CFL
CFL.ca Staff
With files from Riderville.com
REGINA — Ricky Foley remains slated for free agency in February, but fans hoping he’ll sign with their favourite team may want to cross him off their wish list.
It’s not because he’s not a good football player. No, it’s more a matter of what seems like unfinished business with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
After a rollercoaster season that ended in defeat, Foley seems pretty sure he’ll be back wearing green and white in 2015. In fact, he’s more worried about whether teammate and dominant interior lineman Tearrius George will be back in the fold.
“I’m definitely excited. I hope we’re all back,” Foley told Riderville.com’s Dan Plaster in a one-on-one interview. “I hope ‘T’ gets signed up. He’s the best defensive tackle in the league.”
“The stats don’t lie this year – I’ve been saying that since I came here and I’ve been seeing it every day in practice.”
The Riders’ defensive line was as good as it gets in 2014, both collectively and for each player individually. Saskatchewan led the CFL with 61 sacks, including 51 from the defensive line alone. Putting that into perspective, the third-place Alouettes had 51 sacks as an entire defensive unit.
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That four-man front made up of Foley, George, CFL sack-leader John Chick and rising newcomer Derek Walker was by far the league’s most dominant.
“We’re all competitors up front, especially me, John and T-George,” said Foley, beginning to reflect on the season that was. “We’re all gonna say we could have had a better year and look back on the sacks and the plays that we missed. We felt we should have had more numbers than we did.”
“But as a whole, collectively, to accomplish the goal of leading the league in sacks as a group and to be first and third individually in sacks is an accomplishment for sure.”
Chick led the league with 15 sacks while George and Foley tied fifth with 12, as the Riders accomplished a rare modern feat of three players on the same team reaching double-digit sacks.
“You get more and more comfortable, and one of the best things here is with the veterans we have up front we can change our game plan,” said Foley. “We don’t have to do the same thing every week.”
“We’re able to adjust and do new things fairly quickly and catch on to them and adapt.”
That’s why it would be a shame for this unit to break up – this unit is only getting better.
The Riders’ defence wasn’t among the CFL’s best in 2014, but the D-line wasn’t the reason why. A struggling offence that couldn’t sustain drives played a role in that, as the team couldn’t overcome a mid-season injury to veteran quarterback Darian Durant.
Directly following a seven-game winning streak, the team lost seven of its last nine games, including an 18-10 loss to the Eskimos. It’s left a bitter taste for Foley, a winner of two straight Grey Cups previously, who said he’s just coming to terms with a first-round playoff exit.
“It’s tough because I’m not accepting it yet. I’m kind of in shock,” said the 32-year-old, who started his career with the BC Lions and won a Grey Cup in 2009. “This feels like I’m still dreaming. I just can’t believe we lost. I’ve never lost in the first round of the playoffs in my career.”
“It’s my ninth year and I missed it one year in Toronto but other than that I’ve been in the final or in the Grey Cup in every year of my career,” he continued. “This is the first and it sucks, and I’ll be taking six months thinking about the one or two plays I could have made in the game that could have changed the tide.”
“I’m definitely motivated to come back next year and get after it.”
2014 was undoubtedly a rollercoaster ride both for the Riders and Foley, and it’s left the ferocious veteran leader of the team’s D-line hoping for more next year.
“Tough year mentally, but you’ve got to use this as motivation to come back next year stronger.”
