Saskatchewan Roughriders
Justin Dunk
Ticats.ca
While a win against their rivals would have been nice, what Tiger-Cats coaches were looking for most during their 31-12 loss to the Argonauts was progress from some of their younger players.
“Our first priority was to play these young players and play the young quarterback,” head coach Marcel Bellefeulle said. “We played a lot of young guys and got a chance to evaluate those guys.”
Bellefeuille commented before the game that one of the main focuses of the first pre-season game would be about pivot, Jason Boltus and indeed it was.
Boltus was solid in his first extended CFL playing time, completing 27 of 35 passes for 281 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
“I thought overall it was a pretty good game,” Boltus said. “Going through the progressions and the reads I felt pretty good.”
“He did some positive things, he stood in, he got the ball out, he saw the field and took off and ran a few times, which I thought was real good,” Bellefeuille said. “He ran a no-huddle offence for a large part of the second half.”
Boltus showed his poise and calmness running the no huddle offence while leading the team’s most impressive drive, a 102-yard offensive march, in the fourth quarter. He capped off the drive by spinning a bullet to receiver Matt Carter from eight yards out for the Ticats lone touchdown on the day.
“We got some drives going,” Boltus said. “I just wanted to give my teammates a chance to get the ball in their hands. It’s something to build off of.”
Of all the teammates Boltus was able to get the football to, rookie receiver Aaron Kelly led the team with four receptions for 64 yards with most of those yards coming after the catch.
“We gave him some touches and he came through and made catches and ran with the ball after the catch. He is nifty after the catch,” Bellefeuille said. “There were a lot of good individual performances. Guys that solidified in our minds what they’d been doing in practice were able to carry their play over into the game,”
Terry Grant and Glenn Milner made the Ticats decision for the backup running back job that much tougher as both turned in solid performances at the Rogers Centre. Both averaged over five yards per rush and each runner caught the ball well out of the backfield.
“Those two guys are different, but both productive,” Bellefeuille said. “They’re going to have to keep playing for us to be able to understand that situation better.”
Regardless of the outcome the Ticats bench boss is committed to winning his way this regular season and the pre-season is a stepping-stone to doing so.
“It’s part of the process. We’re committed to doing this the right way,” Bellefeuille said. “For us and where our process is right now, it wasn’t about the scoreboard, they knew that and I knew that it was about the process and evaluating.”
The third year head coach wanted to see which of his players could make plays without any trickery or deception involved.
“We told them at half time we’re not letting anybody of the hook,” Bellefeuille said. “We’re going to play base defence and base offence and be vanilla and see who can win one-on-ones consistently, to see what’s going to make us a better football team.”
