ROBSERVATIONS: Doggedly defending the rouge … Houston? We have a problem! … and the weekly shout-outs
The rouge leaves some people seeing red.
Consider the reaction to how the winning point was scored on Thursday, when the Toronto Argonauts edged the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders 20-19.
On the final play, Lirim Hajrullahu missed a 40-yard field-goal attempt but was nonetheless awarded a single point when the errant kick proved to be unreturnable.
Hence the outcry:
• “Scrap the single!”
• “Why reward failure?”
• “What an awful way to decide a game!”
It hurt, yes, but only because that one point gave Toronto two points in the standings and extended Saskatchewan’s winless streak to five games.
Even on such a night, I remain single-minded in my support of the single.
The benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
The awarding of a rouge for a missed field-goal attempt, on those occasions when the football cannot be returned out of the end zone, has created classic endings that have helped to showcase Canadian professional football at its finest.
Witness three examples from Roughriders history:
Nov. 11, 1963
Ahhh, yes … The Little Miracle of Taylor Field.
The story actually began on Nov. 9, 1963, when the Calgary Stampeders defeated Saskatchewan 35-9 at McMahon Stadium to open the two-game, total-points CFL Western Conference semi-final.
The Game 1 drubbing left the Roughriders in the unenviable position of having to win the finale by 27 or more points.
Improbably, the Roughriders overcame the deficit and even went ahead by one point (48-47) in the two-game tally late in the fourth quarter.
After George Reed scored a go-ahead touchdown, the Stampeders marched into Roughriders territory. Enough time remained for Larry Robinson to attempt a series-winning, 35-yard field goal.
Robinson barely missed. The Roughriders’ Gene Wlasiuk fielded the football and, in an attempt to avert a rouge that would have erased the Roughriders’ one-point lead, punted the pigskin out of danger.
Robinson caught the football on the Roughriders’ 40-yard line and attempted to punt it back into the end zone. In the face of pressure, he could only manage a 15-yard kick that sailed out of bounds.
Victory, Saskatchewan.
Chalk one up for the rouge as well.
Nov. 19, 1972
Another kick-it-in, punt-it-out ending unfolded at Winnipeg Stadium, where the Roughriders and Blue Bombers collided in a thriller of a West final.
The Bombers led 24-7 before Reed and Ron Lancaster helped Saskatchewan score the next 17 points.
In the final minute, the Roughriders advanced to Winnipeg’s 25-yard line. Enough time remained for a Jack Abendschan field-goal attempt from 32 yards away.
The kick was wide, so the imperative for the Blue Bombers then became to ensure they did not surrender a game-winning single.
Situated in the end zone, Mike Law punted the ball out of trouble. Lancaster, the holder on Abendschan’s field-goal attempt, fielded Law’s kick and booted the ball back into the end zone. It was then Paul Williams’ turn to retrieve the ball and punt it back.
Charlie Collins caught Williams’ punt and was immediately knocked to the turf.
Winnipeg was flagged for no yards.
Because a game cannot end on a penalty, Abendschan was given a do-over.
The second kick, which split the uprights, gave Saskatchewan a 27-24 victory and a Grey Cup berth.
Oct. 14, 1979
It was supposed to be a rout.
The Roughriders carried an 0-11 record into a home date with an Edmonton team that would soon win its second of five consecutive Grey Cup titles.
Predictably, the visitors assumed an early lead (11-2) before the Saskatchewan offence — dormant for most of the season — caught fire.
With quarterback Danny Sanders replacing struggling starter Lloyd Patterson, the Roughriders suddenly boasted a potent passing attack.
That attack was named Joey Walters, who caught nine passes for 212 yards — 52 of which resulted from a touchdown bomb.
Walters boasted nine of the Roughriders’ 13 catches and 75 per cent of his team’s receiving yards.
Saskatchewan went ahead 26-25 when Macoritti missed a 34-yard field-goal attempt and was awarded a rouge (yay!) with 1:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Edmonton responded by moving into field-goal range. A 12th consecutive Roughriders loss appeared to be imminent as Dave Cutler, a future Hall of Famer, trotted on to the field to attempt a 32-yarder.
But a swirling wind that was playing tricks on both kickers ended up contributing to Cutler’s second miss of the afternoon.
Emil Nielsen hoofed the ball out of the end zone to prevent a game-tying single.
Tom Wilkinson, Cutler’s holder, soon directed a punt back into the Roughriders’ end zone.
Macoritti, who had been stationed deep in case some last-second kicking expertise was required, caught Wilkinson’s punt and booted the ball out of the end zone to prevent Edmonton from registering a game-tying single.
Wilkinson caught the ball once again, but was out of bounds when he did so.
FINAL: Saskatchewan 26, Edmonton 25.
As teammates and fans rejoiced, Macoritti was writhing in pain in Taylor Field’s south end zone.
He had been hammered to the turf while launching the final punt. The result was stretched knee ligaments.
“I kicked the ball and then, boom,” Macoritti recalled. “I was happy, but I just wasn’t sure of what happened and how badly I was hurt.”
Three classic games.
Three compelling cases in favour of the rouge.
And, no, it doesn’t reward failure.
Instead, it provides a modicum of compensation for a team that has, say, moved the ball into field-goal range or forced a turnover in enemy territory.
Keep in mind that someone didn’t magically place the football on the Roughriders’ 33-yard line before Hajrullahu produced a rare walk-off rouge.
In the same vein, Saskatchewan moved the ball to Calgary’s 28-yard line before then-Roughriders Head Coach Ken Miller sought to snap a 37-37 deadlock by eschewing a 35-yard field-goal attempt and asking Eddie Johnson to punt the ball through the end zone for a rouge.
Alas, the punt didn’t travel quite far enough and Calgary was able to run the ball out of the end zone to preserve the tie. (The Roughriders ultimately won 43-37 in overtime.)
Had the Roughriders been able to punt for a point, there surely would have been an outcry about a game being decided by a rouge.
But, again, Saskatchewan would have earned the point by virtue of having advanced to the 28.
Speaking of which …
Nov. 26, 1989
On the penultimate play of the 77th Grey Cup Game, Saskatchewan scrimmaged the ball from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ 28-yard line.
Bob Poley snapped the ball to holder Glen Suitor, whereupon Dave Ridgway’s 35-yard field goal gave Saskatchewan a 43-40 victory.
Remember, though, that the Roughriders needed only one point in that situation.
And there was an element of risk to attempting a field goal, even with Ridgway’s well-established reliability.
In the third quarter, he had put three points on the board with a 34-yarder. The ball hit the right upright before bouncing between the uprights.
The Roughriders were that close to a dead ball, zero points, and perhaps a different outcome.
Ridgway’s attempt at a game-winner was actually a longer kick (by one yard) than the one that hit the upright.
Well, you know the rest.
With the game on the line, Ridgway brought us The Kick.
What if it had become The Rouge?
Amid the celebration of a 41-40 Grey Cup victory by Saskatchewan, who in Rider Nation would have complained?
ROUGE-FACED ROB
It was an embarrassing moment that, honestly, is best concealed from the reading public.
So much for sound judgment.
This one is too good not to publicize.
Last Monday, offensive tackle Trevon Tate was introduced to the media following his first practice with the Roughriders.
A few moments before heading to field level, I added some of Tate’s biographical details to his profile on Riderville.com.
I noticed that he hailed from Channelview, Texas, and thought: “That is new!”
Then I consulted my lengthy list of players’ hometowns and noticed that Tate was the first Roughrider to hail from Channelview — which then became the 122nd Texas birthplace in franchise history.
With that in mind, I concluded Tate’s introductory media scrum by uttering the following words: “The Riders have never had a player from your hometown before. Tell me about your hometown.”
I figured that Channelview was a quaint little community of some charm.
“I’m from Houston, Texas,” Tate replied, as I somehow resisted the inclination to flee.
“I went to a high school named North Shore — a pretty big high school.
“Houston is a great place. It’s very diverse. It has lots of great food.”
Channelview, I soon discovered, is a suburb of Houston — the latter being a small town of, er, 2.3 million people.
Contrite note to self: Google exists for a reason.
ROLL CREDITS …
• Nice people who deserve a plug: Maureen Miller, Stanley Bryant, Linda Doetzel, Larry Doetzel, Trevon Tate, KeeSean Johnson, Anthony Lanier II, Kian Schaffer-Baker, Dianne Pockett, Josi Treleaven, Rebecca Bzdell, Scott MacAulay, Sadik Sadik, Jorgen Hus, Niki Anderson, Ted Schisler, Ly Pham, Alec Salloum, Debra Duncan, Lee Jones, Shlok Talati, Darryl Ricker, Owen Ricker, Bernadette McIntyre, Noah Pelletier, Bob Macoritti, Derek Bidwell, Eric Desmarais and Ray Elgaard.
