the CFL. Even when a defence is formidable, it cannot be expected to lock the door for four quarters in a league that is predicated on offence.
The likes of Reilly and two other premier pivots in the West Division — Bo Levi Mitchell (Calgary Stampeders) and Matt Nichols (Winnipeg Blue Bombers) — will inevitably make plays. They are too good to be held completely in check.
Plus, the Eskimos (whose offence is co-ordinated by Jason Maas), Stampeders (Dave Dickenson) and Blue Bombers (Paul LaPolice) all have first-rate strategists working in collaboration with premier passers.
The same cannot be said of the Roughriders at this stage.
It is true that McAdoo won a Grey Cup in 2015 while working with Reilly and the Eskimos, but nothing about Saskatchewan’s current scheme suggests that it is anything out of the ordinary.
Ultimately, the Roughriders will require some ingenuity and explosiveness — or this season will blow up in their faces.