Text-messaging played a key role in establishing the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ overall messaging for 2024.
All it took was some well-timed iPhone exchanges between Head Coach Corey Mace and quarterback Trevor Harris for a consensus to be reached on the primary points.
“This off-season, I texted Coach Mace and I asked if there was anything he wanted to put on wristbands as a team mantra,” Harris said leading up to Sunday’s Home Opener, presented by Flynn.
“He talked about ‘Build It’ and I said I was going to put ‘Don’t Flinch’ on the other side.”
Both phrases have become part of the Roughriders’ lexicon as they carry a 2-0 record into Sunday’s CFL game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (5 p.m., Mosaic Stadium, TSN, CKRM).
The Green and White has been unflinching while rallying from double-digit fourth-quarter deficits to win back-to-back road games.
“No matter what the situation is, or what is presented in front of you, there’s no reason to flinch,” Harris said. “Stick to your plan and don’t flinch.
“If you’re down 21, don’t flinch. If you win two in a row, there’s no flinching or easing up on the gas pedal.
“It’s about always being in attack mode instead of sitting back on your heels and letting other people take their tempo.
“We push the pace. We’re driving this thing. It’s not anything you’re doing. We’re doing this. To me, it’s us taking the fight to them.”
BUCKEYE BUZZ
Harris hopes the Roughriders will “set the tone” with an impressive performance in a much-anticipated home opener.
“It means a lot to the fans here and, because of that, it means a lot to us,” said the Roughriders’ starting quarterback, who hails from Waldo, Ohio.
“In high school, you could always feel the buzz in the air that it was game day. I remember that feeling last year of, ‘Man, it just feels like game day around here.’
“You’d see people in green and white jerseys and Sask gear walking around the stadium. That’s one of those things that doesn’t happen everywhere.
“When I was growing up, my parents used to have me go to Ohio State games every Saturday. We’d get there at 5 in the morning and we’d tailgate.
“I was not happy about it, but I would just sleep in the RV that we had on the way down. You’d wake up to burgers and brats and drinking Kool-Aid. We had a great time doing that.
“That’s kind of what it reminds you of — just how much the football team and these games mean to the fan base. It gets you excited, for sure.”
PENALTIES PERSIST
After the first two weeks of the regular season, the Roughriders led the CFL in penalties (18) and yards penalized (199).
With that in mind, Mace was asked on Saturday about how to establish a balance between playing with relentless aggression without crossing the line.
“It’s not even the ones that are on the line,” he replied. “It’s the ones that are completely across the line. Those are the ones that are the most disappointing.
“We can control that. It’s a decision. These guys are making terrible decisions. We’ve just got to break the habit and thought process.
“If you think it’s a tough thing to do to do something illegal after the play, that’s not what we’re trying to do here. The tough thing is to be able do it fair within the rules of the game, between the whistles.”
There is the accompanying issue of “crushing” infractions that have negated punt returns of 91, 52 and 32 yards by Mario Alford.
“That’s technique stuff that we’ve got to clean up, knowing when and where,” Mace said.
“But even those are decisions. There are things we’ve done in practice with focusing and locking in more.
“It’s the B.S. ones that irk you.”
LINE OF WORK
Mace was asked how good the Roughriders’ defensive line is capable of being.
“The ceiling’s extremely high,” said Mace, a former defensive tackle and defensive line coach with the Calgary Stampeders.
“Micah Johnson’s been who he’s been. Anthony Lanier’s been who he’s been. (Brian) Cox (Jr.) is an up-and-comer and Scoop (Malik Carney), I think, is on the cusp of being one of the next premier defensive ends in this league. The guy can do it all.
“Shoot, there’s Miles Brown … these guys are super-talented.”
Cox Jr. is the only Roughriders defensive lineman with a sack this season. His strip-sack and ensuing fumble recovery played a key role in a season-opening, 29-21 victory over the Edmonton Elks on June 8. Rookie defensive back DaMarcus Fields had Saskatchewan’s other sack in that game.
Last Sunday, the Roughriders were held without a sack in a 33-30 victory over the host Tiger-Cats.
“Now, some of the play-calling that I’ve gone over the last couple of weeks can limit pass rush, and I know it crushed me to say that as a D-line guy by nature,” Mace noted.
“But when the bell is rung and we need them to get going, they’ve got to get going, because it could come at any possible time. It’s just reps and understanding our system.
“The nuances of how they rush is a different system, kind of, than what they’ve had in the last couple of years.
“I know who those guys are. I’m excited to see them get after it. But, at the end of the game, it’s about, ‘Can you beat the man in front of you and get to the quarterback?’ ”
Mace is quick to point out that sacks aren’t the be all and end all.
“I know sacks are the number everybody likes to look at, and I love them more than anybody, but from a defensive pressure standpoint you’re looking for disruption,” he said.
“It might not get the sack, but it might force the quarterback off his spot to make an errant throw and get us off the field.
“I thought we were fairly disruptive (in Hamilton). We’ve just got to capitalize on the situations when we can and get the joker down.”
“WHO ARE WE?”
Mace views the looming home opener as a form of an identity check.
“If you take away the Achilles heel of the penalties, we still feel like there’s a lot of stuff we have to fix going forward if we want to be the team that we expect to be,” he said.
“So I’m challenging these guys, really:
‘Who are we? What do we actually look like?’ At this point, we’ve put together games that don’t meet the expectations of who we’d like to be.
“Now, at the end of the day, we’ve walked away with a couple of victories, which is always the goal. But we’re really focusing on the detail of who we expect to be and then that will give us the answer that we’re looking for.”
