Photo courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders have plenty of excuses for dropping a 32-17 loss to the BC Lions in Week 8 at Mosaic Stadium.
A short week with only four days rest for the Riders and a long week for BC A broken offensive line that has very little continuity and a gutted defensive line that is still missing, sack artists Pete Robertson, AC Leonard and bad boy Garrett Marino.
These are valid crutches for which the green and white can be forgiven.
What is inexcusable, however, is the complete failure of their signal-caller to get hold of arguably their most dangerous weapon, Jamal Morrow, the football.
A total of eight carries was the sum total of the Roughriders’ commitment to the ground game, not including the situations where quarterbacks Cody Fajardo and Mason Fine were fighting for their lives.
Certainly, offensive coordinator Jason Maas had good reasons to abandon not only the ground game, but Morrow in general. Maybe the ground attack has hit a brick wall like it did in the Riders’ Week 7 loss to Toronto late last week?
no Morrow averaged 5.9 yards per carry. Andrew Harris may still be the best running back in the league, but he doesn’t even come close most nights.
Maybe Maas was afraid of Morrow getting hurt since he didn’t have Frankie Hickson on the roster this week to share the load?
nee Shaq Cooper took over for Hickson and he has years of experience carrying the rock under his belt. He proved he can also rack up a respectable five-plus yards per carry. It can’t be like that.
Maybe Maas wants to limit Morrow’s workload and make him count pitches?
Um. Morrow doesn’t return kicks anymore — or at least he hasn’t in three weeks — and it’s not like he’s been used much as a receiver. They threw to Morrow just four times Friday night, and predictably, he caught them all.
Again, Morrow made something productive happen every time he touched the football.
So what gives? Why are the Riders, specifically Maas, completely ignoring Morrow and the ground game?
I asked head coach Craig Dickenson about this one after the game and he admitted it was a fair question.
“You’re right. Even if you’re good up front, it makes a lot of things easier,” Dickenson said.
“We’re going to look at our team from top to bottom, every position, and figure out how we can get better.” How we can train better.
“We will do some self-reconnaissance. That’s something that’s on my plate this weekend. We’re going to look at everything we’ve called and what’s working and what’s not.”
Criticism of Maas for his lack of play on the pitch doesn’t just come from the fans.
Wes Cates has made a decent living hitting the rock, blocking and catching in this league, and he growled about it on Rider Radio’s postgame roundtable show, too.
“Andrew Harris seems to be the only running back in this league who is already getting a meaningful amount of touches,” Cates said.
Logan Ferland is normally a guard, but made his first start of the season at center in the loss. He is the second man to try to replace the clearly irreplaceable Dan Clark, who has been out with an injury since Week 2.
Ferland has been thrown into the fire as much as anyone on this much-maligned offensive line, which coughed up four more quarterbacks. While he didn’t question the play calls, he agreed that the running plays help the o-line in need.
“100 percent,” Ferland said. “I mean, we never want to see Cody have to run out of the pocket and move and charge. We prefer to see the run game as an o-line, it’s just a lot more fun. You’re just imposing your will.”
During this three-game losing streak, the Riders have not imposed their will on anyone. And the worst part is that on Friday night they really didn’t even try.
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