Riders rely on defence
Can defence trump defects?
That question must be answered in the affirmative if the Saskatchewan Roughriders are to build upon their most-recent game — an 18-13 CFL victory over the visiting Hamilton Tigercats on July 5.
In that contest, which preceded a bye week, the Chris Jones-choreographed defence held the high-powered Tigercats without a touchdown. The Roughriders’ alleged offence, however, continued to struggle.
Saskatchewan will likely continue along that path until they have more playmakers.
When the Rough riders reconvened Sunday at Mosaic Stadium, they did so without any reinforcements on offence.
This isn’t 1963, when the Roughriders — a strong defensive team, but one that had failed to score a touchdown in backto-back games — brought in a receiver named Hugh Campbell to provide some spark.
The concussed, oft-discussed Zach Collaros, who is on the six-game injured list, was not on the practice field Sunday and will not play Thursday in Hamilton. Hence, the Roughriders will persist with a quarterback rotation involving Brandon Bridge and David Watford.
Duron Carter, a CFL all-star receiver last season, was still being used as a defensive back during Sunday’s session.
The offensive line was still what it was before the bye week. Marginal, in other words.
“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out when you’re not playing well on one side of the football or the other,” Jones, the Roughrid- ers’ head coach and general manager, said after Sunday’s session.
“We know what we have to improve on. We’re not going to just sit there and stick our head in the sand and act like it’s not an issue, so we’re going to work on the things we need to work on.”
The defence does not require much work. Saskatchewan (2-2) has been a stubborn foe in three of its four games this season.
But Jones is disinclined to take a bow — although he really should after the Hamilton game.
“We’ve given up 41 explosions, so that’s not exactly just great,” lamented Jones, referring to opponents’ gains of 15-plus yards. “We’ve looked at all of them.
“Ottawa really got after us offensively (while winning 40-17 on June 21). (The Tiger-cats) had 400 yards the other night. They just didn’t score a touchdown.”
Getting ahead of the opposition will be a challenge for the offensively starved Roughriders.
They may very well have to keep scoring on defence, as was the case July 5 when Charleston Hughes forced a fumble, plucked the ball out of mid-air, and ran 57 yards for a touchdown.
Hughes’ effort helped the Roughriders atone for a 23-17 loss to the Montreal Alouettes, who enjoyed a temporary respite from their woes June 30 at Mosaic Stadium.
“If we don’t give up two or three explosions in the Montreal game, we win that game,” Jones noted. “It’s part of it. I put a lot of that on myself.
“We know as a group what we have to do. We’re a team. When one side of the football is not generating, then the other side needs to, and they need to generate enough to win the football game.
“The satisfaction comes when I walk in there and they’ve got smiles on their faces after the ball game.”