The Saskatchewan Roughriders might be coming off one of their toughest losses of the season against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, but don’t push the panic button just yet, says former Green and White standout Luc Mullinder.
The Rider Broadcast Network analyst joined the SportsCage to talk about last weekend’s match-up and what’s ahead on Sunday against the B.C. Lions, with the first order of business being the loss to Hamilton.
Mullinder is of the opinion that it was one of ‘those’ games for the Roughriders, and throwing too much stock into a single bad game isn’t the way to go.
“You have those games where it just doesn't feel right from the minute you start warming up,” Mullinder said. “Every team goes through one of those games where just nothing works and it's hard to do anything and it's inconsistent. So you just have to make sure that you take the things that you see on film and harness the feelings that you had throughout the week and more importantly, the day before.”
The key is to not let things get to the point that they snowball, and Mullinder is confident that this crew isn’t about to let that happen — especially given their winning pedigree.
“You just got to make sure you learn from it, you just got to make sure it doesn't happen again,” Mullinder said. “You just got to go out there and perform, man. it's about that time, we're nearing Labor Day where this season really starts picking up.
“The nice part about it, there's a lot of guys in that locker room that have that championship quality to them. And they're going to be able to navigate games like the Hamilton game.”
As has been well reported, injuries were a major factor in how things went down against the TiCats. Things have already improved drastically on that front, with six players returning to the line-up against the Lions, including the likes of receivers Sam Emilus and James Lechter Jr. along with Ali Saad on the defensive line.
More experience and more overall ability can only help against a team like the Lions, Mullinder said, but having players gain game-time experience — even in a losing effort — isn't a bad thing either.
“There's just enough young guys playing right now to where once you start getting even healthier, now you start getting a lot deeper,” Mullinder explained, adding that coming out of training camp there are always questions as to where the depth players are going to be.
“You just got a couple games where you saw which guys you have in your depth.Now at the end of the year, when you expect your veterans to perform, it's going to be real nice knowing that so and so can give you a few reps here and there at a high level because he's got some of that experience.”
The previous meeting between the two teams in the Riders season opener back on June 13 was a barnburner, with Emilus catching the game-winning touchdown pass in the final minute.
As was the case in that game, all eyes will once again be on B.C. quarterback Nathan Rourke and what he can do. Rourke was his usual dangerous self in the opener, passing for 330 yards and rushing for 58 in the back-and-forth 31-27 Saskatchewan victory.
“Rourke's a good one where there's not really sort of that answer,” Mullinder said before pointing out that mixing things up on defence and giving a wide variety of looks will be crucial
“So just frustrate the quarterback. Nathan Rourke can beat you in a number of ways but it’s one of those deals where you go up to B.C. and you say, ‘we don't care who's who's coming in at quarterback’ It's about us. It's about our defensive execution. It's about our offensive execution.”
You can check out Luc Mullinder’s complete segment on the SportsCage right here:
