Rough ride toward the bottom
Jones’ rebuild in Regina has stalled with Gang Green 1-7 to start season
Coming into Edmonton on Friday, Chris Jones was already well in the ditch.
After steering a rebuilding Edmonton Eskimos straight down victory lane last year, the club’s former head coach and defensive co-ordinator is having trouble even finding the gas pedal this year in Regina.
Of course, it would help if the Saskatchewan Roughriders vice-president of football operations, general manager, head coach and defensive co-ordinator didn’t continue to overhaul his roster mid-race.
Never mind the illegal bodies that had been milling around Mosaic Stadium for a minute, the Roughriders officially came into Friday with 77 players and counting who played at least one game for them this year — CFL active rosters hold 46 at a time. So it’s an ongoing rebuild.
When he first arrived in Edmonton in 2014 as a rookie head coach, he only tinkered with the roster by bringing in a handful of former players and bolting them into position alongside a group of established veterans who had already hit rock bottom together.
Finishing with a 4-14 record a year earlier, the Eskimos rebounded, finishing 12-6 with an appearance in the division final before improving the next season to 14-4 and hoisting the 2015 Grey Cup.
“There are some similarities, but they’re two totally different scenarios,” Jones said. “They (the Eskimos) had a few more veterans, especially on the defensive side, that had been through it and they had lost the year prior, so it was pretty easy to get them to go in the right direction.”
It should have been every bit as easy to begin turning the Roughriders around, given the 3-15 record they’re coming off of was even worse. And if defensive veterans were such a concern, Jones has to be questioning his release of John Chick, who was tied for second in the league with seven sacks coming into Friday’s games.
And given the fact starting quarterback Darian Durant is back after suffering a 2015 season-ending Achilles injury, all signs pointed to at least some sort of turnaround.
But even with Durant, the Riders are barely on pace to match last season’s meagre win percentage.
And with just one win under their belt when they stepped onto the field at Commonwealth Stadium for Friday’s opening kickoff, the question is how low will they go before the only way left is up?
“A lot of things go through your head and you try to make sure that you’re not wavering from what you knew was right to start with,” said Jones. “Certainly you have to have guys that have played together and alongside each other and we’re looking to try to get that continuity again.
“Finally, we’re getting a few guys back off the six-game (injured list), which is good. But unfortunately we’ve been in that type of situation. They were starters for a reason at the start of the year, so we’re getting them back, slowly but surely, and looking for the continuity.”
But all teams go through injuries. Jones didn’t have Mike Reilly for half of last year and got better because of it. By the time he resumed his role as starting quarterback in the Labour Day rematch, the Eskimos didn’t lose another game.
So Jones went from ending last year 10-0 with the Eskimos to starting this one 1-7 with Saskatchewan, who for all intents and purposes are starting over from scratch.
“I don’t really want to pigeon hole us as to where we are,” Jones said. “We certainly didn’t expect to be in this situation, we’re just trying to go 1-0 each week.”
TURNOVER TIME
No team has turned the ball over more than the Riders over the first eight games of the season.
That’s not good news for a squad that at the same time had earned a league-low 11 take-aways over the same span.
Unless you’re an Eskimos defence that’s been hawking the ball recently, coming up with five interceptions in their previous three games coming into Friday’s game.
“Every week is an opportunity to get the ball,” said Eskimos safety Neil King, who had one of Edmonton’s eight interceptions across their first eight games along with a fumble recovery. “Whether they throw a lot of interceptions, fumble, put the ball on the ground, we just have the mentality as a defence to go get the ball.”
6,000 YARDS?
Reilly came into Friday’s game on pace for over 6,000 passing yards — a feat only accomplished by five CFL quarterbacks, including record-holder Doug Flutie with 6,619 in 1991. Kent Austin followed up with 6,225 in’ 92, while Flutie (6,092) and David Archer (6,023) both crested the plateau in '93. The last time it happened was Anthony Calvillo (6,041) in 2004, while Reilly came into Friday needing to average 315.7 yards in his last 10 games to reach 6,000. His career high currently stands at 4,207 during his first year with the Eskimos in 2013.