Spencer Moore believes the Saskatchewan Roughriders are stuck in a rut.
His hope is that one good push will get them out.
“We have the leaders in this room who have been there and done that,” the veteran fullback said after Saturday’s 23-17 CFL loss to the visiting Montreal Alouettes. “We just need to focus on doing our jobs. At times — I’m guilty of it myself — we try to do too much. We have to do our jobs and, if 12 guys do their jobs on every play, we’ll be successful.
“We have the talent and we have the athletes. We just have to get that swagger back and play with the confidence that we can beat anyone. You have to have that
mentality and we’re lacking it. But it’s a long season and I think it’ll come back; we just have to keep fighting.”
The loss to Montreal dropped the Roughriders’ record to 1-2-0. They had hoped to get off to a fast start in the 2018 regular season, but instead are no further ahead than they were after three games in 2017.
There were myriad reasons for Saturday’s defeat and enough plays to leave head coach-GM Chris Jones exasperated.
“Too many penalties, too many turnovers and too many explosions …,” he said. “It’s very concerning that some veterans are making some of the errors that they’re making defensively.”
The Roughriders were flagged 12 times for 120 yards in the contest, quarterbacks Brandon Bridge and David Watford combined to throw four interceptions, and the Alouettes accumulated 287 yards of total offence while managing only 10 first downs.
For Saskatchewan defensive back Ed Gainey, the biggest concern is discipline. Through three games, the Roughriders have been assessed 28 penalties, many of which have either extended opponents’ drives or snuffed out Saskatchewan’s possessions.
“You can’t win like that,” Gainey said. “We’ve got to tighten up a little bit in this locker room and play for the guy beside you.
“It’s the same thing as the beginning of the season last year. We’ve got to be more disciplined and we’ve got to hold each other accountable.”
And where does that lack of discipline come from?
“Honestly, I can’t call it,” Gainey replied. “We’re all grown men.”
During training camp and the pre-season, the Roughriders’ penchant for taking penalties prompted Jones and his staff to temporarily halt practices and order the offenders to do up-downs.
Asked Saturday what could be in store for those who continue to take penalties, Jones replied: “I guess we’ll just keep doing more (up-downs), won’t we?”
Watford agreed that penalties were an issue Saturday, but he also pointed to the turnovers. The CFL rookie threw the first touchdown pass of his pro career, but also served up two picks in his first regular-season action.
“It’s all self-inflicted stuff,” said Watford, who replaced Bridge behind centre to start the second half. “It’s stuff that we can watch on the film and correct and, later on down the line when we really need it, we’ll gel together and we’ll look way better as a team.”
Saskatchewan looked reasonably good in its season-opening, 27-19 victory over the defending Grey Cup-champion Toronto Argonauts at Mosaic Stadium on June 15. But that outcome was followed by a 40-17 loss to the host Ottawa Redblacks on June 21 and Saturday’s defeat to a Montreal team that had lost its previous 13 regular-season games.
Even though the Roughriders have lost two straight, slotback Naaman Roosevelt doesn’t think his team’s confidence has been shaken.
“We know we gave this game away and we knew last week that we didn’t play our ‘A’ game,” he said. “I feel like, when we play our ‘A’ game, we’ll win.
“Truthfully, I don’t think anything is missing (from the team). We’ve got a great core. We’ve got some great leaders on this team. All in all, I think we’re pretty good. It’s for us to figure out what we need to do and what we’ve been doing wrong.”
Defensive end Willie Jefferson agreed.
“We’ve got the attitude, we’ve got the want-to, we’ve got the experience and we’ve got the athletes,” he said. “We’ve just got to come together and find whatever it is that is going to help us finish.”
Offensively, the Roughriders are averaging 3.9 yards per rush this season and have yet to score a touchdown along the ground. Their collective completion percentage of 54.6 is the lowest in the CFL and they’ve tossed a league-high seven interceptions.
The defence has held its own, but Ottawa (a 56-yard bomb from Trevor Harris to Diontae Spencer) and Montreal (a 79-yarder from Drew Willy to Chris Williams) each scored a long-distance touchdown — the “explosions” to which Jones was referring.
The good news for the Roughriders is they have 15 regular-season games left in which to turn things around. The bad news is that their next game is Thursday against the surging Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“To be honest, a short week is something that might actually help because we don’t have time to dwell on this one,” Moore said. “Obviously we’re not pleased with it and it’s going to be trying to put the corrections in, but we’re going to have to move on.
“We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves or wallow in self-pity. We’ve got to move on to Hamilton — and they’re playing so well that we’ve got to give them their due respect. We’ve got to get back to work right away.”
