REGINA - Ten games into this Canadian Football League season, you get the feeling the story of the 2023 Saskatchewan Roughriders is a long way from being settled.
Now just over halfway through the season, the Riders stand at exactly five wins and five losses — not far off from the 6-5 record that the Riders posted a year ago right before the entire season went off the rails, losing seven in a row.
Last season’s Roughrider team was beset by turmoil, starting with the Garrett Marino suspension and followed up by the struggles of quarterback Cody Fajardo on offence, not to mention the well-publicized woes of the offensive line. It all came to a boil late in the season, ending with Fajardo's departure to Montreal this season.
But the sense you get around this year's team is a major difference in tone going into the final eight games of this season.
This year, the locker room has projected a sense of teamwork and of pumping up one another's accomplishments, and of supporting one another and not pointing fingers.
While there has been adversity, most notably due to the host of injuries that decimated the lineup during the first part of the season — with quarterbacks Trevor Harris and then Mason Fine among the many casualties — the Roughriders have consistently relied on its own resilience.
It should be noted the word "resilience" isn't a word made up by the sportswriters to describe this year's team. It's the word players and coaches have used, time and time again, to describe the team's approach and attitude this season. Even with all the injuries, there has been a “next man up” mentality among the players. That's also a term the players used.
That quiet confidence and never say die attitude might be one reason why the Roughriders are still in the fight, in third place in the West and in a playoff position ahead of four other teams in the league.
What has been most defining about the club so far have been the number of hair-raising performances and close finishes, and some incredible individual game performances.
For two weeks in a row, Nic Marshall pulled off a game-clinching interception — once against Calgary’s Jake Maier in double overtime for a 29-26 win at McMahon Stadium, and then again the next week when he picked off Taylor Cornelius in the final minute to preserve a miraculous 12-11 win over the Edmonton Elks.
The defence has been unsung heroes in keeping the Roughriders in games this year, even when the offence has not been at their best. A goal-line stand helped the Riders preserve a 17-13 win in Edmonton in the first game of the season, touching off the Elks slide in losing nine games in a row to start the season.
The Roughriders have also had a habit of eating up opposing quarterbacks, sacking Vernon Adams Jr. five times in the 34-29 upset win over BC, and sacking Dustin Crum six times against Ottawa.
On special teams, the Roughriders have gotten highlight-reel worthy performances from Mario Alford on kick returns, breaking the franchise record for most touchdown returns earlier this season
Placekicker Brett Lauther has also come through in clutch situations such as a 54-yard field goal to clinch a 26-24 win over Ottawa.
There have also been some highlight-reel catches. One was a miracle Hail Mary-style catch by Tevin Jones in the home game against Calgary -- a play that almost completed a miracle comeback and won them the game.
The long ball was also critical in the last BC game, when Sam Emilus made a jump-ball style catch in traffic on a deep throw by Jake Dolegala, taking it in for what proved to be the winning touchdown and sending the home Rider Nation fans into a frenzy.
These standout performances, along with better offensive line play and more discipline, have helped maintain the Roughriders at sea level in the CFL this season, instead of under water.
That latter situation seemed to stare the Roughriders in the face after quarterback Harris suffered a horrible leg injury in the Calgary game. The injury, and the scene of a despondent Harris being carted off the field, stands out as the most gut-wrenching moment of the season for Roughriders fans at Mosaic Stadium.
Mason Fine’s elevation to the starting quarterback position got off to a rough start in BC when the Riders failed to score a touchdown, and the pressure ramped up against Toronto in Touchdown Atlantic when he failed to throw a touchdown again.
It turned into a full-blown controversy when Jake Dolegala came in the game late and threw a touchdown. That touched off a ferocious debate from callers to the post-game call in shows on the radio, calling for Fine to be pulled and Dolegala to replace him.
Head Coach Craig Dickenson stuck with Fine, who ultimately redeemed himself in the 26-24 Ottawa win. But the low point of the season came in Montreal. Fine ended up injured, and Dolegala didn’t do much better as the Alouettes hammered the Roughriders 41-12.
With fan confidence in the offence at a season-low, Dolegala came through with a three touchdown performance against BC to quiet the critics — of which there have been many in Rider Nation this year.
The pressure has most definitely been on both Coach Dickenson and General Manager Jeremy O’Day this season, with both in the final years of their contracts. With their fates hanging in the balance the fans have scrutinized their every move. Dickenson particularly has felt the heat over coaching decisions such as his heavy-scrutinized decision not to kick the field goal at the end of the first half in BC.
The question now going into the final eight games is: who are the real Saskatchewan Roughriders? Can the Roughriders stay healthy, and consistently be the team capable of late-game dramatics and thrilling wins though the rest of the schedule? Or are they more like the team that has come up flat at the worst possible times against the likes of Montreal and Toronto?
There is also the question of whether they can consistently win against the top teams in the league. The Roughriders have shown they can beat the teams that are down on their luck in the standings such as Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa. The teams higher up the standings have been a different story. The question now is whether the Riders' most recent win over BC is a fluke, or a harbinger of big things to come.
Perhaps the answers to all of these questions will begin to emerge in the home-and-home games against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, starting this Labour Day weekend.
In any event, the final eight games of the 2023 season remain an open book for the Riders, and the fans still do not know how this story is likely to end up.
