Shortest Rider getting his kicks
A mere 13 seconds remained in regulation time and the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ defensive backs were lined up in a different postal code.
The Edmonton Eskimos helped themselves to completions of 14 and 16 yards, with the receiver stepping out of bounds to stop the clock on both occasions, before Sean Whyte hit a 51-yard field goal to create a 36-36 tie with the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday.
An antiquated observer had to ask: “This is a Chris Jones defence?”
Jones — the Roughriders’ head coach, general manager, vicepresident of football operations and defensive co-ordinator — opted for passivity in the waning stages of the fourth quarter. The Roughriders assigned three players to rush Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly and dropped everyone else back into coverage ... sort of.
The coverage was far from sufficient. A pair of thankyou-very-much first downs facilitated Whyte’s clutch kick. Whyte added the only points of overtime, courtesy of a 32-yard field goal, and the Eskimos won 39-36.
The latter minutes of the game were not what one would expect from a team that is coached by Jones — one of the CFL’s foremost defensive gurus.
Jones had a transformative effect on the previously porous Eskimos, whom he coached to the 2015 Grey Cup championship, before joining the Roughriders last December.
A winner of four league championships as an assistant or head coach, Jones has seldom been one for conservatism. His philosophy is typically more aggressive — and this is not merely the appraisal of a slumped-over-thekeyboard scribe.
Consider what Jones told an appreciative gathering at the Roughriders’ annual general meeting on June 22.
“It’s not always going to be pretty,” he began. “Sometimes we’re going to get beat over the top because I’m going to be in Cover Zero.
“Just for y’all’s information, Cover Zero is when you don’t play with a free safety and you blitz everybody.
“It has been 86-per-cent successful over my career for a 3.3-yard average, so that’s why we run it.”
Jones was bang-on in one respect. It wasn’t pretty — not on Friday, anyway.
The Roughriders should have won that game after Darian Durant found Shamawd Chambers for a six-yard touchdown pass with 19 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Tyler Crapigna’s convert put Saskatchewan ahead 36-33.
Following a kickoff return, the Eskimos were on their 36-yard line with 13 seconds left. Reilly then found Nate Coehoorn for 14 yards and Derel Walker for 16. Whyte took it from there.
Jones conceded after the game that he probably should have been more aggressive. Had he been less aggressive, the defensive backs would have been situated in the stands.
It had to be an aberration. Last year, for example, cfl.ca’s Justin Dunk referred to Jones’s Eskimos defence as being “ultra aggressive” and labelled the accomplished coach as “the mad scientist of blitzes.”
Barely a flicker emitted from the Bunsen burner on Friday.
It was a pronounced contrast to June 30, when the Roughriders suffered a season-opening, 30-17 loss to the visiting Toronto Argonauts.
Although Saskatchewan surrendered 30 points, that total could be used to paint a misleading picture of the defensive performance.
Toronto began its first possession on Saskatchewan’s five-yard line, following a lengthy punt return. The Argonauts’ third touchdown was on a fumble return. The only blemish, then, was a three-play, 93-yard march that was highlighted by a 56-yard touchdown pass from Ricky Ray to an uncovered Vidal Hazelton.
All things considered, it was a laudable performance by an all-new defensive crew in its first game together. Jones’ defence held an offence piloted by Ray, a future Hall of Famer, to 11 first downs and 241 yards of net offence.
That was the Jones-led defence everyone expected to see. In fact, it likely arrived ahead of schedule.
Then came last Friday, when Edmonton amassed 492 yards of net offence. Reilly threw four touchdown passes, three of which were caught by Adarius Bowman. Even so, the Roughriders were ideally positioned to win — at least until defence became optional.
Instead of Cover Zero, there was zero coverage. And did we mention zero victories?