The biggest reason why the Saskatchewan Roughriders felt their defence faltered in last week’s loss to the Edmonton Elks sounds a lot like the opening line to the Guns N’ Roses classic “Civil War.”
What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.
Let’s let some of the principles spell it out why they gave up 510 yards and four touchdowns through the air to former Rider Cody Fajardo in a 36-34 loss to the Elks last Thursday.
“I don’t think they did anything that was too crazy or that we haven’t seen,” defensive back Marcus Sayles said to reporters in Regina on Tuesday. “It was just miscommunication and we’ve got to get those things cleaned up.”
Added fellow DB DaMarcus Sayles to Voice of the Roughriders Dave Thomas: “It’s just communication in the back end. It’s just us playing as a whole and playing together. We didn’t play well together. I feel like that’s what we need to do this week.”
It’s time to start talking and get on the same page with the rematch against the Elks looming Saturday in Edmonton.
The secondary’s struggles were evident last week, and DB Rolan Milligan Jr. was quick to take accountability postgame and vow they’d be better.
Sayles felt the defence played “really well” for the most part. However, that effort was undercut by giving up too many big plays, especially at inopportune times.
The highlights – or lowlights – were plentiful. There was a 54-yard gain off a play-action pass to Kaion Julien-Grant in the first quarter. There was the 57-yard touchdown to Austin Mack, who burned Riders’ Josh Woods before scoring in the third quarter. There was also that 81-yard bomb to Mack in the fourth, a play that came right after the Riders found the end zone. Sayles was beaten on that last one.
“We just had a couple busts,” Sayles said. “That’s unlike us.
“In our defence, we’ve all got to see the same thing. When one person doesn’t see the same thing, it can mess up the whole defence.”
Those errors were self-inflicted more than anything else, Fields said.
“I feel like most of the things we beat ourselves on is really just us versus us,” he said. “We just need to clean up our mistakes and we’ll be fine.”
They’d better figure it out.
Their mistakes were magnified because they were playing a top team in a pivotal battle for first place in the West Division. The Elks took full advantage.
The Riders are looking to make amends in the rematch Saturday to split the home-and-home set.
“It doesn’t matter who you play, if we have a lack of communication bad things happen,” Mace said. “Looking inward as a team, certainly things we can focus on. We expect to see some different looks from them as an offence. It’s going to come to us communicating so we can execute. If we don’t do that, we see what the result can look like, specifically with a really good football team, good football players that they have. Look inward first.”
