Hello Saskatchewan Roughrider fans! It's been a while. It takes a lot to roust us from our slumber here at GITC and apparently an 0-3 start to the season qualifies. A lot of people are pretty upset about the results so far. There have been calls for coaching changes, personnel changes, mascot changes, and a whole lot of whining and complaining. Mike Abou-Mechrek has a column in the Leader Post here making fun of some of the overreaction by Rider fans. I agree with most of what he has to say, except for blaming the defensive line's woes on the injury to Brent Hawkins. Brent Hawkins is one of those players whose first name could be legally changed to "Oft-Injured" and nobody would notice the difference. Our defensive line and to a lesser extent our secondary were the two main areas that needed to be addressed in the off-season. Instead of adding players at our weakest position, our head office chose to stand pat and rely on injury-prone Hawkins and the underwhelming Montez Murphy and Luc Mullinder. They did add an aging Dario Romero at defensive tackle to replace an aging Chunky Adams but I consider that a wash. So what did this lack of change mean? The coaches are catching a lot of heat, but I feel like Richie Hall is doing the best with what he has. His sad-sack, or rather sad-sackless (see what I did there?) defensive line is impotent, which in turn exposes the average secondary. Add an offence that turns the ball over with some frequency and it's a miracle that we've only been giving up 40 points or so per game.
The offence is a whole other kettle of fish. They say time waits for no man. Our offensive core is aging, and this team has always been very loyal to its players. That is an admirable quality, but you cannot have things both ways. If you hang onto players too long out of a sense of loyalty you will be faced with diminishing returns. A more draconian policy with regards to personnel and performance risks higher turnover and alienating the players. There is a happy medium (hello Montreal), but in Riderville it seems like we are struggling to find this balance. We have some very very old players on offence who are well past their physical primes. We have not brought in players to challenge for these positions. We have had some bad luck with injuries in the receiving corps, and it is impossible to replace a player the calibre of Andy Fantuz. However it is ironic that last year our receiving group was considered the strength of the team and this season it is just another in a laundry list of weaknesses.
I don't really have a handle on Greg Marshall yet, but they say a true test of a coach is how they deal with adversity. If that's the case we should have a good feel for him after the team is 0-5 and has just lost to the despised Calgary Stampeders. He does not look like the most inspiring guy in the world, but I think it is still too early to pass judgement on a coach after only 3 games. Doug Berry on the other hand has not impressed me since he's been here. His play calls are baffling at times, and he seems to have little chemistry with Darian Durant. I especially enjoyed the very first offensive play we ran this season. Okay Berry, you've got a blank canvas. Amaze me! How about a slow-developing running play to Wes Cates for zero yards. Sigh...
I have not forgotten about Darian Durant either. It seems like raging against DD is a full-time job for some of the "fans" these days. I fully intend to cover this large subject in a future article, because I'd imagine most of you stopped reading several paragraphs ago. It's nice to be back and, uh, go Riders!