Saskatchewan Roughriders coach Corey Mace continues to publicly back kicker Alex Hale amid struggles, but that support is sounding more tepid by the week.
When asked after Tuesday’s practice if the Riders were thinking of bringing in another kicker, Mace responded in the affirmative before pumping Hale’s tires.
“Yeah, you always look at all those different options. We’ll see,” Mace said. “Ultimately, we’re going to have to send somebody out there to get the job done. Right now, Alex has been here and doing that. I’m going to have faith in him to do that.
“If we bring somebody in for competition, we’ll always do what’s best for the team. But Alex is more than capable of doing it. We’ve seen it.”
Hale has missed a field-goal attempt in three straight games and in five of seven contests overall. The CFL rookie is 12-for-17 on the season.
Hale pulled a 42-yard attempt wide left in the third quarter of Saskatchewan’s 28-26 win at Edmonton last Saturday, in what was his only three-point try of the game. He’s now 1-for-5 on kicks from 40 yards or more.
It’s the last stat that sticks out and Mace was asked directly about it on Tuesday.
“People would say our kicking was a struggle last year, and it ended up OK for us. We’ll see,” he said. “With Alex, we’ve got faith in the kid. He’s done some really good things for us in the totality of stuff.
“But, yeah, he’s got to make his kicks. That’s just everybody doing their job, and he knows that. It’s no secret. But I know he’s working his tail off at it, so we’ll keep rolling.”
Hale converted two point-after kicks earlier in the Edmonton game, but his missed field goal was his last potential scoring boot of the night.
The Riders went for two points after each of their last two touchdowns. The first time they were ahead by four points and were unsuccessful to end the third quarter. The second time they led by six points and were successful, padding their advantage to eight points with 6:20 remaining in regulation.
Mace said postgame that Hale’s miss and overall inconsistency had nothing to do with going for two twice.
“The last one would have been able to put us up two scores,” he said last Saturday. “The other one would have been able to put us up six in that situation.
“That was strictly just our first strategy.”
A few days later, doubled down on that mindset. He elaborated, stating that one of Hale’s long misses earlier in the season – a 47-yard try in Week 4 that was returned for a touchdown – wasn’t his kicker’s fault.
“I know what it looks like, but some of these games have been a little bit crazy,” Mace said. “The one in Calgary that burned us before half; that was my fault. I shouldn’t have even sent him. The conditions were terrible.
“That alone has made me think about certain things – what’s happening as far as the conditions and the game. We’ve (also) got a really good punter. We’ve been able to keep guys down there. Our cover teams are good. Sometimes we’ve gone for it. Our offence looks good. So, there are a lot of factors that go into it. It’s not just sending the kicker out there. (It’s) more of decisions that I’ve made in the past that wasn’t very smart that hurt the team on my behalf.”
