Inside the CFL: Riders grinding through adversity

By GRAHAM KELLY on July 28, 2022.

Although Saskatchewan lost 31-21 to the visiting Argonauts last Sunday, every member of Rider nation has reason to be proud of what their depleted team accomplished. They had no backup to the third-string quarterback making his first professional start anywhere. They had to use an inexperienced O-lineman, Josiah St. John whose procedure penalty at Toronto’s one nullified a touchdown. But they brought a tonne of green grit. Not only did they not get blown out, they were tied with a minute left. They led 15-11 at the half, but finally played out in the final five minutes. Along the way they staged a heroic goal-line stand in the second stanza, stuffing Andrew Harris at the one-yard line. (The great running back, at the tender age of 35, ran for 143 yards and became the first Canadian to surpass the 10,000 yard mark).

Because of COVID-19 and injuries to the likes of QB Cody Fajardo, DE Pete Robertson and centre Dan Clark, 21 players were on the one-game injury reserve, including a dozen starters. There were no back-ups for receivers. Said, head coach Craig Dickenson, “I told the receivers no one could get injured in this game. They said, ‘OK, coach, got ya’.” The pass-catching situation had been exacerbated by a one-game suspension to Duke Williams for throwing his helmet at Argo Shaquille Richardson in the pre-game warm up on July 17.

Despite the most bizarre week in his CFL coaching career, the ever-optimistic Dickenson said the day before the game, “Lots of new faces. But most of the guys who are playing tomorrow at least were here for camp. They’ve got 45 guys, we’ve got 45 guys, we’re going to come out and play hard. We expect to be competitive, make a few plays and we might win. I’m sure we’re the underdog in this game but we feel we’ve got a shot.”

I will spare you Churchillian rhetoric or references to the Battle of Thermopylae. After all, these were the 2022 Argos they were playing, not the 1996-97 Toronto Grey Cup champions of Doug Flutie and Don Matthews. Still, again and again they rallied, forcing turnovers, scoring a special teams touchdown and fighting to the end. Their leader was the 38-year-old Charleston Hughes, second all-time in sacks behind Wes Covington. The coaches made him a healthy scratch the previous two games but with no one left he was activated. Throwing his body around like a man half his age, he had a sack and forced a fumble, which he recovered for a touchdown nullified because he used his hand to move the ball forward rather than his foot. Strange, the same eagle-eyed ref earlier missed a smash to the Rider quarterback’s head which took place right in front of him.

But I digress.

Some suggested Saskatchewan likely would have won with Cody Fajardo at quarterback, rather than Jake Dolegala. Dickenson would have none of that.

“I thought Jake did a good job. He didn’t have a lot to work with. For some reason we hit a brick wall when we tried to run the football. That forced us to throw and we didn’t have the weapons. We have to find out why teams have been able to cancel the run.”

Should the game have been played at all? Because of their team’s effort, Roughrider fans were treated to an uplifting performance. But realistically the Riders had little chance. If it weren’t for the Argos continually shooting themselves in the foot, it wouldn’t have been close.

Last season the game would have been postponed until later in the year. The decision to proceed Sunday wasn’t fair to the Roughriders or their fans.

Murphy’s Law has governed the Saskatchewan Roughriders most of this month.

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks, for sure, for our team,” Dickenson allowed. “We’ve lost guys to suspension, had COVID run through the locker room, we had a lot of injuries. But every team has had adversity so we don’t want to feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve still got good players, guys that are hungry and want to play and we expect to do well.”

With a 4-3 record, they host the 4-1 Lions tomorrow. After that comes a most welcome week off.