Time flies when you’re having fun, or at least something like that.
For fans of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the first half of the 2023 season has been a roller coaster. From the chaos of the game-winning rouge against Edmonton, the potential season-ending injury to quarterback Trevor Harris, and the club’s middle-of-the-pack record, fans have experienced just about everything.
The good news for the Green and White is they’re still in the thick of the playoff race and have just as good of a shot as anyone at finishing third in the West Division. In the CFL, how you finish matters a lot more than how you started.
The bad news is the team is probably only in that position thanks to some pretty lacklustre play from Calgary, Ottawa, and Hamilton, all of whom are two points back of the Riders with three wins on the season.
What will happen in the back half of the season? Who knows. All I know is it’ll interesting, as it’s never dull in Riderville.
Ahead of Touchdown Atlantic, head coach Craig Dickenson gave his team a grade of C for the first third of the season. With three extra games in the books since then, here’s how I would grade the Riders’ first half of the season.
Offence: D
Coming into this year, all eyes were on the Riders’ offence to see if it would improve compared to the last couple of seasons.
I don’t know what to make of Saskatchewan’s talent at the game’s most important position as none of Trevor Harris, Mason Fine, Jake Dolegala, and Shea Patterson have played enough to generate a reasonable sample size of their work. As a group, you’d like to see more, but it’s hard to hold that against any of them individually.
One area in which the team has regressed is along the ground. Last year, Jamal Morrow averaged 5.3 yards per carry over 12 games, while this year he’s down to 4.1. That’s not the type of production you want to see, especially when the run game was supposed to be a key part to the offence.
The one positive has been the play of the receivers, most notably Shawn Bane Jr., Sam Emilus, and Tevin Jones. For the first time in a while, it feels like the Riders have a young group of pass catchers to build around.
The jury remains out regarding whether or not Kelly Jeffrey is a legitimate CFL offensive coordinator. Here’s hoping he has to deal with fewer injuries in the second half of the season.
Defence: B+
There’s no question which unit is carrying this team right now. Through the first nine weeks of the season, the Riders had allowed the league’s lowest number of passing yards per game, the fourth-fewest rushing yards, and the fourth-fewest offensive touchdowns.
The defence’s biggest problem has been a lack of splash plays as they’ve generated the fewest takeaways and are also near the bottom of the league in sacks. I feel like the latter would bother defensive coordinator Jason Shivers more than the former, as his defence has been more about being fundamentally sound rather than generating big plays.
Shivers is the real deal and the Riders are lucky to have him.
Special Teams: B
The third side of the ball has been generally solid for the Riders once again this year.
Kicker Brett Lauther has gotten over some early season misses to return to his usual form, averaging 84 percent on his field goals and making a clutch game-winning 53-yarder against Ottawa. There are no concerns there.
It’s rare that an injury makes a team better, but that’s what happened at punter in Saskatchewan. Kaare Vedvik missed some time during training camp, which forced Adam Korsak into the lineup. The Global hasn’t given up the spot since and has been an upgrade, helping flip the field for an offence that often hasn’t.
As for the return game, there isn’t much to say about Mario Alford that hasn’t already been said. The league’s reigning Most Outstanding Special Teams Player hasn’t broken one in a few weeks, but that’s mostly due to opponents game-planning against him. Alford might be Saskatchewan’s best player.
Coaching: C-
This grade may ruffle a few feathers as I know some fans want to see Dickenson fired.
Once again, it hasn’t been an easy year for the bench boss. It seems as though just about every decision he makes, right or wrong, tends to blow up in his face. I’ve generally been in favour of Dickenson’s aggressive decision-making.
The wins haven’t come as often as he’d like and when they do, they haven’t been easy. That’s been perhaps the biggest struggle of the Dickenson era: winning games the team is expected to win and doing so without drama. Both wins over Edmonton and the matchup against Ottawa were perfect examples of that.
One area in which the coaching staff deserves credit is penalties. Last year, the Riders were the most penalized team in the league and Dickenson challenged his team to be the most physical and least penalized team in the CFL this year. While they haven’t completely hit that mark, the club has taken the third-fewest penalties this season, which is still an impressive turnaround.
It’s safe to say that Dickenson’s seat is hot right now and he needs something pretty significant to happen to cool it down.
