Jamie Nye
CFL.ca
REGINA — It doesn’t take a lot to start racing for the panic button in Rider Nation. But they were on their way after a 14 point loss to Edmonton in the season opener.
Now, after a second consecutive two-touchdown defeat at home, the Roughrider faithful are downright ornery.
Call-in radio shows are an interesting mix of which coach or player should lose their job. Comment sections on message boards and blogs have some believing the season is already a write off. Questions from the media have turned from ‘how good can this team be’ to ‘how bad could this thing get?’
Things have gotten so bad so quickly in Saskatchewan that if fans want to take up their concerns with the General Manager they’ll need to track him down late at night, in the cover of darkness, hitting up a local convenience store for a meal.
Brendan Taman is, understandably, avoiding the masses as much as possible these days, especially after the treatment he received following last week’s 39-25 loss to Montreal. Taman, stopped at a traffic light, while leaving the stadium got a clear message from a fan in the form of a singular raised digit.
Taman did try to find a possible positive spin on the situation with his sarcastic wit.
“Maybe it was like (Boston Bruins defenseman) Andrew Ference when his glove got ‘stuck’. Or maybe it was my driving, who knows, he could have been an Alouettes fan.”
The ensuing few days in Rider Nation have made it quite clear that the gentleman’s finger likely didn’t get stuck while giving a wave to the Riders’ G.M.
Taman does, however, acknowledge the fans displeasure and believes they have every right to be upset after the team has gone winless in their first two games on home turf.
“A lot of it is expectations and that this team has gone to the Grey Cup three of the last four years and have had home playoff games four years in a row. It’s all about expectations,” said Taman.
“If we’re Edmonton and Winnipeg starting off 0-2 after the seasons they had last year, I imagine (the fans) would be a little more ‘okay, here we go again’ but the expectations are high around here and that’s the way it should be. But don’t think for a second we’re sitting here smiling away and thinking everything’s hunky dory,” he added.
Roughriders Head Coach Greg Marshall definitely didn’t write out the script thinking he’d start his long awaited journey as a head coach in the Canadian Football League with a 0-2 record. The new boss in Saskatchewan is making sure the negativity in the province doesn’t seep into the dressing room.
“The people that really matter and the opinions that really matter are the guys in that room and the coaches and people in the front office. If we have confidence in what we’re doing and just keep our nose to the grind stone and keep plugging away then things will work out. But if we start listening to what some other peoples’ opinions are and we let the doubts creep in then we’ve got a challenge, but I don’t sense that’s happening at all.”
Marshall is now trying to find the perfect balance: keeping a positive vibe in the locker room, while making sure the players are clear that the play in the first two weeks of the season has been unacceptable.
His general ganager believes Marshall has handled his first experience with adversity better than most within the Roughriders football operations department.
“Just dealing with Greg in this situation you’d think he’d be panicking but he’s very thoughtful and even keeled and he’s not making changes for the sake of making changes. He’s very thorough and he’s been level headed through this thing.”
Change is something that the coach views as the worst thing this team needs. Marshall feels the team is starting to get the people they believe can turn around a poor start into the lineup.
“If I wasn’t, I’m sure there’d be an airlift going on and I don’t see that happening. I think we’ve got some good players here. We made progress last week in some areas, regressed in others, so now let’s make progress in all areas.”
Although the fans are looking for changes, – some major, some minor – they shouldn’t expect to see Taman or anyone else within the organization be as quick to hit the panic button.
“Geez Mary!,” exclaimed Taman.
“We have 16 games to go and I’m sure Wally (Buono) isn’t worried about the weeks ahead. If this is a topic after the 18th week instead of the 2nd week, well then we’ve obviously got changes to make but I don’t think B.C. and Hamilton are in panicville and looking to remake their roster. They believe like we believe that we’ll get out of it.”
The Roughriders better get out of it before the panic and doubt does start creeping into the locker room, if nothing else so their general manager can eat out in public again.
