Riders are the monkey house of the CFL – Throw everything against the wall and see if what sticks
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are into their final bye week of the regular season contemplating how they can somehow regain relevance in the CFL playoff race following a 26-19 loss to Edmonton. The loss dropped the Riders to 3-4 and at this point, the Riders only realistic playoff hope is as a crossover to the Eastern Conference.
The Riders show flashes, they have a defense that hasn’t been seen since say, 1976, but while the team is a collection of great athletes, they lack the discipline and cohesion that would distinguish them as a Grey Cup contender. Which mean they have the ability to go on a run and perhaps make a drive to a Grey Cup, they lack the mental discipline to make any such run no more that a two or maybe three game affair.
For a team with a great defense, it is saddled with an offense that fell off the rails early and may be led by a quarterback with a glass jaw and an offensive line that is outclassed by a hemorrhoid in the ability to block anything that comes at it. The problem comes with this being the third year of a program that had the mandate of building sustained success.
Part of that process was building a scouting system which featured a tryout camp a week during the offseason in the United States and Canada, hiring enough quality control coaches to try to exploit the new world of the IPad Playbook. There is also the swinging big in the CFL draft, going for prospects that may in the short term be headed to the NFL but who may come back and when they do, the Riders would hold their rights.