Jones shows frustration with Riders’ practice habits

If practice makes perfect, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are in trouble.

Frustration with the team’s work habits boiled over Tuesday morning, when head coach and general manager Chris Jones stopped practice to candidly express his displeasure.

“We can’t put two days together,” Jones told the media after Tuesday ’s workout. “We’re 2-and-2 and there’s a reason. We show up one day and we practise pretty good with great intensity, and then we come out and slop around for pretty much the whole day. Until we can figure that out, coaching staff-wise and leadership-wise, we’re going to struggle.”

Those sentiments were aired after the CFL team’s final practice before Thursday’s road game against the Hamilton Tiger-cats, whom the Roughriders defeated 18-13 on July 5 at Mosaic Stadium. A bye week ensued for both teams.

“We’re not in any position where we’re good enough to just to take them off the practice field,” Jones said. “We’ve got to line up and throw and catch and know our blocking assignments.

“It’s frustrating as a coach and, quite honestly, I can assure you that if you go ask Brendon Labatte, he’s just about as frustrated as I am, because he has been here a long time and this football team and this organization mean a whole lot to him, and he’s got people at home who depend on him. It’s not just him. I’m just using him as an example. But I’m sure that he’s frustrated, too.” Correct.

“It shouldn’t really have to be said,” said Labatte, an 11th-year CFL offensive lineman who is in his seventh season with the Roughriders. “This is professional football. If you don’t do your job, you’re going to not have a job. To go out there and not even come to practice with the intent of getting better, I don’t understand it. That’s kind of where we’re at. We’ve got some guys who are kind of easing into it and have not fully bought in yet.”

Hence the interruption in Tuesday’s session.

“It has been a long time coming, honestly,” Labatte said. “We go out there and we watch our walkthroughs and our pre-practice stuff, and it’s garbage with missed assignments and balls on the ground. I think it has been a little overdue, honestly.”

A torrent of touchdowns is also overdue for a Roughriders offence that has struggled, to put it mildly, over the team’s first four games.

Saskatchewan has scored only four offensive touchdowns — one per game. Labatte expressed the view that an enhanced commitment by the players must be part of the remedy.

“I wouldn’t even necessarily call it effort just at practice,” he said. “I would say it’s effort in the film room, effort in the book study.

“We’re busting Day 1 plays, still. If you’re doing that, it’s tougher to get further on down the line and become a good offence when we can’t get out of our own way right now.”

As a result, Labatte can only shake his head.

“You try and get guys going on the right page and it takes guys a while to get going,” he said.

“We’ve got to try to get everybody on board. Every time you put the helmets on and step in between the lines, you’re being evaluated. I don’t know if that has quite sunk in to everybody around here.”