Roughriders are showing progress under Jones
After a last-second victory on a rainy night, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are taking steps toward putting a dry spell behind them.
The Roughriders have won back-to-back games — including Saturday’s 20-18 conquest of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on soggy Taylor Field — since weathering 38-game stretch that included 32 losses.
The current winning streak is the team’s first since September of 2014, when a seventh consecutive victory was attained at a considerable cost. On Sept. 7, 2014, Saskatchewan improved its record to 8-2 by defeating the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers 30-24, but a third-quarter elbow injury to franchise quarterback Darian Durant ended his season and, effectively, that of his team. Sans Durant, the 2014 Roughriders won only two of their final nine games.
Durant returned for the 2015 regular-season lidlifter against the visiting Blue Bombers, only to suffer a ruptured left Achilles tendon shortly before halftime. A 3-15 season ensued, as did a massive housecleaning once Chris Jones was named the head coach, general manager and vicepresident of football operations on Dec. 7.
For a while, it looked like the Jones-coached Roughriders would leave the fans pining for the good ol’ days of, ohhhh, 2015.
A 1-10 start was hardly a ringing endorsement of the new regime, which had also incurred repeated league-issued fines in addition to facing second-guessing and a backlash after controversially cutting popular veterans Weston Dressler and John Chick during the off-season.
But now there are signs of incremental progress and of a plan that is gradually coming to fruition.
Two successive victories are hardly a panacea — especially at a juncture of the season when a playoff berth is almost certainly a write-off — but, after two years of virtual non-stop horror, there are some reasons for the Rider Nation to be encouraged.
Barely a month ago, the Roughriders were a sieve despite Jones’s long-established reputation as one of the league’s foremost defensive co-ordinators ... ever.
Saskatchewan’s 2016 season reached a nadir Aug. 20 when Hamilton celebrated a 53-7 home-field victory. The TigerCats’ Zach Collaros threw four touchdown passes and Durant served up an equivalent number of interceptions.
Subsequently, though, the Roughriders’ defence began to perform with consistent cohesion.
Gradually, the lights started coming on offensively, despite injuries to two veteran guards (Brendon LaBatte and Chris Best) and one of the CFL’s premier receivers (Naaman Roosevelt).
On Saturday, the offence took several steps forward, demonstrating a degree of explosiveness that had largely been lacking.
Durant was razor-sharp, completing 23 of 31 passes for 326 yards before leaving the game in the third quarter after absorbing a hit to the head.
Mitchell Gale entered the game in relief and, after some shaky series, smartly piloted a climactic, 11-play drive that was punctuated by Tyler Crapigna’s 29-yard field goal with no time remaining.
Crapigna’s game-winning field goal was his second of the season. He had connected from 53 yards away late in the fourth quarter on July 22 to help Saskatchewan down the visiting Ottawa Redblacks 30-29. Gale also played a significant role in that victory, starting while Durant missed the first of two games with a sprained ankle.
Gale has shown enough to give the Roughriders’ coaches confidence that the cause is not completely hopeless when Durant is sidelined.
Moreover, the Roughriders are not devoid of skilled pass-catchers in the absence of Roosevelt.
Caleb Holley, who had eight grabs for 110 yards on Saturday, continues to be an inviting target and someone who is difficult to bring down after the catch.
Rob Bagg reliably moved the chains during an eight-catch, 96-yard display of consistent professionalism.
Armanti Edwards provided the evening’s highlight-reel play, making a diving catch of a Durant aerial for a 46-yard touchdown.
Nic Demski chipped in by collaborating with Durant for a 53-yard gain on second-and-19 — extending a possession that culminated in a touchdown.
It all added up to a third victory — a modest total that the Roughriders, who are now on a bye week, will carry into October.
The timing of the week off is ideal from a couple of perspectives.
Durant will have some additional time in which to deal with any adverse effects of Saturday’s injury.
And, after enduring the aforementioned 6-32 stretch, resilient Roughriders fans — especially those who braved Saturday’s inclement conditions — have earned the right to savour a winning streak for a little while longer.