ROUGHRIDERS READY TO FEAST ON THE EAST
There is a tug of war between optimism and pessimism — as in “will BMO Field be half-full or half-empty?”
Members of the blue-sky set will note that the Saskatchewan Roughriders have won four of their past five games, while asserting that last Saturday’s 30-25 CFL loss to the visiting Ottawa Redblacks was an aberration.
Some miserable media types — enemies of the people — will belabour that defeat and use it as the foundation for a contention that the Green and White, despite its 7-5 record, is a house of cards.
Who knows? Perhaps the Roughriders’ punt-oriented offence will, in fact, falter when the team absolutely, positively needs a key play in a game of magnitude. In the meantime, and in between time, there is ample reason for positivism.
The Roughriders, after all, are poised to eviscerate the Toronto Argonauts on Saturday at BMO Field. That being done, Saskatchewan will inflict comparable damage upon the feckless Montreal Alouettes to conclude a two-game road set.
Having dispensed with the preliminaries, the Roughriders will turn their attention to an Oct. 8 home date with the Edmonton Eskimos — a showdown that may very well determine second place in the West Division.
By then, Saskatchewan will have a 9-5 record, thanks to guaranteed back-to-back victories over the least from the East.
It all comes down to quarterbacking.
On Sept. 15, the Redblacks’ Trevor Harris was breathtakingly accurate while completing 27 of 34 passes for 334 yards and two touchdowns.
In the first quarter, Harris found Greg Ellingson along the right sideline for a 19-yard advance. In order to complete the pass, the Redblacks’ quarterback had to feather the football over a linebacker and into the hands of Ellingson.
It was largely reminiscent of a crucial play from the 1989 Grey Cup. The Roughriders’ first completion on what turned out to be a game-winning drive was a 20-yarder from Kent Austin to Ray Elgaard on the right sideline. Hamilton Tiger-cats linebacker Pete Giftopoulos was between Austin and Elgaard, so a deft touch was required … and on display.
Somehow, Harris actually oneupped his throw to Ellingson by hitting Diontae Spencer for a 21-yard gain in the fourth quarter. Harris placed the ball in the outstretched hands of Spencer just in time for him to make the catch and step out of bounds. Perfection. For the most part, Harris opted for shorter throws, demonstrating the patience and precision that the circumstances warranted.
Roughriders head coach Chris Jones was seldom inclined to blitz. More aggression would have been futile, considering that Harris typically released the ball before pass rushers exert any pressure. The keys, then, were for the cover men to make a play, for Harris to miss, or for a pass to be dropped.
When a team is attempting to nickel-and-dime its way down the field, there is scant margin for error. One miscue, or one defensive play, and it will be time to punt. The snag, from a Saskatchewan perspective, was that Harris simply refused to misfire on an important throw. It was akin to a hockey team that runs into a hot goalie. Sometimes, what can you do?
It took a quarterback of Harris’s calibre, someone who was razor-sharp, to slice up Jones’ defence. The 32-year-old Ottawa pivot used his skills and experience to considerable effect.
At 30, Argonauts quarterback Mcleod Bethel-thompson is far from a fresh face in the football world. The problem, though, is that he is about to deal with Jones for the first time. Advantage: Roughriders.
Apply the same logic to Saskatchewan’s Sept. 30 game against the Montreal Alouettes and, once again, the visitors stand to benefit from the deerin-headlights factor.
Nobody who calls signals for Montreal has ever attempted to dissect or decipher a Jones defence. A nightmarish afternoon for the unfortunate quarterback could very well ensue.
That, it says here, is the inevitable result of a defensive genius game-planning against an unsuspecting newbie — someone who, at this juncture of his CFL career, cannot be expected to come close to emulating Harris.
The ask is simply too big. It isn’t even remotely fair.
Therefore, Saskatchewan is a mortal lock to return from the east with back-to-back victories.
Finally, a two-and-out that Roughriders fans can celebrate.