Riders hoping to prosper without premier pivot.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are trying to revisit some Sonny days, using their Sonny ways.
Sonny Wade, formerly of the Montreal Alouettes, is the best example of how a team can win a Grey Cup without boasting an elite quarterback.
Actually, the Alouettes won three Grey Cups — in 1970, 1974 and 1977 — with Wade calling signals.
To be fair, Wade did save his best football for the CFL’S championship game, being named the most valuable player of each Grey Cup in which he played.
Even so, a three-time Grey Cup MVP isn’t even a consideration for induction into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
His touchdown passes (89) were greatly outnumbered by the interceptions (169) over 10 CFL seasons. He had peak single-season interception totals of 30 (in 1969) and 31 (1970).
By now, you must be wondering: How does this all relate to the Roughriders?
Well, the Green and White appears to be wading in shallow waters when it comes to quarterbacking. Brandon Bridge has won back-toback starts, but without piloting a lights-out offence.
The Roughriders have Grey Cup aspirations despite lacking a topdrawer passer such as Mike Reilly or Bo Levi Mitchell, both of whom have guided their teams to titles.
By and large, championship-winning teams are blessed with a firsttier signal-caller. Chris Jones, for example, had the luxury of deploying Reilly at quarterback with the Grey Cup-winning Edmonton Eskimos in 2015.
The corks on the champagne bottles had barely stopped popping when Jones left the Eskimos and joined the Roughriders as their head coach, defensive co-ordinator, general manager and vice-president of football operations.
Jones inherited a team that included Darian Durant, who had quarterbacked Saskatchewan to Grey Cup berths in 2009, 2010 and 2013 — including a championship in the latter year.
Despite Durant’s credentials, there was an uneasy alliance with Jones. Durant was labelled “moderately successful” by Jones before being dealt to Montreal in January of 2017.
Durant was succeeded as the Roughriders’ starter by Kevin Glenn. The tandem of Glenn and Bridge produced a league-high 35 touchdown passes last season, but Jones remained dissatisfied.
In January, Jones acquired quarterback Zach Collaros from the Hamilton Tiger-cats and summarily released Glenn, who is now with Edmonton.
The trade was made shortly after Bridge, who had been eligible to test free agency in February, to a new one-year contract.
Fast forward to July: A concussed Collaros is on the six-game injured list. Bridge is now the best bet, with Jones having wisely eased up on a quarterbacking rotation that had also included David Watford.
On offence, the Roughriders have had a few spasms of productivity but, in general, are just getting by.
The defence, by contrast, looks like a force. That has been evident during back-to-back victories over Hamilton.
It looks very much like Saskatchewan’s defence is of Grey Cup calibre.
As for the offence, questions linger. The same can be said of the quarterbacking.
Barring an electrification of the offence, or a quick evolution of Collaros or Bridge into a differencemaking quarterback, the Roughriders will have to defy precedent if they are to attain their goal of winning a Grey Cup in 2018.
Rare is the season in which a team wins a title with a quarterback who is generally regarded as ordinary.
The Sonny Wade years have already been cited.
Also consider 1973 (when Rick Cassata piloted the Ottawa Rough Riders to a championship), 1988 (Sean Salisbury, Winnipeg Blue Bombers) and 2001 (Marcus Crandell, Calgary Stampeders).
A case could also be made that the 1989 Roughriders adhere to this scenario.
Kent Austin was not considered to be a great quarterback until he threw for 474 yards and three TDS as Saskatchewan outlasted Hamilton 43-40 in the 77th Grey Cup game.
Leading up to that game, however, there was a lively debate as to whether Austin or Tom Burgess should start.
The following year, Burgess turned in an MVP performance to lead Winnipeg to a championship.
Despite an excellent career, Burgess will not end up in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Austin is a long-shot at best — although, in this appraisal, he is overdue for induction.
The “long-shot” also applies to a team that hopes to win it all without a premier passer.
But Jones, remember, has made a career out of thumbing his nose at conventional wisdom.
This latest trick, should it be successful, would be his best one yet.