After many wondered whether Week One's blowout over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats was a product of some bad weather and bad football from their opponents or a sign that the Saskatchewan Roughriders weren't going to miss a beat in 2014 without several former key figures on the team, fans along with the Roughriders got their answer in their first road game of 2014 as Ricky Ray and the Toronto Argonauts handed the Grey Cup champs a harsh dose of reality.
Dominated on both sides of the ball, Saskatchewan's trip to the Rogers Centre was the team's worst performance in recent memory. Bringing back visions of the disappointing seasons that preceded the Roughriders magical Grey Cup run last season, a run that was thanks to an influx of new talent. Now with offseason departures and not additions being the story, the Riders looked lost against the East's Grey Cup favorites in a 48-15 blowout that wasn't close at any point of the game.
In fact, the Riders offence led by Darian Durant scored just a single point on a rouge in the first half. An embarrassing performance from Durant, who the team gave a hefty payday to in the offseason rather than using the cap space on bringing in replacement weapons for the absence of Weston Dressler after the accomplished CFL wideout left for a start in the NFL with the Chiefs.
Durant has proved many times that he needs some of the best players in the CFL at the wideout position to be who Riders fans expect him to be, the talent of Durant is one of game management and timely plays based on his experience as well as his ability to make defenses pay, something that wasn't happening in the first half on Saturday as the Riders couldn't find the back of the endzone.
On the other side of the football things were just as ugly, allowing Ricky Ray to look like the best quarterback in the CFL in a game that was billed as a battle between two accomplished veterans at the signal caller position. If it was a battle between Durant and Ray, surely the Toronto quarterback won it handily as the Saskatchewan defence had little answers to stop Ray in a four passing touchdown performance where the Riders allowed the Argos to throw the ball for 407 yards.
Saskatchewan's answer appeared to be shipping their veteran defensive back Dwight Anderson off to the team that just beat them, but Corey Chamblin has also chalked up the loss to a lack of preparation. Understandable considering that it is only Week Two of the CFL season, but a hard excuse to buy after the Roughriders had their tune up game at Mosaic Stadium.
Unless the CFL is deciding to treat the regular season as a glorified preseason nowadays, fans shouldn't buy the Roughriders excuse of preparation. After all, how many people downplayed their success against Hamilton in Week One when the Riders defence piled up 10 sacks. If that praise was given in beating the Tiger-Cats, the equal concern should be there after the Roughriders offensively built team could only score one point in the first half and 15 points total in a blowout affair.
Durant's play may have been the most concerning as after a mediocre performance against in Week One in wet and stormy weather, Durant's follow up was a performance that only the biggest of Riders homers could say wasn't poor. In fact Durant's multiple interceptions and lack of scoring in the first half should finally drive the point home in the province that the impact of losing players to the NFL, free agency, the expansion draft and retirement is going to cause regression on offence as well as in Durant's performance.
With so much of Durant's success coming thanks to a balanced run game with Kory Sheets and one of the deepest teams in the league last season, can fans truly ignore the potential of the struggles he faced in the last quick Riders rebuild returning?
When the Roughriders lost Andy Fantuz, Durant was a shell of what he was when he exploded onto the scene to replace Kory Joseph. Only returning to the top of the league in quarterback play once the run game was established under Sheets and the offensive line was overhauled. Durant's success also came thanks to ball security in 2013, not throwing an interception until Labour Day. In 2014, he already has two interceptions thanks to his multiple miscues against the Argos. Something that furthers the Roughriders problems when they are trying to adjust on offence without their number one wide receiver option and one of the best running backs in recent league history out of the picture, in addition to Geroy Simon whose retirement has further exasperated the Riders problems.
Still, this Roughrider team does have talent. Any team that won the Grey Cup the year before should unless they sold off all of their assets. That hasn't been the case in Saskatchewan, but thanks to the spotlight their players had drawing NFL interest to their star players and the CFL expansion draft further weakening depth across the board the Riders are now feeling an early pinch as well as an identity crisis. Everyone knows a title is harder to defend than it is to win the first one, and right now the Roughriders are feeling the championship hangover in the worst way early in the season. Lost players to free agency, aging veterans, all things that are a reality for any successful team could very well doom the Roughriders in 2014 should the coaching staff and front office not be careful.
With Anderson gone, changes are likely on the way. The chances of Kory Sheets returning are also still there should he not crack Oakland's roster and even if not proven veteran Hugh Charles is set to debut. It is only Week Two, so the panic button shouldn't be pressed yet, but don't blame anyone for hovering over it this week. There is a long way to go in the extremely long CFL season, but if adjustments aren't made to deal with the exodus of talent in Saskatchewan this offseason expectations of back to back Grey Cups may have to be adjusted sooner than expected in the province.
