Jamie Nye
CFL.ca
What a week in Rider Nation!
Last week the Saskatchewan Roughriders definitely talked a big game. Players, coaches and management believed their team was ready to take on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and dictate the play on their way to the first win of the season.
The script was reversed when it was the winless Tiger-Cats who dominated from start to finish handing the Roughriders an embarrassing 33-3 loss and a 0-3 start to the 2011 season.
‘Now what?’ was a popular phrase over the next 48 hours until the news of Tad Kornegay’s release was announced.
Although general manager Brendan Taman and head coach Greg Marshall say the move to release Kornegay was not at all a way to send a veiled message to a team who has not lived up to their pre-season expectations, the players definitely took it as one.
On Wednesday, when the Roughriders returned to the practice field to prepare for their next game in Montreal, defensive end Luc Mullinder pulled aside team captain Darian Durant to say he was going to handle the pre-practice speech.
And what a speech it was. Mullinder, one of the better friends of Kornegay, spent the better part of a minute telling the team what he thought needed to be done.
Mullinder paraphrased his speech to reporters after practice, saying he told the team he was tired of the negativity and if the team wanted to change all the criticism from fans and media the only solution is to start winning, and start winning now.
Durant acknowledged Mullinder’s honesty was something the team needed to hear.
The practice on Wednesday was definitely a starting off point for the team, as the intensity was ratcheted up to a level usually not seen outside of training camp. The new attitude was personified when veteran Jason Clermont ran over rookie Graig Newman on a one on one drill.
But as the Roughriders proved last week, talk is cheap, it’s what they put on the field that counts – and that’s what brings us to Sunday’s tilt in Montreal.
The overwhelming feeling among fans in Regina this week has been how much the Roughriders are going to lose by, with little thought given to them actually beating the undefeated Alouettes.
The lack of confidence in ‘Canada’s Team’ has definitely been noticed by Roughriders brass and it’s something Taman wanted to address on News Talk Radio’s Sports Night on Thursday night.
“Well if there is anybody in this building or on this football field that don’t think they’re going to go out and win then they need to get out of here. Everybody in this place is going out there to win a football game. We’re not going out to play better, we’re not going to compete, we’re going out there to win.”
Taman added that if his team didn’t get a wakeup call after the ‘debacle’ in Hamilton, they never will.
It will be interesting to see what happens in Montreal.
Vice President of football operations Ken Miller, who has stepped into the media spotlight this week to answer to the team’s 0-3 start, says the team’s opposition may be the Montreal Alouettes but the biggest competition will be the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Riders have done themselves in over the first three weeks. From dropped passes, to missed assignments to poor decision making from Durant, they’ve seemingly shot themselves in the foot one too many times to be successful.
So once again, the Roughriders have said all the right things going into week four, but unlike last week they have to walk the walk.
