It’s time for an end to Roughriders’ dry spell
B.C. is: (a) The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ next opponent, and, (b) What appears after the last year in which the Green and White posted a meaningful victory.
OK, OK ... it hasn’t been that long. But the Roughriders and their fans have endured a protracted drought.
Saskatchewan, which is to play host to the B.C. Lions on Saturday, has won five of its last 29 regular-season or playoff games. And even that paltry victory total is deceiving.
Consider the fact that the 2015 Roughriders won all three of their games after losing the audience during an 0-9 start.
The 2014 edition lost seven of its final nine games, including a CFL playoff contest in which five interceptions were served up to the Edmonton Eskimos. The skid followed a seven-game winning streak that had given Saskatchewan an 8-2 record.
The eighth win was costly, in that franchise quarterback Darian Durant suffered a season-ending elbow injury on Sept. 7, 2014 — when Saskatchewan downed the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 30-24 at Investors Group Field.
In a matter of seconds, the conversation surrounding the Roughriders changed abruptly. Fans were abuzz about the possibility of Saskatchewan repeating as a Grey Cup champion for the first time in franchise history. The aforementioned 5-24 swoon ensued.
By mid-season of 2015, Roughriders president-CEO Craig Reynolds had seen enough. Head coach Corey Chamblin and general manager/vice-president of football operations Brendan Taman were cashiered, not even two years after delivering a home-field Grey Cup victory.
Barely a month after the merciful conclusion to the Roughriders’ 2015 season, Reynolds sealed a deal with Chris Jones. Eight days after coaching Edmonton to a title, Jones was named the Roughriders’ head coach, general manager and vicepresident of football operations. Jones promptly appointed John Murphy, formerly of the Calgary Stampeders, as Saskatchewan’s assistant vice-president of football operations and player personnel.
The job descriptions, it seems, are longer than the Roughriders’ recent gains in short-yardage situations.
Chronic futility on third-and-short is a primary reason why Saskatchewan has opened the 2016 season with back-to-back losses.
The Roughriders have nonetheless been competitive in the early stages of the regular season, but what else is new?
In 2015, Saskatchewan opened with a 30-26 loss to the visitors from Winnipeg — a game in which Durant suffered a seasonending rupture of his left Achilles tendon — before falling 42-40 in overtime to the Toronto Argonauts on Taylor Field.
Minus another injury to Durant, who has performed superbly, the Roughriders have kicked off the 2016 season in comparable fashion — to the extent that they allowed 30 points for the second successive season opener.
After a 30-17 home-field loss to Toronto on June 30, the visiting Roughriders lost 39-36 in overtime to Edmonton on July 8.
As was the case in Week 2 of 2015, the Roughriders’ opponent tied the game in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter.
So, in terms of the bottom-line performance, the Jones-coached Roughriders are virtually on par with the doomed 2015 edition. (So get your tickets now.) There is a distinction, mind you. Durant is available and in fine form. Moreover, the Roughriders have shown some signs of having a defence — they held Toronto to 11 first downs and only one extended touchdown drive in the lidlifter.
Granted, the defence was only a rumour on July 8, but the record shows that Jones will make life difficult for rival offences more often than not.
The record can also be consulted to establish that this visionary predicted a 29-26 Saskatchewan victory over Edmonton. (The game was, as projected, decided by a margin of three points. Please hold your applause.) So what now? The Roughriders are absolutely starved for a victory and will therefore prevail, 31-18.
The rationale: Saskatchewan has a reigning Grey Cup champion as a head coach, a quarterback who is coming off a game in which he threw four touchdown passes, and the advantage of playing on Taylor Field — on a Saturday, when the crowd is likely to be electric (even if the power goes out again).
The Lions enter the game with an uncertain quarterbacking situation. Jonathon Jennings is to start even though he was pulled July 7 during a 25-14 home-field loss to Toronto. Travis Lulay, a 2011 Grey Cup champion who was also named the league’s most outstanding player that season, is next in line.
One year ago on Sunday, the Lions won 27-24 in Regina, where Lulay rushed six times for 105 yards and also threw two touchdown passes — both of which were caught by A.C. Leonard.
Leonard, now a Roughrider, has been magically and effectively transformed into a defensive end by Jones.
In the regular-season opener, Leonard registered his first two CFL sacks — the only two sacks, in fact, that Saskatchewan has generated in 2016.
Watch out for A.C., B.C.