Roughriders’ offence needs revision within the division

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ alleged offence has saved its worst for the West.

The numbers do not lie. Saskatchewan has failed to score an offensive touchdown in half of its eight West Division games — including each of the past three.

The drought is at 181 minutes six seconds entering Saturday’s CFL date with the host Calgary Stampeders.

Over those three games, all of Saskatchewan’s touchdowns have been courtesy of interception returns — two by Willie Jefferson and one by Samuel Eguavoen.

Within the division, the Roughriders are more likely to score on a pass when it is thrown by the opposing quarterback. Honestly.

Roughriders touchdown passes against the West: 4 (in eight games).

Pick-sixes against the West: 5. At the not-inconsiderable risk of inundating the reader(s) with too much data, here is too much data.

Offensive touchdowns against the West: 8.

Non-offensive touchdowns against the West: 7 (five interception returns, one fumble return and a punt return).

And the 8-7 could easily be flipped in favour of the defence. One of the “offensive” touchdowns was scored after Matt Elam returned an interception 54 yards to the one-yard line.

Now, all is not lost. Saskatchewan has a 5-3 record against the West.

At 10-6 overall, the Roughriders are well-positioned to stage a home playoff game — a contest that is guaranteed to generate plenty of excitement as long as the Green and White’s offence is not on the field.

Which brings us to an all-toofamiliar refrain: What’s wrong with the offence?

Zach Collaros, the starting quarterback, is not playing very well. At $430,000, he is paid rather generously, but the offence struggles to cash in when he is at the controls.

To be fair, he doesn’t have much help.

The pass protection has been porous in each of the Roughriders’ past two games — a 19-12 victory over the visiting Edmonton Eskimos on Oct. 5, followed by a 31-0 loss to the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers one week later.

Although the Roughriders have allowed a league-low 23 sacks, seven of them have been registered over the past two contests.

Injuries have not helped matters. Centre Dan Clark was sidelined for the loss to Winnipeg, during which right guard Dariusz Bladek suffered a season-ending knee injury.

The receiving corps — a pedestrian lot at the best of times — has been adversely affected by the absences of Naaman Roosevelt (three games) and Jordan Williams-lambert (one).

A general lack of talent is another issue. The Roughriders, as currently constituted, have only one player — Marcus Thigpen — who terrifies rival defences. When the sole potential game-breaker is 32 years old, that is not a testament to the recruiting.

Thigpen has only seven offensive touches (including one carry) over the past two games.

This is the very same Marcus Thigpen who has had touchdown runs of 82, 80 and 34 yards this season — all against East opponents, mind you.

The minimal use of Thigpen is perplexing. If the Roughriders are not going to hand him the ball, why not at least incorporate him into the passing game and try to create a mismatch?

As it stands, only one mismatch comes to mind: Bombers 31, Roughriders 0.