By Riderville

Riderville Report – September 25

Sep 26, 2011 | 8:26 AM

42-5.

Get ready to clear your calendars for the rest of the CFL season Rider fans, after that awful performance Saturday at Mosaic Stadium, the Saskatchewan Roughriders Grey Cup appearance streak ends at two.

In a CFL season which resembles some kind of weird science experiment, the Saskatchewan Roughriders had a chance to push themselves into playoff contention Saturday against the BC Lions, but folded like a cheap suit in a selfish display of cheap penalties, lousy tackling and unimaginative offense.

The turning point was probably the coin toss which the BC Lions used to roll off a seven minute drive for a field goal, icing the Rider offense and what happened after that was just ugly if you could stand to watch it.

Marc Parenteau's snap over the head of Darian Durant pointed out the Rider problems. They were unprepared totally for this game, failing to execute on even a high school level in areas like special team coverage, or simple blocking.

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The Riders were unable to get into a sense of rhythm, which the Lions exploited by jumping on the Rider receivers, intercepting passes and breaking through their pass coverage for a 100 yard touchdown that took the crowd out of the game before they even had a chance to cheer for something, anything.

Nick Graham's ejection for punching an opposing player kind of summed up the Riders head space on that day. Instead of thinking of the team and showing the discipline to not further hurt the team, Graham let his frustration flag fly, hurting the Riders even further and showing fans this team didn't have the character to even try to mount a comeback.

The Rider players had no one to blame but themselves for this thumping, which combined with Hamilton's win over Calgary makes it unlikely the Riders will continue their nine year playoff appearance streak.

Coach Ken Miller and some of the Rider players could talk about accountability all they wanted after the game, but either the Riders believed their own clippings during their three game winning streak, or they simply won their first two games on emotion, barely eked out a win over Toronto, and their inability to be competitive at a higher level came to the fore against BC.

The bottom line was results and the Riders for whatever reason have not appeared a lot at their own home games, disappointing fans from across the province who have rearranged their schedules to come many hours to Regina to sit in stunned disbelief in a performance lacking in heart and character.

Rider fans don't mind if the team loses if at least they try, but this game, a must win to establish themselves as a third place team, showed the Riders lack either the heart or talent to be considered a playoff team.

Character in a football team comes out on the field, and while the Rider players may have bought themselves some time with a rebound after Greg Marshall was fired, their lack of character wa brought into focus in a game that actually meant something.

Which brings up the question about where the Riders go from here. Do they bring in players to give them an early try out for next year or see what they have on the roster now?

Darian Durant has had control of the offense, but this week he hit a brick wall. His tendency to throw inopportune interceptions again hurt the team, and the Rider tendency to do running plays on first down shows that perhaps the problem was not entirely Doug Berry. Durant may want to carry himself as an upper level CFL quarterback, but the bottom line is how a quarterback responds facing adversity.

If fans ready Durant's body language thought there was a problem between Durant and Berry, and Berry got eliminated, then his body language while getting hammered by BC begs the question of whether Durant is willing to show he has the character to take the next step to being a top quarterback.

The bottom line for any quarterback is delievering in a championship game. Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills appeared in four consecutive Super Bowl games, but won none. He is considered a good quarterback, but not a great one.

John Elway of the Denver Broncos got hammered early in his career in a Super Bowl or two, but at the end of his career when he won consecutive Super Bowls, Elway was finally considered a championship quarterback.

Getting to the big game is one thing. Delivering is another. Durant is in danger of being another Henry Burris, a great front runner, but someone whom once you get into his head, you can rattle his head and his team.

I was dumbstruck by what I saw on the field on Saturday afternoon. And leaving after the 50/50 draw was announced, it struck me that my weekends have become more open because the Riders cannot be considered a credible playoff team, never mind hosting a home playoff game.

This team has given up too much ground earlier in the season to come back in the standings and has not shown the consistency that teams like BC are somehow able to muster on their five game winning streak.

This means I can enjoy whatever is left of the great weather because after walking out of Mosaic Stadium, all I could think of was there was three hours of my life I will never get back.