Collaros and Co. looking a little green
Any examination of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ offence starts with the starting quarterback.
Roughriders signal-caller Zach Collaros expressed that view Tuesday, reiterating the sentiments he expressed after Saturday’s 30-25 CFL loss to the visiting Ottawa Redblacks.
“In this position, like it or not, you get all the praise when you win and a lot of the blame when you lose,” Collaros said.
“Praise and blame is all the same. The quarterback has the ball in his hands, so naturally everything starts with you. It’s just an excuse if you put it on somebody else, really. It starts with the quarterback and ends with the quarterback.”
Collaros was 10-for-27 for 160 yards and one touchdown, with one interception, as the Roughriders’ four-game winning streak came to an end.
“It’s one game,” Collaros said. “We’ve watched the film. We’re trying to clean up our mistakes and move forward. We’re not going to rewrite the book here. We’re going to continue to do what we believe in and try to get better at it.” There isn’t much choice.
“The game was there for us,” veteran guard Brendon Labatte said. “Execution, offensively, was nowhere near where it’s got to be to play winning football. We’re back for another week to try to get better.”
Next up for the Roughriders (75) is Saturday’s road game against the 3-8 Toronto Argonauts.
Saskatchewan enters that game with a league-low 15 offensive touchdowns and a red-zone percentage of 32, which is easily the worst in the CFL.
“It’s not a good stat,” Labatte said. “It’s no different than being worst in the league in sacks given up. Anytime you’re near the bottom of the barrel, you’ve got to look at yourself and you’d better come up with some answers to get it addressed.”
The Roughriders have found the answers up front, allowing only 14 sacks (the fewest in the league) in 12 games this season.
“We always want to get better, but certainly we’re proud of the fact that we’re basically protecting our quarterback pretty good,” Roughriders head coach and general manager Chris Jones said.
Another bright spot is the Roughriders are third in the league in rushing yards per game (109.5).
“We’ve run the football effectively this year,” Jones said. “We need to run it even more effectively because there’s more yards out there. We need to call it more. We need to run it more.
“And then when we do throw it, we need to throw the football effectively and catch the football effectively.”