By Mitchell Blair
For Riderville.com
The mountain has gotten steeper for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. In fact, it may have become too steep. The football team’s struggles on offense continued Monday afternoon in Edmonton as the Riders lost their third straight dropping a 17-1 decision to the hometown Eskimos.
The team has scored just nine points in its last three games and their inability to get the ball into the endzone is something that just baffles running back Wes Cates.
“It’s hard to put a finger on it,” Cates surmised. “We’re having good practices, but for some reason the ball isn’t bouncing our way and we’re not in sync. It’s frustrating when you can’t pick out the problem. You think you are out of it after a good week of practice and then it bogs down once we get out there. The biggest thing right now is to stay positive and keep hoping that we can somehow find a way to make the playoffs.”
Ryan Dinwiddie started the game at quarterback for the Riders because of a foot injury that Darian Durant sustained in Calgary. Durant tried to come back in the second half after Dinwiddie threw three interceptions, but he could not light a fire under the offence and then revealed after that the injury he had was not a sprain, but a break and that he played despite what doctors told him.
Head Coach Ken Miller liked the way that two-thirds of his team played, but he admits that once again the offense’s sputtering was the catalyst to defeat. Miller added that a couple of play calls that he made were to take some of the blame as well.
“Offensively, we didn’t get much going and a good part of that was due to poor field position.” Miller told 620 CKRM’s Carm Carteri. “I made some bad choices too like the fake punt in the first half and the short kick to start the second half. That didn’t help our field position and even though we’d make a first down or two, we were still a long ways away from touchdown range. Dropped balls hurt us, an underthrown pass hurt us, a lot of things hurt us today.”
One thing that didn’t hurt the Rider effort on this day was the play of the defence. They showed early on that they were ready to make it a long afternoon for Ricky Ray and they did.
“We were flying around today,” middle linebacker Barrin Simpson said. “We took the last couple of weeks personally because we know we didn’t play well as a unit. For the most part, we allowed one big play, but that play was one we couldn’t afford to give up. It’s very frustrating, but we will keep battling. We will shoot every bullet we have in the gun and fight until it’s over. We are playing for pride and we will do our best in these last four and let the chips fall where they may. We won’t stop playing.”
The loss did not eliminate the Riders from the 2011 playoffs, but if they are to have a chance at being in their 4th Grey Cup in the last five years, they will have to do it via the cross-over. The loss puts the team at 4-10 on the season. They must hope to win their remaining four games and have the 7-7 Hamilton Tiger-Cats lose their final four in order to get into the playoffs through the Eastern Division. It is also the first time the team has lost 10 or more games since the 2002 season. They will look to put the brakes to this losing streak next Sunday afternoon at 2 PM when the B.C Lions come to town looking to stretch their win streak to eight.
