Jamie Nye
CFL.ca
When the head coach says ‘you can put lipstick on pig but it’s still a pig’ when referring to watching the game film from Week One, you know the start of the season didn’t go well.
Those were the words of Saskatchewan Roughriders Head Coach Greg Marshall after a few days of watching film following a 42-28 loss to division rival, Edmonton.
Now, the big question in Saskatchewan is where they go from here.
The coaching staff is obviously giving the team some tough love after their embarrassing effort in the season opener; with veteran defensive lineman Luc Mullinder looking as though someone may have died when talking to reporters on Tuesday.
‘Soft’ is the word the coaches used to describe the play of the Roughriders. After four years of pounding and out-working the West Division to make it to three Grey Cup games, soft is rarely a word used to describe the Roughriders.
Now, Saskatchewan needs to respond in a good way against the team who’s sent them home without a Title each of the past two seasons, the Montreal Alouettes.
Whatever the language was towards the team, Coach Marshall is looking for a push back from his players.
“It was a general statement and those who need to take it to heart will take it to heart,” said Marshall.
Mullinder was one of those who did.
“It’s all about pride and you can take the money and take the professional athlete stuff (away). Whenever somebody calls you ‘soft’ you want to do everything thing you can; fight, scratch, claw to have that soft thought removed out of who ever said it to you,” he said.
With the Riders hosting the Als this Saturday at Mosaic Stadium, Mullinder and his teammates are more likely to redeem themselves for their Week One embarrassment rather than redeeming themselves because of a game that ended over seven months ago.
Fact is the Riders may have more questions to answer now, than they did heading into their matchup at Commonwealth Stadium.
Yes, the defensive line was ‘soft’ in the eyes of the head coach but that already one of the concerns going into the season.
The thing weighing on the minds of the coaching staff is that almost every aspect of the football game led to problems for the Roughriders in Week One.
Those problems need to be cleaned up if they want to compete against the defending Grey Cup Champions.
Quarterback Darian Durant is not excluded from that group.
After throwing causing four turnovers, he immediately acknowledged his poor play following the game.
“We shot ourselves in the foot, especially me. Four turnovers, personally, you just can’t do that because you lose the turnover battle, you lose the games,” said Durant.
The Riders are also facing their fair share of injuries. Their latest victim was rookie receiver Ernie Wheelwright who will miss some time with a hurt knee.
In fact, the sidelined receivers that Durant is forced to be without could be one of the best receiving groups in the CFL: Andy Fantuz (NFL), Rob Bagg (knee), Cary Koch (thumb) and now Wheelwright.
It may finally be time for CFL veteran and former Most Outstanding Canadian, Jason Clermont, to seize another opportunity to be a main component of the offence and add some veteran savvy to the team.
The last two seasons, the hometown hero, has been an afterthought in the Roughriders game plan.
Injuries are also impacting the Roughriders secondary as Chris McKenzie and Tad Kornegay have been sidelined and were forced to watch replacements get picked apart by Ricky Ray.
If John Eubanks and Tristan Jackson are asked to play against Anthony Calvillo, improvements need to be made or it’s going to be another long night for the home team.
“You have three new guys back there and (chemistry) comes with time,” said defensive captain Lance Frazier.
“Communication has to come together and we’ll get there, we did some good things but we have to take our growing pains and that comes with football.”
The growing pains for the Roughriders can’t last much longer or they’ll be in a hole early in an 18-week race to the playoffs.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders shouldn’t be running to the panic button, yet, but they need to look much sharper against Montreal to give themselves and their rabid fan base confidence that they have the talent to compete in what could be one of the most competitive seasons in recent history.
