Riders Find New Ways to Lose – Has Chamblin Lost the Dressing Room?

The 2015 Saskatchewan Roughriders are losers, but they are entertaining losers following a 35-32 overtime loss to the British Columbia Lions.

This time the Riders managed to blow an 11 point fourth quarter lead and, following the failure of a third and short yardage play in the fourth quarter, gave up on a third and short yardage in the overtime session to kick a field goal that would not be enough to beat the Lions.

There were so many ways the Riders managed to blow this game that to narrowly focus on any of them would be a move Rider Head Coach Cory Chamblin will try to seize in his post-game comments. What matters though, is the following stat of Chamblin and his new aggressive defense that warranted the release of former Rider defensive coach Richie Hall.

Riders are 0-2 in pre-season and now 0-3 in regular season with Chamblin’s new defense.

The winner for what excuse the Riders would use for the loss, is that the Riders lost by inches and they have to play 60 minutes not, 58.

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Perhaps they do, Chamblin, but the fact of the matter is that your coaching or lack of leadership has led this team into an 0-3 start when they should be easily 2-1 and perhaps 3-0 if they had their crap together. Little things like play-calling or lack of play-calling, or perhaps sending the team in overtime to go for it on third and short instead of turtling and going for a field goal are why you have lead this team to such an incredibly stupid start.

Already the comparisons are being made between Chamblin and former Rider coach, Greg Marshall, who was a dinosaur and totally inept when it came to leading a team. The questions being asked are: do you give Chamblin eight games before making him walk the plank, or do you give him a season?

By not going for it in overtime in third and short, Chamblin shot his team in the foot by saying he had no confidence in the offense and perhaps was going to use them as the excuse he needed to justify the loss. Chamblin just served notice to his team he has no confidence in them, doesn’t even want to understand why half the team operates as it does, and for someone so confident about his defensive ability, certainly doesn’t seem able to call a defensive game that can win.

Now the Riders have lost three games by a total of nine points, but they have shown they cannot be trusted with a lead. When push comes to shove, they will roll over and die because they play not to lose instead of playing to win.

If I was coaching, I would have had the Riders go for it on third and less than a yard in overtime because I would have had the sense to have known in the new CFL, the last team with the ball wins and if you can’t score, you don’t deserve to win.

The other reason I would have gone was to show the offense that even though you came up short in the fourth quarter, I am counting on you to do better and win the game. Seeing how the defense gives up mostly touchdowns in overtime, you have to score touchdowns to have a shot at maybe a tie.

The Lions are in town on Friday and that might be the last significant date of the season for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. A loss on Friday, even in overtime, and the Riders season is effectively over. We can start the Cory Chamblin firing watch, although considering his contract was extended, the Riders may be rethinking that decision and the extended payout they will have to make to him when they are looking to move into a new stadium and have payments to make to the city.

If the Riders do lose on Friday, they will suffer a decline in attendance as people look at the gong show on the field and wonder why they should drive in from Prince Albert, Saskatoon, North Battleford or Swift Current to support such a gong show. A loss on Friday and the Riders will be so emotionally damaged, or at least their coaches will, that they will be unable to man up and try to make a run at it for the rest of the season.

Maybe before Cory Chamblin addresses the media, let alone his team, he should have looked in the mirror, then apologized to his team for letting them down and taken the responsibility for the loss onto himself and not blamed anyone else.

But that isn’t the Cory Chamblin way – choking in the last minutes of a game and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory now seems to be the Saskatchewan Roughrider way. Well, I saw this before in the 1980s and 1990s and I don’t think I or anyone else has the patience to go through that crap again.