RIDERS MOVING ON FROM OTTAWA GAME
REGINA – The Saskatchewan Roughriders got back to practice on Tuesday, with little interest in discussing Saturday’s 30-25 home loss to Ottawa which snapped the team’s four game winning streak.
Head Coach Chris Jones said they’ve turned their attention to the team’s Week 15 game at Toronto on Saturday.
“You know what, we’re not even talking about the game,” Jones asserted. “We’re practicing for Toronto and the Ottawa game’s over.”
However it’s no secret the Riders’ lack of production on offense is becoming a concern. Saskatchewan has scored a league-low 15 touchdowns on offense, but Jones refused to point fingers.
“We just are out here attempting to work and try to get better,” Jones continued. “We’re not living off of what we did yesterday in any phase. Everybody wants to blame the offense for lack of production but defensively we gave up nearly 500 yards offense the other night. Again it’s not just one side of the football. It’s all three sides.
“We’re not worried about last year, like I just said. We’re not worried about last week. We’re worried about the here and now so we’re going to work as hard as we can to show up and play as good of football as we can to attempt to win a football game in Toronto against a very well-coached football team.
“We’ve got very good coaches and we’ve won a lot of football games in the past. We’re not going to sit there and panic over something that happened yesterday. We’re gonna continue to work and try to get better in all phases. We haven’t played good defense since before the break. We haven’t played the defense we played early in the season so we’re going to keep working to get back to what we’ve always done.”
Veteran offensive guard Brendon Labatte was a little more forthcoming with the team’s lack of success on offense.
“Extremely frustrating,” Labatte said. “That’s what we’re here to do; to put points on the board and we’re not doing a very good job of it. All you can do is keep your nose down, keep plugging away and trying to get better. That’s what we’re here to do this week.”
Quarterback Zach Collaros said after Saturday’s game that he’ll take the blame for the team’s struggles on offense. On Tuesday, he inferred that it was indeed a ‘team’ loss.
“I did watch the tape several times,” Collaros said. “We learned we didn’t play well enough to win and have to get better. Everything starts with detail. It’s just attention to detail, and execution.
“There were a lot of plays to be made out there. It’s not just one guy or one play. We just have to have better attention to detail, and focus.”
The Roughriders visit the Argonauts Saturday at 5:30 pm Sask Time on TSN and the 620 CKRM Rider Radio Network.
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