CFL Obituaries: Continuous defensive and late offensive issues doom Roughriders

The CFL saw its first team officially eliminated from the playoffs Friday night, with the Saskatchewan Roughriders' 30-15 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats dropping them to 2-13 and mathematically knocking them out of postseason contention. Thus, it seems like an excellent time to bring back the CFL Obituaries series. We'll discuss how and why each team's season went the way it did after they're eliminated from playoff contention, knocked out of the playoffs, or win it all. First up, those Saskatchewan Roughriders. 

The Saskatchewan Roughriders' season passed away Friday night in Hamilton, surrounded by the Riders' 46-man roster, their coaching staff and a crowd of 24,222, most of whom were rooting for the opposing Ticats. The season was predeceased by former head coach Corey Chamblin and former general manager Brendan Taman, both of whom were fired August 31 after Saskatchewan fell to 0-9. No official cause of death has yet been announced, but constant defensive weakness and an offence that became anemic as time went on both appear to have been important factors. Roster-construction issues also seem to have played a role.

The defensive issues were prominent all season long, but they were especially noticeable early in the year. Through five games, the Riders led the league in 17 of the 30 offensive categories the CFL tracks weekly, but were 0-5. That was largely because of the defence, which was dead-last in 15 of 25 categories, including such crucial ones as points allowed per game (33.0) and first downs conceded (118). Heading into this week's games, though, things hadn't really improved much; Saskatchewan was last in 12 of 24 defensive categories (the CFL changed the format of its weekly stats midway through this season, and interception return yards no longer seem to be tracked), including points allowed per game (which had improved to 30.9, at least). They were last in raw first downs allowed (307) and second-worst in first downs allowed per game (21.9), and now last in yards allowed per game (382.1; they were second-last to B.C. earlier in the year). We have seen a few better defensive efforts from the Riders down the stretch, as they held Winnipeg to 19 and 22, Ottawa to 30 and Montreal to 27 in the four games following Chamblin's firing (and Chamblin was heavily involved in coaching the defence himself, so there have been noticeable schematic changes since his departure), but since then, they gave up 46 to B.C. and now 30 to Hamilton. Thus, the defence hasn't really improved much.

It's the offence that really changed drastically, though. In the younger days of this season, the Riders were on fire offensively despite losing starting quarterback Darian Durant in their first game. Veteran backup Kevin Glenn stepped in and did so admirably, while running back Jerome Messam got the ground game off to a hot start. That led to Saskatchewan topping the league in 17 of 30 categories through five weeks, including net offensive yards per game (467.5; Hamilton was second at 379.8), first downs (125), rushing yards per game (146.8), yards per rush (7.0), yards per pass (9.1) and passing yards per game (332.0). When Glenn got hurt in late July, though, things took a significant downturn, with third-stringer Tino Sunseri particularly struggling before he was eventually cut (following the firings of Taman and Chamblin). Rookie and fourth-stringer Brett Smith was better, but not as good as Glenn, and Glenn wasn't able to recapture his old form once he returned from injury a couple of weeks ago.

That helps explain why the Riders' offence only led the league in two categories heading into this week, and even those had taken significant downturns. Their rushing yards per game had fallen to by 23.9 to 122.9 and their yards per rush had dropped to 6.3; both were still best in the CFL, but not as dominant as they had been earlier in the year. Messam has performed pretty consistently, and currently leads the league with 826 rushing yards (B.C.'s Andrew Harris has 819 and is in action Saturday night, though), but without a consistently-effective passing game, it hasn't led to much scoring. Saskatchewan's aerial attack was sixth in yards per game (257.9) heading into this week, and that's a big part of why their points per game had fallen to 24.4, also sixth in the league. Those numbers are even more remarkable when you consider just how good the Riders' offence was early, which is still factored into these season-to-date averages; that illustrates how bad they've been lately.

The Roughriders' season is survived by interim head coach Bob Dyce and interim general manager Jeremy O'Day, but both are facing challenges of their own. Yes, there have been some positives since they took over, including the only two wins of the year, but there hasn't been substantial, sustained improvement. Some of that can't be done in the middle of the year, and the aging roster they were working with was always a problem, but more progress may be needed if Dyce and/or O'Day want to keep these jobs on a more permanent basis. We'll see what they and the other Rider survivors can do down the stretch. The playoff hopes have passed on, but there are still chances to play spoiler and to play for jobs next year; the responses from coaches, players and executives may determine if they'll survive the offseason.