Will the Flying Hawaian ever get a chance to fly?
The Saskatchewan Roughriders may be winning football games, but they are not playing all that well.
A sweep of eastern conference teams put the Riders at 8-6 heading into the last four games of the season, but an 18-17 win over Ottawa and their third string quarterback and a 27-24 last minute win over Toronto shows the Riders have a lot of room for improvement if they want to battle Winnipeg and Calgary in the playoffs.
Backing up just a bit, an 8-6 record is pretty good for a 5-13 team a year ago. After two and a half years of futility, this should be a cause for celebration. But the expectations of Riderville under Chris Jones are heightened, especially with a mandate of seeking “sustained excellence” as Rider CEO Craig Reynolds said in hiring Jones.
What was disturbing against Ottawa was the Rider defense allowing William Powell to set a new team rushing record and while they didn’t let James Wilder do the same thing for Toronto, an initial lack of punch in the offense that was rectified with the insertion of Brandon Bridge, left questions whether the Riders have a running game that can compete with the western leaders in November.