Jeremy O’Day has an emphatic message for Rider Nation.
“Everyone should understand that the sky is not falling inside the stadium,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ General Manager and Vice-President of Football Operations stated on Wednesday.
“I know there’s a lot of talk because we’ve lost three games (in a row). You’re in a rut and you want to pull out of it. The guys are not thinking, ‘Oh boy, the season’s going astray.’ They’re just focused in on the next week and trying to win a football game.
“It changes real quick when you win games.”
The Roughriders discovered that on Aug. 20, when they rebounded from a 1-4 slump by defeating the B.C. Lions 34-29 at Mosaic Stadium.
Then came a 32-30 conquest of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — who are battling with B.C. for top spot in the CFL’s West Division — in the Labour Day Classic.
Three successive losses have ensued, but the Roughriders of late September are essentially the same team that robustly registered back-to-back victories only a few short weeks ago.
“I know that we’ve lost some games in a row here, but I think it’s important to understand that we’re in third place right now,” O’Day said. “We need to win some games to secure a playoff spot and then anything can happen.
“This team is not feeling like our season is over by any means. They’re focused on the next week and, in order to get in, we need to win some games.”
Starting on Friday, when the Roughriders visit B.C. (8:30 p.m., TSN, CKRM).
With a 6-8 record and 14 points, the Roughriders are four ahead of the Calgary Stampeders (4-10) and Edmonton Elks (4-11) in the five-team division. Winnipeg and B.C. are 10-4.
“It has kind of been an up-and-down season,” O’Day said. “We’ve shown flashes of being a good team and we’ve beaten some good teams that are up there in the standings. We’ve shown that we can play with those teams. There are also some games where we haven’t played well.
“The challenge is to be consistent and play better. A lot of that has to do with controlling turnovers and little things that happen in the game, and sometimes they can snowball.”
That was the case last Friday, when the Ottawa REDBLACKS defeated the visiting Roughriders 36-28.
Saskatchewan was ahead 13-8 late in the second quarter before Ottawa parlayed an interception and fumble recovery into 10 rapid-fire points.
The REDBLACKS eventually assumed a 36-14 lead, with turnovers leading to 25 of those points, before the Roughriders rallied with two late touchdowns that were separated by a successful onside kick.
“We’ve got to do a better job of protecting the football,” O’Day said. “This last game in particular, it kind of got out of hand because of turnovers.
“When the game started, I thought we were probably going to run away with it, the way we were playing at the beginning of the game. Then we had a couple of turnovers before halftime.”
The players and football-operations staff are turning over every possible stone with the objective of reversing the fortunes of a team that has had stretches of 3-1, 1-4, 2-0 and 0-3.
“As far as what we’re getting from our players, I do get a little upset when people talk about people’s effort,” O’Day said. “People don’t understand what the players put in for effort.
“It’s hard for me to even look at that game last week and say that our players didn’t play with an effort.
“We were down 24 points and we return a punt for 107 yards, which is hard enough to do. Then we do a great onside kick and get the ball back. Then our offence goes down and scores. Then we almost executed another (onside kick).
“I don’t know what the probability of a comeback at that point was, but that says a lot about a team that doesn’t give up. They’re out there trying to make a comeback in a situation like that.”
That late-game surge spoke volumes to O’Day.
“The effort level from our players is there,” he reiterated. “Sometimes things don’t go your way in football games.
“I would assume that everyone in their personal life, when something doesn’t go right, your body language isn’t always the best.
“We’re just looking forward to making a push here.”
