THE CANADIAN PRESS
A win came with a big loss for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The leader, the face of the franchise, the Grey Cup Champion, Darian Durant is out for what is likely to be the rest of the season.
That’s tough news to absorb for a team that was clicking along with their fourth longest winning streak in franchise history.
Now, the Riders get a sense of what the team would look like without Durant.
‘Can the team survive?’ may have been the most asked question within 24 hours of the Riders 30-24 win against Winnipeg.
I’ll say this, if they needed to survive, they’ve never looked more prepared to win without Durant.
Reality has been this season the Roughriders were a run first team on offence and a team that could rely on their defence to keep them in every game.
They’ve been able to ride those things to a 8-2 start and second in the CFL West Division.
In five straight games, they’ve won by under a touchdown and needed just four touchdown passes (one from backup Tino Sunseri to offensive lineman Dan Clark) over the course of their seven-game win streak.
Durant hasn’t needed to be a lights out gunslinger to have the Riders succeed. He’s had to manage, make less mistakes than the other quarterback and know when to take his shots.
In fact, before his injury, Durant was on pace to have his worst statistical season in terms of yards and touchdowns since he took the reins of the offence in 2009. The most important stat to Durant has always been wins, and the team has been piling those up this season.
So, it is now Tino Time for the Riders. Can they survive?
Well it definitely will be more of the same from the Riders, a split ratio of run vs pass and a defence that will have to feast on mistakes from the opposition.
The pressure on Tino Sunseri from out of the locker room will be immense. The Riders were definitely a contender, with a proven Grey Cup Champion quarterback doing more with less.
Inside the locker room, Offensive Coordinator George Cortez has always prepared all the quarterbacks as if they were the starter. The same things asked of Durant were asked of Sunseri and third stringer Seth Doege.
Over the last few weeks, Sunseri has been getting a fair share of first team reps in practice to ensure he was properly prepared for a situation just like this one.
And here he is, pushed from behind the shadow of a living legend in Saskatchewan into the some times overpowering spotlight of starting quarterback of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Sunseri shouldn’t be too rattled. AS quarterback of the University of Pittsburgh, he’s been in big games against some big schools in the NCAA Division-I. He’s the son of a coach, comes from a strong football pedigree, and is a student of the game.
The one thing he does lack is experience. Durant showed brilliance early in his career but he lacked polish. We haven’t seen enough from Sunseri to know just what the Roughriders have in the 25-year old sophomore.
But the offence isn’t broken so there is no need to change it. Anthony Allen, Jerome Messam and Will Ford have been dubbed the three headed monster of the Riders run attack. All three have had 100-yard games and taken over games in this win streak.
Sunseri just has to do what’s gotten the Riders this far, manage the game, make less mistakes than the other guy, and know when to take his shots.
If he sticks to the script and the guys around him elevate their play, the Riders may be able to get by without their number one quarterback.
If Sunseri starts making the mistakes a first year starter is prone to make, the Riders will struggle to keep the torrid pace they’ve set for themselves.
The intangibles we don’t know about Sunseri is if he match the guts, heart, toughness and leadership Durant has shown in his career.
Those are characteristics that have led Durant to have one of the most successful careers in Rider history.
So over to you Tino Sunseri, Rider Nation will be judging your every throw, something that has rattled even the best quarterbacks in Rider history.
