By Jamie Nye

Little things causing big problems for Roughriders

Aug 2, 2011 | 6:37 AM

The Saskatchewan Roughriders 1-4 record is in indicative of the way they're playing. The team heads into the sixth week of the season knowing they have themselves to blame for one of their worst starts to a season in the last decade.

After Saturday's 22-18 loss to the Calgary Stampeders receiver Jason Clermont apologized to fans and teammates for his dropped touchdown pass and it's a level of accountability Clermont believes a team needs to have to be successful.

“You have to play with courage and when there are set backs it's easy to get discouraged. We need to be encouraging our teammates and making sure we still have that confidence and still let guys know you still have their back.”

Attention to detail

After Saturday's loss to the Stampeders, Head Coach Greg Marshall was very clear that he believes the quarterback position is the least of his concerns and on Monday explained what he does believe is slowing the Roughriders down.

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“We're not consistent enough in our performance and we're missing out on opportunities whether it's a dropped ball or a missed tackle, a missed assignment. We're having too many of those at critical times. The other night it was a good hard fought game and they made more plays then we did down the stretch to help get a positive result for them.”

Clermont acknowledged the mistake he made but there is a trend of missed opportunities, “It just comes back to fundamentals and being focussed on the right things. Watched game film today and there's a play here and there that each guy would like to have back.”

Clean-up time

The Roughriders head into the week trying to clean up those obvious mistakes. The team acknowledges that mistakes will be made but right now they feel too many are being made.

“If we could clean up even 10 percent of the mistakes that we had it's a different ball game,” stated Clermont.

And possibly a different season, as the team has found themselves with a tough hill to climb in the West Division standings.

“There's a little bit of miscommunication on some plays and guys not understanding the details of other plays and there's just some finish problems that some of us veterans have been unable to finish a couple of plays and those would have made a big difference.”

Are changes coming?

Marshall is still looking at his personnel, saying he meets regularly with General Manager Brendan Taman and Vice President of Football Operations Ken Miller to discuss who they have on the roster and if improvement needs to be made.

But Marshall is not going to replace somebody just for the sake of shaking things up, “If we make any moves it won't be to shake things up, it will be to make our team better.”

The Roughriders have made one obvious move in the release of Tad Kornegay last week and it appears that Tristan Jackson has held up his end of the bargain in replacing one of the Roughriders more popular players.

News and Notes

The Roughriders didn't make any changes to the line-up card for day one of practice, although some veteran players got to sit and watch much of a shortened Monday workout, including quarterback Darian Durant and receiver Weston Dressler. Running back Wes Cates did not suit up for Monday's practice and kicker Eddie Johnson continues to have a lightened workout after getting dinged up in Montreal two weeks ago.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders have lost defensive tackle Ryan Lucas to the Montreal Alouettes. The Alouettes claimed Lucas of the Roughriders practice roster.

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