Mitchell Blair
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are finding out that getting that ninth win of the season is as elusive as a scrambling quarterback. The football team tries for the fourth time to achieve that ninth win as they head into Montreal to take on the Alouettes Sunday afternoon in what will be their last game against an Eastern Conference opponent in the regular season.
The play of the offense over the last few weeks has been a point of concern as Darian Durant and company have struggled to find consistency and put points on the board. Offensive co-ordinator George Cortez can see the frustration, but he feels it hasn’t been as bad as it looks.
“You always like to do well, and when you don’t do well, you don’t like how things are going.” Cortez said. “We had opportunities in the last two games, even though we didn’t play at our best. If we get the two points at the end (against Toronto), we tie the game. We did a nice job of getting the touchdown but it didn’t work out at the end. You always take what will happen and move on and try and get better next week.’’
One of the reasons for the tough sledding may be the fact the CFL’s leading rusher Kory Sheets missed last week’s loss to B-C and most of the Toronto loss. The loss of Sheets has definitely had an impact on what Durant wants to do, but he says there is no increased urgency in putting the ball in the endzone.
“Not at all,” Durant said. “The objective is to win a game. If we win a game 1-0, it’s a win. Style points are good for the viewers, but you have to win ugly sometimes and we have done that this year. I know we’ve been able to get some drives going late in the game when we absolutely have to do it, but we don’t need to take that two minute mentality with us in the huddle in the first quarter.”
Durant is also remaining calm in the storm that has developed around this three game losing streak. He says the team has been through bad streaks like this before and they have gotten out of it. He’s confident that will happen again.
“Every single year it’s the same questions around this time, but that’s just the passion of the province. That’s the passion of our fans, so it’s understandable,” Durant preached.” If you were to ask anyone if they would accept an 8-4 record after 12 games, I think 90 per cent of the people would. I think we’re still sitting in a great spot. It’s all about how you finish the season. It’s not about what happens now. It’s not about what happens at the beginning of the season, the middle or the end. It’s about hoisting that trophy at the end of the season and that’s all we’re focused on”
Receiver Chris Getzlaf feels once they get a positive happening they will be OK.
“There’s no confidence issue. We are working hard and we are still taking a very businesslike approach to what we are doing. We know we are good at what we do and we just need a couple of positives to happen. We haven’t had a lot of those in the last couple of weeks for whatever reason, but we feel we are just a play or two from snapping this run.”
Head coach Corey Chamblin echoes those thoughts. He says it isn’t frustration the team is feeling as they head into this contest.
I’m not going to say ‘frustration.’ It’s more so one of those things where we know that we’re good enough to win these games. Some of this has to do with us getting the breaks that we need. It’s not like we’re a bad football team.’’
With the offense having its problems getting points, its putting some pressure on the defense to make sure games don’t get away, but linebacker Mike McCullough says its not a case of having to change their game saying their goal is to stop the opposition every time they take the field.
“There’s no added pressure on us,” McCullough states, “At the end of the day, we have to force them off the field as quickly as we can. We have a good offence here and we know they will be able to get some points. We just have to put them in the position where they are on the field having the opportunity to do that. “
Game time Sunday morning is 11 AM. TSN will have TV coverage with 620 CKRM’s game-day radio coverage starting at 830 AM with “Roughrider Gameday”. You can also see that show live on www.riderville.com. That will be followed by Rod Pedersen and “Rider Nation Pregame” at 10 with Rod and Carm Carteri then bringing you all the action.
GAME NOTES:
- Geroy Simon’s next catch will be his 1,018th career catch. That will surpass Ben Cahoon and make him the CFL’s all time leader.
- Since 2008, the Riders have a 37-18 record against Eastern Conference opponents
- Weston Dressler is tied for the 2nd in the league in 2nd down receptions with Montreal’s S.J Green as both have 22. The leader is Edmonton’s Fred Stamps at 24
- Darian Durant has already thrown a career high 26 touchdown passes with six games to go in the regular season. His previous high had been 25 in 2010.
