This week will be an interesting one for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
This week will be an interesting one for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Riders have had two weeks of relative peace and quiet after beating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and now go into Calgary on Saturday to face the Stampeders. The Stampeders are coming off their first regular season loss against Montreal and a spate of injuries especially on their defensive line seem to indicate that there is an opportunity for the Riders to capitalize if they play well.
That is big because one characteristic of this team is a tendency to take undisciplined penalties as a result of perhaps inexperience or over-eagerness. They also have the odd team stroke on the field where being able to recognize and play their own defensive signals seems to be a bit more than they can handle and then we can enjoy the spectacle of watching Weston Dressler run for days down the field with nary a Rider in sight.
The Calgary injury situation kind of reminds me of the Western Final in 2013 when the Stampeders had lost two defensive linemen in the last regular season game and then were run over by the Riders after serving up fumbles on deep passes by their receivers. Calgary has done an excellent job of plug and play with their reserves and have brought in some former Stampeders in an effort to shore up the defense, but in watching the Montreal game, what struck me was how physical Montreal played on defense against Calgary, even prompting an ejection of Jerome Messam.