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Corey Chamblin might be out after Riders drop to 0-9 with loss to Redblacks

Corey Chamblin might be out after Riders drop to 0-9 with loss to Redblacks

Sunday's game against the Ottawa Redblacks set up as an excellent chance for the Saskatchewan Roughriders to pick up their first win of the season. The Redblacks entered the day 4-4, had been outscored 228-158 on the year, had lost their last two games and played very poorly in the first half of this one, leading just 14-10 at the halfway point. The Roughriders played poorly themselves early on, though, and they completely collapsed in the second half, losing 35-13 in the end and falling to 0-9. While Ottawa deserves credit for what they did here, this game really illustrated the myriad issues that have plagued the Roughriders to date, and it (and the controversial second-quarter decision to pull starting quarterback Brett Smith in favour of Tino Sunseri in particular) may just be the final straw that leads to the long-anticipated firing of head coach Corey Chamblin.

This game started as a comedy of errors on both sides, but there weren't many Riders' fans laughing when it was over. Saskatchewan lost two fumbles on the day, produced just 228 passing yards and 69 rushing yards, committed countless mind-boggingly stupid penalties and allowed a struggling Redblacks' team to find their footing. The Riders' offence struggled all day long, but got particularly bad after Chamblin pulled Smith for Sunseri, and the Saskatchewan defence couldn't stop anything Ottawa did, especially in the second half. Even the relatively low-scoring first half was more about the Redblacks' own mistakes than any strong defence from the Roughriders. Saskatchewan did everything possible to lose this game, and it shouldn't be surprising that they did so and did so by a big margin. 

The call to replace Smith with Sunseri might be the most egregious issue here, and it may be what's cited if Chamblin is in fact fired. Smith, a 22-year-old CFL rookie out of Wyoming, has provided Saskatchewan with some hope after Darian Durant and Kevin Glenn went down. Yes, he had some early struggles in this one, including an interception, but he still completed six of his 10 passes for 68 yards and looked reasonably capable, and the Riders were only down by four when he left. Smith's a rookie, and he's going to make mistakes, but he's shown both that he can be a competent CFL quarterback for now and that he might be a very good one down the road. Pulling him for Sunseri, who's accomplished little if anything positive in his three years with the organization, was a ridiculous move, and one that was roundly bashed by Saskatchewan fans, media and other observers:

Sunseri's final stat line of 12 completions on 18 attempts for 168 yards doesn't look too bad, but it doesn't tell the whole story. He did little until some meaningless drives late in the fourth quarter, and his yardage total was significantly buttressed by an Ottawa DB proving unable to stay with Weston Dressler, creating a 46-yard gain. Yes, the loss was far from all Sunseri's fault, but the choice to go to him after some minor struggles from Smith deserves all the criticism it received and more, and it was a big part of what took this from a winnable game to a blowout.

There was much more that went wrong here, of course. Saskatchewan didn't create a ground game at all (which led to former Rider Kory Sheets bashing their playcalling, and particularly their decision to keep calling play-action passes when everyone in the building knew the run wasn't coming). Sunseri finished as their leading rusher with 33 yards on two carries, and Smith had 25 on four before he was pulled, so Saskatchewan got just 11 yards from running backs and receivers on seven carries. The Riders' defence (personally run by Chamblin) was also terrible, as it had been for most of the season, letting Jeremiah Johnson pick up 92 yards on 12 carries and allowing Henry Burris to throw for 269 yards. There was also a complete and utter lack of discipline present, as Saskatchewan took dumb penalty after dumb penalty, killing their own drives and extending Ottawa's. All of that alone, plus the drop to 0-9, might be reason to fire Chamblin, but the call to pull Smith for Sunseri might be even more glaring. Previous reports he was on the way out turned out to be premature, but it may take a miracle for Chamblin to survive this particular debacle.