Hopefully you didn’t come here to find answers for the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 0-4 start to the 2015 CFL season.
Because today, I got nothing.
After calmly, and privately, expecting the Roughriders to charge out of the gates 4-0 before a Week 5 showdown with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Mosaic Stadium this Sunday, I now find myself as confused as anyone with what’s gone on over the past month.
The facts are the facts and they can be dissected any way you want. The Green & White have lost their first four games by a combined 12 points. Three of those have been at home, and three have been against West Division opponents. All bad news.
And if last Friday’s 27-24 loss to the visiting B.C. Lions is any indication, the team is getting worse. It’s the first time all year they never had a lead at any point in a game.
Injuries, of course, are a major factor. However during the golden era of this club dating back to 2007, the use of injuries as an excuse has been beaten out of me. They’ve always seemed to be able to struggle and emerge.
But not now.
The Riders went into the B.C. game with 12 players on their injured list and it grew by a few more over the course of the game including stars Rob Bagg and Tristan Jackson. It truly impacted what they were able to do on the field.
However, it was gut-wrenching to see the team take a time count violation and have to burn a timeout while on offense late in the game when they were attempting a rally.
“We had some guys get hurt and when you have to mix and match, it’s gonna take some more communication than normal,” explained receiver Chris Getzlaf. “It won’t run as smoothly as you’re used to.”
That was clear, and I suppose, understandable. The club also continued to struggle with the new pass interference rule instituted by the Canadian Football League this spring. These things killed them Friday night, but the good teams adjust, band together and find a way to overcome all obstacles.
Unfortunately right now, the Saskatchewan Roughriders simply aren’t a very good football team.
“The one thing I’ll tell you is there’s no more tears in my eyes,” said a sombre Rider head coach Corey Chamblin at his postgame news conference. “What I mean by that is the worst has already happened, so it’s time for us to stop worrying about what’s going to go on on the outside, who’s gonna get fired, who’s gonna talk bad, stop trying to answer the questions from the outside and answer them from the inside. That’s what we have to do.”
And just where did this talk of anybody being fired come from anyway? There’s been heat on Chamblin no doubt, but the first I heard of a firing came from Chamblin himself Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s a very sharp guy as you know,” Rider GM Brendan Taman confided to me on Friday. “I think you get to a point sometimes where you hear so much and you get that negativity around you and you think ‘Hey I’ve had enough of this’. He’s really good (mentally). Corey is focused on winning moreso than anyone I’ve ever been around.“
Chamblin went so far as to say if he’s coaching somewhere other than Saskatchewan next season, he’s prepared for it. But again, where did this talk come from all of a sudden?
“He sure doesn’t want that to happen, that’s for sure,” Taman continued. “Like anybody in this business, we all get paranoid at some point. When you’re losing, a lot of things seep into your mind. But our focus is on getting this thing turned around.”
Worrying about being fired isn’t going to help matters, so it’s best for Chamblin and his players to flush those ideas from their minds entirely. However, if they themselves not thinking better days are ahead, we truly can shut off the lights.
But I know that’s not the case.
The complainers are the same ones who griped back when the team was winning that they weren’t winning by enough points. Darian Durant wasn’t throwing for enough yards. Blah, blah, blah.
Those people should have never been listened to in the first place. They love the scandal, the drama, and aren’t happy unless they’re unhappy. They demand perfection from others yet are far from perfect themselves.
It’s times like this that I recall a conversation I had with former Rider coach Danny Barrett a decade ago when he said, “You’re the team’s voice. If the team could speak, what would it say?”
It would say, “Don’t give up on us yet”.
