Mitchell Blair
Saskatchewan Roughriders Head Coach Corey Chamblin was a little sheepish when asked what he said to his football team at halftime of a 35-32 overtime win over the Ottawa REDBLACKS Sunday afternoon, but he certainly wasn’t sheepish when delivering his statement to a team that needed it.
“I think I’ve done enough cursing to tell you,” Chamblin said with a laugh. “Just know it wasn’t nice. I told the guys you’re at home, and I talked to them over the last couple of days about being professional and being paid to perform. This is what we do and it doesn’t matter who we play. There is a certain standard you must meet to be a championship team and we weren’t meeting that standard. We came back and showed what we’re made of. I’m proud of the way they responded. They never gave up and that’s the sign of a winner.”
Chamblin had a lot to be upset about after 30 minutes as the Riders only had four first downs, 77 yards of total offence and had six two and outs on seven possessions. Some of the reason for that was the struggles of second year quarterback Tino Sunseri, but the half seemed to give him a chance to think over what was going on and come out with a different attitude in the final two quarters as he and the Saskatchewan offence were a much different unit in the second half.
Sunseri was 15 of 23 in the second half for 234 yards with two touchdowns. He says it wasn’t a case of the light coming on for him as he took the field for the final two quarters, but it was a case of the entire team having a light turned on with Chamblin’s half-time speech perhaps rattling many who knew it was time to get back to playing the type of football the team was playing during its seven game win streak.
“We talked about putting our statement on this game in the second half when we went into the room.” Sunseri said. “It was a great team win, we battled through and stayed with it. Coaches put us in a great position to be successful and players executed.”
Sunseri admitted he is getting better and better with each series as he takes over for injured starter Darian Durant and that it just took some time to become comfortable under center.
“I think George (offensive coordinator George Cortez) is giving me more plays to work with and he allowed me to take some shots down the field. I don’t think it was any slower for me this week compared to last, but the chance to make plays was just there this week. Another week of practice certainly helped as well.”
While there were many big plays in the football game, there was perhaps none bigger than one performed by the littlest guy on the field.
On the second play of the fourth quarter with the Riders trailing by 13, Weston Dressler caught a pass over the middle from Sunseri and proceeded to break numerous tackles as he found his way into the endzone. The smile on Dressler’s face was ear-to-ear as he discussed the play.
“I’ll have to look at the film because it sounds a lot better than I remember it,“ Dressler admitted. “It was also a little lucky, but sometimes you have to have that.”
While the offence took some time to get their feet underneath them, the defence while struggling with REDBLACKS quarterback Henry Burris found the right solution when they needed it to make the big play. When that big play came, chances are Tearrius George was in the middle of it as the seven year CFL vet continued what perhaps is his best ever season with a three sack day.
“It was just one of those things where we don’t talk about what they are doing, it’s about what we are doing.“ George stated. “Give a lot of credit to Henry Burris as he kept us on our toes, but we managed to fight through everything and get plays when we needed them. The offence had our back today and with the new guy in there, they came through and showed everyone why we’ve got that championship attitude that we have.”
While the offence and defence did their thing, in the end it was special teams that stopped the REDBLACKS as Brian Peters blocked a potential game-tying field goal on the last play of the game to preserve the win.
The victory gives the Riders a record of 9-3. They don’t have much time to celebrate though as they will have a huge battle against Western Division rival Edmonton on Friday night at Commonwealth Stadium. The Eskimos are one game behind sitting third at 8-4.
GAME NOTES:
- Dressler added a 78 yard punt return and a two point conversion that sent the game into overtime to his 60 yard receiving touchdown. The punt return TD is Dressler’s 2nd since returning from the camp of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs
- It was the 3rd sellout of the year as 33, 427 fans took in the game
- The Riders ran the ball 22 times on the afternoon. It is the 9th straight game in which the team has had 20 or more rushes
- At halftime, the team saluted former Riders Chris Szarka and Reggie Hunt. They were the two inductees into this year’s Plaza of Honor.
