Sign up for the battlefordsNOW newsletter

Riders Hit a New Low – Out Coached by Jim Popp

Jul 30, 2016 | 8:54 AM

I was lucky I had to work the night the Riders sank faster than the Titanic in their 41-3 loss to the Montreal Alouettes.

I watched the replay at 3 a.m. after seeing the score and it was like driving past an accident scene over and over and not quite believing what you were seeing. The Riders had a week to prepare for this game and Montreal last played on Monday. Yet it seemed it was the Riders who had just one hour to prepare for the game.

At least the Riders are in the driver’s seat for the first overall pick of the 2017 draft.

There is a grocery lists of complaints about the game from how does the Rider defense line up offside when its standing on its goal line; to how do you boot the opening kickoff of the second half out of bounds, to how does the Grey Cup winning coaching staff gets outcoached by Jim Popp, who is the definition of mediocrity?

There is a natural tendency to go overboard and criticize everyone for this debacle, but maybe if we hit the reset button as Rider GM and Coach Chris Jones likes to say, we can find some order amidst this chaos.

First – Do the Riders have the right system for the players they have, or do they have the right players for the system they want to run?

This is a chicken and egg argument, but Chris Jones was pretty blunt about wanting a pressure defense and blitzing 87.6 per cent of the time.

It’s a system that works if you get players who can blitz and who can cover on the back end. There is no guarantee the Riders have either.

I’m reminded of how Ricky Foley came to Saskatchewan, glad to be free of Chris Jones when he was defensive coordinator in Toronto because Jones wanted him to drop into coverage in his schemes and Foley was unable to do that effectively.

Not all players are capable of giving what Jones wants them to do, but when they have problems with the basics, like covering other players, or putting pressure on, then you may be excused for wondering if the system needs some tweaks.

Second – Just because some players have played for you before doesn’t mean they still operate at the same level now.

Chris Jones brought almost his entire coaching staff over from Edmonton after Edmonton GM Ed Hervey decided not to pay them when he heard they were approached by the Riders. Once he was GM and Head Coach, Jones then purged the Riders of players from 2015 and brought in players who had played for his in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

That isn’t unusual.

When Roy Shivers and Danny Barrett took over the Riders in 2000, they became a basic expansion team by fielding an all-rookie defensive secondary that learned the hard way how to play together and became the backbone of the 2007 Grey Cup Champions.

Jones has a definite system he wants the Riders to play. To make the transition easier for what is basically an expansion team, he brought in some Edmonton players who liked playing for him. The problem is that those players, Kendal Lawrence amongst them, haven’t showed any good reason for hanging around on the roster.

Lawrence has turned the ball over and on Friday night muffed the opening kickoff of the second half off his foot and out of bounds, putting the Riders even deeper in a hole. Other players like receiver John Chiles are noted for taking up room on the injury list and Jones is rolling the dice on the injured players like Eric Norwood being able to make a major contribution once they get off the injury list.

I am tempted to respond in the words of the philosopher, Buddy Holly – That’ll be the Day.

Jones is not the only one guilty of this.

John Murphy, who was the Calgary Stampeders player personnel guru, was hired to bring players in and he has brought in guys like Brandon MacDonald who as a defensive back is remembered for chasing many receivers into the end zone after he got beat. While it is fine to bring in players that you are familiar with, it helps if they can play and if they are not playing now, then what is the reason for that?

Third – If this season is now nothing more than an 18 game exhibition season, then maybe the Riders should refund portions of their season tickets under the truth in advertising guidelines.

The Riders make changes every week and while some say it shows the team is not resting on its laurels, although after a 41-3 loss one wonders what laurels those might be, others wonder if the cumulative effect of those changes is a lack of continuity that makes things like running an offense or defense a hell of a lot easier.

The backup quarterback situation is a good example of that with the Riders making trades to land backup quarterbacks and while Mitchell Gale has one win more than Darian Durant, he also has a butt kicking to his credit.

So if the Riders are auditioning players every week, then with the season almost a third of the way through, why not admit we are doing nothing more than running an 18 game training camp for next year?

If that is indeed the case, then all the marketing around the last season of Taylor Field is pretty well irrelevant. The Riders have a home and home series against Calgary and if they drop both of those, the Riders are 1-6 and the season is over.

So the only thing that would bring fans in would be attempting to win the 50/50 draw, or watching new players audition. Naaman Roosevelt is in his second and likely last year with the Riders so the Riders can look at trying out new receivers since a playoff berth will likely be hypothetical at best by Labour Day.

Chris Jones was hired to build a winner, and while he has a blueprint, he may be finding the road to the playoffs, like the road to hell, is paved with good intentions.

If Chris Jones is to succeed in Saskatchewan, and this maybe the first time I add the qualifier “if” then he will have to show how he can adapt, improvise and overcome. The Saskatchewan Roughriders were a 3-15 team last year for a reason, but this year people wanted to see improvement.

They didn’t see much if any of it on Friday night.