Another week. Another loss. Some Saskatchewan Roughrider players and Coach Craig Dickenson offered explanations on Friday evening after the disappointing 36-28 loss to the Ottawa Redblacks.
Jake Dolegala is proving he is not an immortal. In less than a minute on Friday, Sept. 22 he gave up an interception and fumbled the football.
On preventing interceptions he provided a couple of generic comments when he said he had to take what was available and that it is never good pressing the ball.
On preventing fumbles he said he had to protect the ball. On how to protect the ball he answered directly saying his pocket movement has to be better and he needs to have two hands on the football.
Dickenson said Dolegala needs to feel the rush better. While he said he likes the way Dolegala is keeping his eyes downfield while moving around he needs to get the ball closer to his body when he feels the rush closing in upon him.
Dolegala had a great moment with a 54-yard touchdown pass to Sam Emilus. Dolegala said the type of coverage left Emilus uncovered. He said it took him time to see Emilus as he was the last receiver in his progression on the play. He said he was kind of nervous when he saw Emilus was that wide open.
While the offence had problems it was worse for the defence. Their run defence has disappeared as they gave up 193 yards on Friday.
Dickenson said the Riders need to tackle better. On what is going wrong he said the Riders are not getting off their blocks and are not hitting runners square. Arm tackles will not work in professional football. He acknowledged that a lot of tackling involves the will and want to tackle.
On how to get better at tackling he would like to work on the issue in practice but league rules limit teams to one practice a week with pads and hitting. They will do what they can in that one practice.
Linebacker Micah Teitz spoke of missed tackles and taking the wrong pursuit angles. He said their eyes were not where they should be during plays.
I expect they will do better on defending the run against the Lions on Friday, Sept. 29 and not because it would be hard to do worse. I continue to believe the Riders have a good defence.
An ugly non-physical issue was penalties. The Riders had 11 penalties including a drive with multiple roughing calls on the defence. The Redblacks were little better with nine penalties but a win glosses over their penalty issue.
Dickenson provided a new perspective. He said you cannot simulate emotion in practice. He added that the CFL has shown what officials will be calling and they have shown the players. The learning process is not going well.
Teitz was blunter. He said they are not thinking. He said they know officials are looking for the second guy pushing. He described Ottawa as a chippy team.
On why he is not taking these penalties he said he personally knows you can’t do it. Not being smart wrecks the game. I hope his fellow defenders are listening to him this week.
Mario Alford felt he could have done a little more on the missed field goal return that almost went for a touchdown. As the game went on, the coach said they needed a play and he delivered with his third punt return touchdown.
While the return touchdown came too late to save the game, Alford said a big play is never wasted. He said you never want to give up and never want the coaches to see you giving up.
Unbelievably, the Riders had a chance to win if they could have recovered a second short kickoff.
On their first short kickoff the Riders Adam Korsak kicked the ball laying on the ground so that it rolled on the ground. Dickenson said they anticipated it would hit the feet of the Ottawa cover team and it did and the Riders recovered.
They did the same on the second and were unsuccessful when the cover team hopped over the ball. Dickenson said they thought it was still their best call as the Riders only have so much practice time on short kickoffs. I thought they should have gone for a more conventional kick lofting the ball in the air. Ottawa was going to be ready for a rolling ball. They would have had to react to a ball floating down.
Bill Selnes, who’s based in Melfort, has written about the Saskatchewan Roughriders since the late 1970s. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Football Reporters of Canada wing on Nov. 24, 2013.
