Following a needed bye week after back to back disappointing performances against the Toronto Argonauts and the B.C. Lions, the Saskatchewan Roughriders Saturday night clash at Taylor Field will be the first chance for Riders fans to see if head coach Corey Chamblin's bye week adjustments can save the Grey Cup champs from what has been a nightmare July.
While the West Division's Alberta teams have entered 2014 on a high as both the Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders share undefeated records, the Riders 2014 has been a mix of lows following their blowout Week One win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. In fact, Saskatchewan currently sits in dead last in the West as they are two games behind rivals Winnipeg and one game behind the Lions following their bye, which is what makes their night game against the Argonauts so much more important than a Week Five CFL regular season game between non-conference opponents should be.
Already falling behind in the division, Saskatchewan desperately need to prove that they can wins to not only themselves but to their fans as a 1-3 start to 2014 would prove to be a small disaster in their plans at gaining confidence following the small exodus of talent that took place this winter in Regina.
Quarterback Darian Durant will again be under the most pressure on Saturday as the Riders quarterback will be looking to have his first strong outing of 2014 after a bye week in which it can be assumed that Durant spent plenty of time with his new wideouts and running backs trying to get into a groove following massive struggles in moving the ball without Chris Getzlaf in the past weeks. Barring veteran Taj Smith, Durant hasn't been able to find many open receivers in 2014 and has been slowly returning to the version of himself that came under fire so many times before an improved running game and the addition of Geroy Simon allowed him to win a long awaited Grey Cup and one of the highest salaries in the league this offseason. Fans haven't came close to turning on Durant quite yet, and they shouldn't after he rose his play to a championship level in 2014. However taking up more salary cap space than ever before, Durant still needs to prove he can be one of the best quarterbacks in Canadian football without Weston Dressler and four interceptions with just five touchdowns through three games is not going to do that.
Defensively the Roughriders answered back from getting embarrassed by Ricky Ray at the Rogers Centre when they played the Lions, allowing just 26 points and should do much better against an Argonauts team that is missing their top receivers as Chad Owens and Andre Durie are both on the six game losing streak. Because of that Ray struggled against the Ottawa Redblacks in a loss last week, meaning that the Riders defenders will have no excuse if they let the veteran Ray tear them apart once again.
Combining the factors of the Roughriders slow start, the strong unexpected play of the Bombers and Eskimos as well as the Argonauts injuries is what makes it so important that Saskatchewan secures a needed victory on Saturday to get back to .500 to end July. After the winning the Grey Cup, if the Riders want to feel like they are still contenders they can't be spending the majority of the season chasing a playoff spot behind four teams in the West Division. In fact, doing so would likely use up all of the goodwill that Riders fans have following all of the celebrations that happened last year. No matter how much people in Saskatchewan love the Roughriders, winning is equally as important to fans as cheering on the team. Especially when those fans were just treated to the greatest season in franchise history a few short months ago.
Would a loss on Saturday kill the Riders Grey Cup hopes? Probably not, but if this team wants to show the rest of the league that it will be in the pitcure once again the best way to send that message will be to get a win that a winning team should easily get on Saturday. Facing a team missing their two starting receivers, Saskatchewan will have little excuses for a loss. If they want to avoid questions next week, they need a win.
