Week 9: Eskimos defeat Roughriders 17-14

The Saskatchewan Roughriders looked strong out of the gate versus the Edmonton Eskimos on Saturday. Rising star James Patrick had an interception return for a touchdown and Darian Durant engineered a solid touchdown drive finished off by a Wes Cates run in the first quarter. The Riders were winning the game 14-0 and seemed to be moving the ball at will. Then the wheels fell off. The Riders would not add a single point while Edmonton, under the leadership of backup quarterback Jared Zabransky staged a comeback. I was going to say "furious comeback" but it really was not furious at all. That was the painful, frustrating thing about watching the game. The Edmonton rally was in slow motion, taking place over the entire final three quarters. The Roughriders were unable to adjust, and really did not seem interested in the game at all. It was as if they expected the Eskies to fold up after being down a couple of major scores. They had to know Edmonton was a desperate team, and that Zabranksy would possibly see significant playing time because of Rickey Ray's injury two weeks ago. The truth is, the Roughriders were significantly outplayed by a team that was 1-6. That is going to be difficult for many fans (including me) to swallow.

There is plenty of blame to go around in this game. The defence could not stop the run when they KNEW Edmonton was going to run the ball. The ends would repeatedly lose contain and let Zabransky get outside. However, when you hold a team to 17 points in the CFL you should win the game. It seems like the Riders have made a concerted effort to get Preschae "Big Play" Rodriguez the ball more frequently the last two games. I believe the Roughriders are a worse team offensively when Rodriguez is a target. He is the largest receiver on our team, yet he is the only one who will run out of bounds to avoid contact. 5'7" Weston Dressler will put his head down and run over a defender for an extra yard, but 6'4" Rodriguez will not? Chris Getzlaf will lay out to try to catch a poorly thrown ball, wheras Rodriguez will lazily wave an arm at it and bat it up into the air to be intercepted. He just seems to have no heart or desire. He will take what is given to him by the defence, but will take nothing from the defence. It makes my blood boil when I see a talented receiver who gives his all on every play like Jason Clermont on the bench while this prima donna gets featured by the offence.

I guess we should talk about Darian Durant. He would be the first to admit he had a bad game. His three interceptions brings his season total up to 12, one more than his 11 touchdowns. At the start of the season, Durant said he wanted to throw only 10 interceptions this season. Well, let's try to keep it below 30 please? Since week 3, Durant has thrown only 4 touchdowns but an ungainly 11 interceptions. However, I am not among the Durant naysayers. I firmly believe he has the skill AND the leadership qualitites to take this team to the promised land. The next two games versus the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are pivotal games for the Riders. If they can sweep the two game set they will be 7-3 when they host the Stampeders and be contending for the Western Division title. If they split (or worse) there will be some pretty disgruntled people in Riderville.