Dan Plaster
“Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself” – Andrew Carnegie
Philanthropist and all around rich guy, Andrew Carnegie nails it on how the players and coaches have to face the rest of the season. At 1-and-11 the Riders are all but eliminated from the playoff race, now we will truly see who plays football and who are football players.
Those who just want to play football will begin to fade as the final six games tick away; for the Riders who are football players, we will still see them battle, claw and scratch to help this team begin to rise from the ashes and provide the building blocks for the next few years.
But there is no way around it, 1-and-11 is awful. Statistically speaking how has it gone with two-thirds of the season now in the books? Let’s take a look courtesy of the fine folks on the Saskatchewan Roughriders Research and Development team.
***side note***
R&D or advanced analytics is a new entity in professional sports over the past 10-15 years. Baseball started using this in the early to late nineties with their advanced analytics, then basketball got into it and over the past few seasons football and hockey have advanced the status of analytics.
In the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers are one of the best, and overall, the advancement of football analytics south of the border is being fought on many fronts. If you want to delve into the minutia, head to footballoutsiders.com but make sure you have four or five hours to let your brain digest it all!
In the CFL, it’s done on a team by team basis and the Roughriders are one of the league leaders.
***
We’ll begin with the basics and team stats that are key to victories. This can be as simple as turnover ratio, sacks, points off turnovers and field position to the slightly more advanced three-minute drill wins, ball disruptions and explosive play yardage.
The Riders have been on the good side of explosive plays, winning that battle six times (6-6) this season, the same can be said with time of possession (5-5-2) and key penalties (6-6).
The one that sticks out the most for the positive side is a stat the Riders were hammered on in the media early in the season, two-and-outs. Seven times this season the Rider defence has forced more two-and-outs than the offence gave up. The biggest difference was in the Labour Day victory over the Bombers when the Rider offence (4) had half as many two-and-outs as the Bombers (8).
There are 16 different categories, and this season the Riders have won 10 of them twice. The obvious being the lone victory over the Bombers, the other came during the Riders 30-26 loss in week seven in Toronto.
Now to individual stats. Weston Dressler is having a solid season in the slot. He is third in the CFL in targets with 81 (Edmonton’s Adarius Bowman is first with 101 and Calgary’s Eric Rogers is second with 95), but Dressler has played significantly fewer snaps than either of the two receivers ahead of him. What makes Weston great is how sure-handed he is, with only five drops. Bowman has 19 drops losing 215 potential yards, Rogers has six losing 111 and Dressler’s five ended up in just 77 potential yards lost.
Montreal’s S.J. Green is having another great season and Jonathan Crompton will look for the dynamic slot deep, and often. He is second in the CFL with 16 receptions for more than 20 yards.
Sunday’s game on the defensive side of the football will feature two defensive ends that are having very quiet, but great years, Alex Hall and John Bowman. For the Green and White, Alex Hall has always been known as a great pass rusher, but it’s been his work against the run that has started to round him out as a player.
Hall has six sacks this season, but is also third among defensive linemen in tackles (38), third in run pressures (15 – but is the best end in this category), and also has 12 run stuffs (tackles with 2 or less yards gained).
Montreal’s Jon Bowman has done just as well as Hall, but with 180 fewer snaps! He has five sacks, but has 12 pressures as well.
Side note: John Chick leads defensive ends in times double teamed, with a whopping 32!
Stay tuned and we will feature the impressive season Jerome Messam and Jeff Knox Jr. are having in future stories!
I hope some of that makes sense and gives you some food for thought as you head to the stadium or settle onto your couch.
Notes:
– This is Rob Bagg’s 100th CFL game.
– The Alouettes have 17 players in either their first or second year in the CFL while the Riders have 22.
– The Green and White have 12 players with five or more years of experience, while Montreal has 17.
– For the first time this season, the Riders will have the same 46 man roster in back-to-back games.
– After the Lions 29-23 loss to the Eskimos, the Lions Andrew Harris now has 1,122 yards from scrimmage, which leads Jerome Messam by 72 yards (1,050).
Five to watch:
- Rider running game. Other than some bright spots from Jerome Messam, the running game has been a tough go over the last few games. Both Messam and Anthony Allen need to have solid games.
- Rider DB’s versus Alouette receivers. With S.J. Green, Fred Stamps, Nik Lewis and Sam Giguere, this is one of the most veteran group of pass catchers in the CFL, the Rider DB’s will have their hands full. Watch for the deep ball…a lot.
- Jeff Knox Jr. His quest for the CFL’s most outstanding rookie continues.
- Receivers other than Dressler. Kevin Glenn needs to spread the ball around and will need help. The emergence of Naaman Roosevelt helped last week.
- Emotion. It will be interesting to see what kind of spark the Riders have when they hit the field after losing another tight game a week ago.
The Riders have you covered on the field and off the field. Keep checking with riderville.com, download the Rider app, or follow on any of the Riders social media platforms for everything you want to know about the Green and White.
We also give you live game day coverage with 90 minutes of CKRM’s pre-game show with Michael Ball and post game coverage with Head Coach, Bob Dyce’s press conference live on riderville.com/riderslive.
