S.T.B.
Sprint to ball!
It’s a philosophy that is clearly working to start the season for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The attitude for the defence comes from the top down and is fed through head coach Corey Mace, through coordinators and assistants Josh Bell, J.C. Sherritt, Phillip Daniels and Jordan Linnen.
The Roughriders’ defence, sure, has given up the most yards per game through the air. However, the way they are attacking each game with their predominately zone defence has worked four times out of five.
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The Riders take away the run by playing a physical game up front, working with an aggressive, hard hitting secondary. They make the opposition one dimensional with a bundle of second-and-longs. Next, they feast on disrupting the pass rusher into mistakes. And the ball hawking defence is more than willing to…sprint to the ball. Then, go get the ball!
Through their five games, the Riders have an astounding 11 interceptions to go along with five fumble recoveries.
The team is being led by Rolan Milligan Jr. and Jameer Thurman as they’ve created eight of the 16 takeaways that lead the league in 2024. Last year, the Riders had 15 interceptions through all 18 games!
They’re on pace to more than double that this season.
The players say their attitude and effort is inherit from the coaching staff. The coaching staff says the attitude and effort is just how these players instinctively play football.
So while they point the finger at each other to give credit for the turnaround in defence, let’s look at where this coaching staff comes from.
Mace and Josh Bell, the Riders’ defensive pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach, were both in Toronto last year. The Argonauts – you guessed it – led the league in takeaways with 27 interceptions and 15 fumble recoveries.
Coincidence?
Well, being as how they do not have one member of the Argonauts’ defensive personnel who came over this off-season, I would say not.
The scheme Mace and Bell deploy is complex in terms of Xs and Os, and mixing and matching coverages, however the mentality is pretty simple.
Veteran Jameer Thurman, who knows Mace, Bell and linebackers coach Sherritt from his Calgary days tells me every defensive coordinator has the same ‘get to the ball’ philosophy but these coaches allow their players to play a little more free. The coaches want the players to ‘play the play’ and use their instincts to adjust to the play. That’s why you see players be able to be in position to get to the ball and create turnovers.
Yes, Mace admitted this week that the players have been caught peaking a few times to create the turnover, which has allowed teams to hit some big plays and sometimes score.
There is definitely room to improve the Roughriders’ defence to limit those types of mistakes but the coaches will be cautious not to take away the pure talent they have of each athlete.
But you can’t argue with the results.
They’ve stopped the run, they’ve won the turnover battle and the team is 4-1 thanks in large part to the multiple turnovers they have created, especially in the fourth quarter to close out games.
While stopping the run may be a little harder this week with Brady Oliveira taking handoffs, as Jameer Thurman has stated, they haven’t tried to run the ball against Saskatchewan yet.
Now they face a team that has coughed up the ball to their opponents more than anyone else in the CFL, with a surprising 11 turnovers this season by a Bombers team that is usually one of the better teams in protecting the football.
The Riders’ defence may be licking its chops, although, that’s the attitude this team will have every week.