VANCOUVER — Kacy Rodgers II got a call he wasn’t expecting Friday morning.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ cornerback was in his hotel room when his phone rang. Roughriders manager of football administration Mike Davis was calling — and, with the CFL roster deadline approaching, Rodgers was a tad hesitant.
“Usually when you get a call from Mike, it’s not a good thing,” Rodgers recalled with a grin after Saskatchewan’s 42-10 pre-season loss to the host B.C. Lions. “I almost didn’t want to answer the phone. I thought, ‘Should I? I guess I’ll take the chance.’ I answered and he said, ‘Come downstairs. Me and (Coach Chris) Jones need to talk to you about a player.’
“So I went down and, lo and behold, my dad was downstairs. It was an awesome moment seeing him.”
Kacy Rodgers is the defensive co-ordinator of the NFL’s New York Jets. After his team completed mini-camp, he hopped on a plane and flew across the continent, arriving in Vancouver late Thursday night.
“He’s a trouper for sure,” the younger Rodgers said.
It was the first time that the veteran coach saw his son play professionally; Rodgers II is in his third CFL season.
“Pre-season or not, I’m just glad that I was able to go out there as a starter and be able to play and that my dad was able to watch,” he said. “It’s an unbelievable feeling.
“With his profession, our schedules never seem to connect. We’re both kind of busy during the season, so for him to take the time out to come see me, it means everything to me.”
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Quarterback Brandon Bridge was the star of the show when Saskatchewan tied the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 25-25 in pre-season action June 10 at Mosaic Stadium.
He completed 20 of 26 pass attempts for 201 yards with one touchdown and rushed once for 19 yards in a performance that seemed to lock up the backup job behind starter Kevin Glenn.
On Friday, however, Bridge turned in a showing that he described as “below average.” He was 6-for-12 passing for 32 yards with an interception and didn’t lead the Roughriders to a first down on any of his nine possessions.
Although he was put in tough positions by penalties — infractions wiped out two plays that would have resulted in first downs — Bridge took responsibility for the Roughriders’ offensive woes when he was at the helm.
“As a quarterback, you take full blame for the offensive movement of the football,” he said. “Because we weren’t moving the football, I’m going to take full responsibility for everything that’s going on regardless of the pre-snap penalties.
“We (as quarterbacks) have got to be hard on ourselves. We’re the leader. We’re the coach on the field. We weren’t really moving the ball when I was out there, so it’s very disappointing.”
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Jones confirmed after the game that Glenn will be the Roughriders’ No. 1 pivot this season, but the head coach wasn’t willing to throw any of his other pivots under the bus.
“You can’t say that a quarterback’s bad if he’s not getting help up front or if he’s got a lot of drops (by receivers) and drives are stalling because we’re either killing ourselves with penalties or dropping footballs,” Jones said.
“We’ve got to go back and look at the film, see who went through their reads and see who made the proper decisions.”
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The Roughriders are to make their cuts today and are to take Sunday off before practising in Regina on Monday.
Then, on Tuesday, they’ll head to Montreal for Thursday’s season-opener against the Alouettes.
Jones was asked if he thought his team’s schedule was fair, with so few days between its final pre-season contest and its first regular-season game.
“Everybody has got a short week that they’ve got to contend with, so we’re no different from anybody else,” he replied. “We’ve got to get ready for a short week. The CFL deemed that that’s what they needed us to do, so that’s what we’re doing.”
The Roughriders open the home portion of the regular season July 1 against the Bombers.
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EXTRAS: Defensive backs Mark Roberts and Crezdon Butler — the starting cornerback and halfback, respectively, on the field side of Saskatchewan’s defence — suffered injuries that sidelined them during Friday’s game. Jones didn’t think the injuries were serious, but he wasn’t sure about the players’ status for Thursday’s contest … Despite a loss and a tie in the pre-season, Jones is OK with where his team is entering the regular season. “We’re a better team than the score indicated,” he said. “We’re more physical (than in 2016) and I think we’re faster.”
