It isn’t all that often that one game encapsulates a team’s entire season, but that was almost exactly the case for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Western Semi-Final against the B.C. Lions last weekend.
The fast start to the game mirrored the Riders' own fast start to the campaign, where they sat with a 6-3 record at the midpoint of the campaign and looked destined to finish in the upper echelons of the CFL standings.
The second-half collapse that led to the loss to the Lions was almost eerie in the similarity to Saskatchewan’s struggles in the latter half of the campaign. And the defensive secondary’s inability to stop big plays and prevent the opposing quarterback from stringing together devastating drives was at the top of the list.
It was all a tough pill to swallow for the defensive back crew in the immediate aftermath of the defeat, especially with how good it looked for the team in the early going. Both in the game and the season.
“We started so strong both offensively and defensively, and then it just started not falling in our favour,” said Tevaughn Campbell, who was limited to 10 games this season thanks to a broken forearm. “A few plays here and there really decided the game for us. It’s hard to even watch back.”
Fellow halfback Marcus Sayles was of much the same opinion, especially with how things changed so hard and fast in the game almost solely thanks to a couple of explosion-play touchdowns.
“When you look back on it, we felt like we had them,” Sayles said. “Everything was going well for us and then one momentum change changed the whole momentum of the game. They started picking up better plays. We started missing assignments. At this stage of the game, you can’t afford to have those mess-ups.”
It was a microcosm of the latter half of the campaign, where almost every one of Saskatchewan’s late-season losses saw big play after big play for the opposition, often thanks to complete breakdowns on the defence.
Defensive back Rolan Milligan Jr. got to watch all of it from the sidelines after suffering a season-ending knee injury early in the campaign. He pointed to the raft of injuries Saskatchewan’s starters suffered on the pass defence side of things as a major factor.
“A lot of different guys who played a lot of games, made a lot of plays, and tried to gel just like any other secondary,” he said. “We just weren’t good enough this year as a group. That happens every year to some groups. I’ll just try to make sure that we’re a better version of ourselves the next time, wherever we’re at.”
How they go about making that happen begins pretty much now.
“It starts in the offseason,” Milligan said. “Self scout – what you did well, what you didn’t do so well and working on your weaknesses and make them as close to your strengths as possible. Just believing in yourself, too. You’ve got to believe you’re a good guy if you want to be a good guy. Especially playing DB, if you don’t have the mentality to play DB, you’re not going to be a successful DB.”
Sayles, Campbell, and Milligan are all pending free agents.
Sayles for one would like to see the crew reassemble for another shot at the title, especially if they can all stay healthy for the majority of the season.
“We had a lot of promise,” Sayles began. “We have a lot of potential. We’ve had players that have played in Grey Cup games already. We have veteran experience. Everybody’s been so locked in throughout the season. We have a great group. We’re really close. Everybody hangs out outside of the locker room. Everything’s been good for the most part. We just couldn’t get it all together when it mattered the most.”
Campbell was indecisive on potentially returning, in no small part to suffering major injuries the last two seasons and being 33 years old.
“Injuries definitely play a part, I’m not going to lie about that,” he said. "Especially being my age in the league, suffering back-to-back years of broken bones, it weighs heavy on me. I’ve got to talk about it. I’m undecided right now. We’ll make that decision in the offseason coming up here."
