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Rod Pedersen: Rider Insider

Jun 29, 2015 | 12:11 PM

A tornado has struck the trailer park.

And like with any natural disaster, it’s going to take weeks and weeks to clean up.

The 2015 Saskatchewan Roughriders’ regular season began in the worst possible fashion Saturday night as quarterback Darian Durant left the lid-lifting game just before halftime on a cart.  Durant’s Riders were trailing the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers 15-14 at the time.

With back-up pivot Kevin Glenn coming in for Durant for the second half, Saskatchewan flirted with the lead.  The game was tied 23-23 going into the fourth quarter and Saskatchewan even led by a field goal with 10 minutes to go.

However at the same time, Durant was being assessed by the club’s doctors, Bomber quarterback Drew Willy was impressively leading his team to a startling upset victory.

When the clock struck 0:00, the Blue Bombers were on top 26-23.  And the bad news was just beginning.

Rider head coach Corey Chamblin told a packed postgame news conference that they’d have an official assessment of Durant’s status later on Saturday night and that the team would inform the world of the news via a news conference Monday morning.

Minutes after the presser was adjourned, Chamblin was handed the fateful news.  Durant, the ‘Face of the Franchise’, had suffered a ruptured left Achilles tendon and his 2015 season was over.  It had lasted less than 30 minutes.  Chamblin even asked if they could re-assemble the media but by then it was too late.

And with that, the entire Rider Nation was sent reeling.

Assuredly the Roughriders never felt they’d have to cash in on the insurance policy that is Kevin Glenn this soon.  They’d stated publicly that they’d hoped Glenn wouldn’t have to be used, except sparingly, at all this year.  And the 36-year-old quarterback was fine with that.

Now, it’s Kevin Glenn’s team.

The 2014 season went down the tubes in mid-September when Durant suffered that season-ending right elbow injury in Winnipeg’s Banjo Bowl.  Now, many are writing the 2015 season off as well.

Season ticket holders were offering up their seats on social media for the balance of the season before midnight even struck on Saturday.

But it’s far, far too soon for that.  As stated at the beginning of this column, the damage is still being assessed.  And it extends well beyond Durant.

“Shea Emry was down, Nic Demski was down, Keenan MacDougall was down, and Marshay Green,” Chamblin huffed at the news conference, referring to their rash of injured starters.  “Hell, everybody but me almost.  That was tough.  The toughest part is they worked their tails off all camp to get in shape and then a bug bites us all at one time.  There’s no amount of prep you can do for that.”

I’m not kidding.  It was literally like a tornado blasted that locker room.  The postgame quotes were grief-stricken.

“It sucks.  For real,” groaned defensive end Alex Hall.  “It just really sucks.  We didn’t execute.  A lot of fundamental mistakes.  Winnipeg did a good job capitalizing on our mistakes and doing what they’re supposed to do.”

Sophomore receiver/returner Ryan Smith was equally stunned, moments after admirably filling in for injured veteran Weston Dressler.  He was quick to look to the immediate future with Kevin Glenn at the helm.

“Anytime you see a player like [Durant] go out, I kind of lost my breath,” Smith admitted on CKRM’s postgame show.  “You gotta bounce back.  We rallied around K.G. and he’s been a great player for a long time.  We’re excited to play for and with him.”

When Durant went down last year, the whole world could see the team sagged over its final nine games.  However the Riders’ braintrust felt they adequately made steps in the off-season to ensure that wouldn’t happen again.  Time will tell.

But Durant can’t tackle, nor can Glenn.  And the Riders’ shoddy defensive play was as much, or more, of a culprit in Week 1 than any injury to their starting quarterback.

“It was poor tackling,” Chamblin admitted.  “We’re a better tackling team, or we will be, than we were tonight.  The offense had their trials but they had their successes too.  Special teams had some troubles.  It was 30-26 but we still had a chance.  If we can correct those things, we’ll be back in the swing of it.”

Again, the damage is still being assessed.  And it’s major.  In fact it’s the most devastating set of circumstances to happen to this franchise since the 2009 Grey Cup and the infamous 13th Man incident.

Who in the world saw this coming?

A natural disaster indeed.

Rod Pedersen is the Voice of the Roughriders on the CKRM Rider Radio Network.