Painful look back

Roughriders’ passive offence looks eerily familiar

REGINA — Blame John Hufnagelforthe Roughriders’ passive offensive performance.

The Stampeders’ general manager is, after all, a link to a comparable showing — from Sept. 12, 1982.

That afternoon at Olympic Stadium, Hufnagel quarterbacked the Roughriders most of the way in a 16-13 loss to the Montreal Concordes.

In terms of conservatism, the Roughriders’ offence was slightly to the right of Rush Limbaugh.

“They must think the deep pass is another name for the Grand Canyon,” Regina

Leader-Post legend Bob Hughes opined.

Even though Montreal entered the game with a 1-7 record, the Roughriders played it cautiously and ultimately absorbed a loss that left fans fuming about the play-calling.

The outcry was rather reminiscent of Saturday, when the Roughriders didn’t even think about challenging Calgary’s defence.

The Roughriders’ longest gain on Saturday: 18 yards.

Their longest gain on 9/12/82: 18 yards.

After Saturday’s game, Roughriders head coach and general manager Chris Jones talked about his team’s “ballcontrol offence.”

Compare that to John Chaput’s assessment of the Roughriders’ offence in the Sept. 13, 1982 Leader-Post: “(Hufnagel) utilized a ballcontrol offence of running plays, short passes to the receivers, and shorter passes to the running backs.”

Sound familiar? There’s more.

On Saturday, quarterback Brandon Bridge had this to say about the Stampeders’ defence: “They take away the deep throws and I just kept checking down because that’s what they were giving us.”

Head coach Joe Faragalli’s assessment from 9/12/82: “We took what they gave us.” (Headaches?)

In that game of nearly 36 years ago, Hufnagel ran a quarterback draw on second-and-20 and went nowhere.

Bridgetriedthesameplay on second-and-15 and ... wait for it ... went nowhere.

Also worth noting: Bridge is from Mississauga, Ont. On 9/12/82, one of the starting quarterbacks was also a Canadian — Montreal’s Luc Tousignant, from TroisRivieres, Que.