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– Say goodnight to the 2015 Season Roughrider Fans –It Likely Gets Uglier from Here

Jul 27, 2015 | 10:24 AM

The Saskatchewan Roughriders season may only be five games old, but for all intents and purposes, Sunday night’s 31-21 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats marked the end of the Rider season.

It presented us with the spectacle of Kevin Glenn injuring his shoulder while tackling a defensive back who intercepted him. Considering the beating the Hamilton pass rush put on him, Glenn at least went out swinging compared to his defense, which tackled with all the viciousness of a kitten playing with a ball of yarn.

Third string quarterback Brent Smith went in, but the pass rush was again barely blocked and the Riders gave up a couple of drives to allow Hamilton to clinch the win. As of Monday morning, there was no word as to Glenn’s condition and the Saskatchewan Roughriders go to Edmonton on Friday. Edmonton on Saturday knocked Drew Willy of Winnipeg out of the game and planted a 32-3 win over the BluBonic Plague of Winnipeg. The Riders should hope they match Winnipeg’s offensive totals.

It was fascinating to listen to Rider Head Coach Cory Chamblin’s press conference after the game where he basically said that despite his genius, he was unable to come up with any answers for why the Riders matched their worst start since 1995. But hey Rider fans, the worst start was 0-12 and that was in 1979 and I was a season ticket holder then with my father. Believe me; it can get worse than this.

So the talk this week is when do firings take place, who gets fired, and who takes over. Chamblin at the very least is a dead man walking from here to the end of November. The Riders can clutch at injuries to explain their poor start, but other teams have injuries and find replacements. The Riders are still looking for a middle linebacker for example, and seem to specialize in signing players just coming off injuries – Jamal Richardson with his ACL and Shea Emry with his concussions (incidentally, Emry cut himself cutting meat for some barbecue a few days ago which will likely delay his return to the lineup).

The Riders coaching staff on the defensive end has not done anything to teach the players how to properly tackle as opposed to jumping at opposing players and looking like they are going for a knockout hit. The defensive secondary has not had a turnover. The defensive line is a joke and Tyrone Brackenridge has gone from one of the best defensive to one of the biggest liabilities.

Chamblin is signed to 2017 and if Brendan Tamblin, the Rider GM, had the cojones, he would tell Chamblin to hand off the defensive coordinator duties and concentrate on the overall picture as head coach. Chamblin could be a good head coach, but his overall record is now under 500 and his hubris in thinking he could be a defensive coordinator and head coach is costing this team big time.

In 2011 Chamblin was 8-10 as a defensive coordinator in Hamilton giving up 440 points. He is 0-5 giving up 162 points as a defensive coordinator/head coach with the Riders. So his defenses give up an average of 33 points a game.

So Coach Chamblin, tell us again how your defense is so much more aggressive than Richie Hall’s was last year!

If Glenn is out with a shoulder injury, and Travis Lulay seems to be measuring stick for shoulder injuries, the Riders will either have to add another quarterback (from where?) or use Smith, Tino Sunseri and Keith Price in some kind of gang attack. All I can picture is the rest of the league blitzing the Riders into submission.

The next Rider home game is at the end of August against Calgary. It is very likely the Riders will be winless at that point, and the 31000 at the game Sunday will be a high point attendance wise. The Riders will likely lose money or just break even this year. But the number of out of town season ticket holders putting their tickets up for sale will increase, so will unfortunate friends and relatives getting tickets to games that will resemble Christians versus Lions.

At least the Christians have a quarterback who can throw.

Because the candidates for General Manager and Head Coach are all likely employed elsewhere, firing someone now would result in just interim appointments. Jeremy O’Day would likely take over from Taman and Paul La Police would be brought in to take over from Chamblin. The problem with that is that with Glenn out, it will be a real disaster to salvage something from this season and permanent candidates may want to wait till the season is over before burning it down to the ground.

It is becoming clearer a change has to be made. For Craig Reynolds, the new CEO who stepped into Jim Hopson’s shoes, this is not what he expected his first year to be like. Now he has to figure out how long he lets the bleeding continue before it damages the bottom line and brand of the club in the province.

The Riders will only get worse.