July 23, 2017

The Roughriders lost the battle in the trenches

CALGARY — If it takes a big man to admit that he was wrong, Derek Dennis is well-suited for the task.

As Saturday’s CFL game at McMahon Stadium approached, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 6-foot-3, 345-pound offensive tackle said he was looking forward to facing former teammate/defensive end Charleston Hughes when the Roughriders visited the Calgary Stampeders.

Dennis said he had taken it easy on Hughes in practice during their season and a half together because they were teammates at the time. Dennis vowed he wouldn’t be so gentle in game action.

On Saturday, Hughes wasn’t gentle with Dennis.

“I’m man enough to admit when I (pooped) the bed,” Dennis tweeted after Hughes had three sacks in Calgary’s 27-10 victory. “Hats off to @StampMachine.”

Before hitting “Tweet” on his phone, Dennis also offered a mea culpa in the Roughriders’ dressing room.

“This was my 30th game (in the CFL) and it took me 30 games to have the worst game of my career so far,” said Dennis, who joined the Roughriders as a free agent this off-season. “It happens.

“When you play football for a long time, it’s hard to be perfect. As an offensive lineman, you’ve got to be perfect for 70 plays but a defensive lineman only needs five good plays and everybody will say he had a great game against you. I understand that. I accept it. I take full responsibility.

“Charleston Hughes is a great defensive end. He’s a double-digit sack guy for a reason. He has played a long time in this league and he knows how to rush the passer. I just didn’t come prepared to play in that first half.”

Hughes had all three of his sacks in the opening 30 minutes of Saturday’s game. In fact, the Stampeders recorded all five of their sacks in the first half.

Saskatchewan’s offence struggled throughout the first two quarters, managing just three first downs and accumulating 34 yards of net offence. Calgary led 17-0 at the break.

“As a unit, we came out really slow in that first half,” Dennis said. “I can’t speak for everybody, but I know I was a little too amped up and I couldn’t get my body to calm down. It took until the second half when I was able to finally relax.

“But hats off to Calgary. You can’t play like that against them. They’re a 14-, 15-win team every year for a reason. They do their jobs and they do them well.”

Centre Dan Clark also gave credit where credit was due, suggesting that the Stampeders were simply “the better front” in the contest.

“It’s one of those things that we’ve got to own,” Clark said. “You’ve got to take the good with the bad. That’s something that happens in professional football.

“We’ve got to have a better mindset next week (against the visiting Toronto Argonauts). We’ve got to put this behind us and continue forward.”

The Roughriders adjusted in the second half, using short passes to get the ball out of quarterback Kevin Glenn’s hands quickly. Saskatchewan had 10 first downs, 158 yards passing and 186 yards of net offence in the second half.

“In the second half, we did a better job of handling the front a little bit,” said head coach-GM Chris Jones. “Our play selection from time to time was a little bit better in the second half. Then, quite honestly, our offensive line executed a little bit better in the second half.”

Unfortunately for the Roughriders, the Stampeders also won the battle in the trenches on offence.

The Roughriders didn’t record a sack in the game, although they were credited with five quarterback pressures. More importantly, Saskatchewan wasn’t able to stop the run.

In the days prior to the game, defenders talked about keeping Calgary tailback Jerome Messam in check. They didn’t.

Messam rushed 17 times for 96 yards in the first half alone and finished the contest with 135 yards on 28 carries.

“He’s a tough guy,” Jones said. “He’s a big back (and) he can lean on you. You can’t run out of your gaps and jump out of your gaps, which is what we did in the first half.

“I’m sure when we watch the film, (the defensive players) are going to be really mad at themselves for their execution of what we have in our defence.”

Defensive tackle Zach Minter had yet to see the film Saturday and he already was perturbed with his play. He said the Roughriders “let up a little bit” when it came to their assignments and that helped the Calgary offence control the line of scrimmage.

“As a defensive front, you never want anybody to be able to run the ball the way they did,” Minter said. “We’ve got to go back to the film room and get it fixed.

“I’ve got to be more physical. I’ve got to get off blocks better. For me, it’s going to be about being more physical at the point of attack.”

Middle linebacker Henoc Muamba saw other causes for the Roughriders’ inability to corral Messam.

“It’s about discipline and we weren’t disciplined enough,” said Muamba, who had a game-high eight defensive tackles. “We didn’t match their intensity and we didn’t match their physicality.

“It wasn’t just Jerome Messam. It was more that their offensive line did a really good job of blocking. Jerome was just running downhill and falling forward. We’ve got to do a better job of being more physical up front.”