By Jamie Nye

‘Soft’ Roughriders defensive line needs to improve

Jul 5, 2011 | 5:40 PM

The look on the face of Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive end Luc Mullinder said it all on Tuesday afternoon. The defence was not only beaten up by the opposing Edmonton Eskimos on Sunday, but also the coaching staff.

“Take the money and take the professional athlete (out of the picture) any time a man gets challenged and any time somebody calls you 'soft',” paused defensive end Luc Mullinder, “You just want to do everything you can, fight, scratch, claw to have that 'soft' thought removed from whoever said it to you.”

Mullinder was clearly emotional in his meeting with the media about the remark that clearly indicates the coaching staff was impressed with the defensive line play as the fans were.

The defensive line has played three weeks and has been unable to provide consistent pressure on the opposing quarterback. The lack of pressure allowed Eskimos quarterback Ricky Ray to be at relative ease, picking apart the secondary for nearly 300-yards and three touchdowns.

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It wasn't clear whether it was Head Coach Greg Marshall, defensive line coach Mike Walker or defensive coordinator Richie Hall who lauched the 's' word at the defensive line in meetings, but all three are clearly unimpressed with the overall performance of the front four.

“In a perfect world you always want to be able to get pressure with four people but regardless you have to be able to get pressure regardless of how many guys you send,” explains Hall, “At times Edmonton sent three guys and got pressure, you know maybe not right away, but they had a little bit of a push and at times we sent five and we didn't get that.”

Coach Walker held his defensive linemen in their post practice huddle for about 10 minutes, when those huddles are typically a 10-20 second meeting before heading into the locker room. The conversation was clearly once sided in favour of the line coach before the players headed to the locker room like children who just got banished to their bedroom without dinner.

Head Coach Greg Marshall wasn't about to say it was only the defensive line who needs to be challenged about their play when asked about Mullinder saying somebody called the linemen 'soft'.

“I'm not going to throw individuals or one area under the bus, but I don't think we played as physical as we needed to in general.”

Ready to prove themselves

After a week one embarrassment, Mullinder is ready to prove his worth as the starting defensive end, “I'm going to take it out on whoever lines up, I don't care if it's the Seattle Seahawks next week. The bottom line is we have to get better.”

It's a big test on Sunday as the Montreal Alouettes are up next on the schedule. (Saturday, 2pm, Mosaic Stadium)

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