REGINA — Some of the faces have changed but the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ defence is providing an all-too familiar view for opposing quarterbacks.
Saskatchewan entered the bye week ranked No. 1 in the CFL with 20 sacks despite not having a single player among the top 10.
It’s a stark contrast to the Riders’ league-leading sack attack in 2009, led by all-star defensive ends John Chick and Stevie Baggs, both of whom finished among the league leaders and used it as a springboard to the National Football League.
Their replacements, Luc Mullinder and Brent Hawkins, currently share the team lead with three apiece. Mike McCullough and Jerrell Freeman also have three, well behind league-leaders Phillip Hunt of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Montreal Alouettes’ John Bowman, who have seven apiece.
“It has just been a good team effort,” Mullinder said Saturday after the Riders returned to practice at Mosaic Stadium. “It’s well spread out right now. I know there were a lot of questions out there but (defensive co-ordinator Gary Etcheverry) has done a great job scheming for success. It’s a team game. When we get to Week 20, when we get to this Grey Cup that we want to get to, it’s going to be a team that wins it.”
The ability to replace last year’s dynamic duo — and the feared pass rush they created — was the biggest question mark facing the Riders heading into this season. Those concerns appear to have been addressed, albeit in a different manner than the past, minus some big names.
“That’s awesome when you have a team playing like that together,” said Hawkins. “I think it speaks for our team, too, as far as there being no ego. Our defence is getting better game by game. You’d have to be a fool not to see it. It makes me real excited. It blows my mind to see where we can take it.”
Etcheverry has refused to dwell on the loss of Baggs and Chick. Despite replacing those sacks by committee, the veteran defensive co-ordinator won’t get caught up in the numbers game.
After all, stats can be for losers.
After all, stats can be for losers.
“For those people who had questions about (replacing the ends), I hope they think the questions are answered,” Etcheverry said. “But we’re not trying to get sacks. I don’t believe there’s a high correlation between getting sacks and winning. Because of that, we don’t dwell on sacks. We’re not trying to get traditional statistics that the media and the fans look at. We have a whole separate set of (internal) statistics that we’re trying to achieve.
“One of the simple ones is when we’re out there we don’t want people scoring touchdowns. Over the last couple, three games, they’ve scored two or fewer touchdowns. That’s a huge thing. In reality, if a team scores three or fewer touchdowns on the defence you shouldn’t lose very many of those football games.”
Etcheverry’s team concept has been quickly embraced by Hawkins, who’s still enjoying a strong rookie season individually.
“I didn’t even know we were leading the league in sacks,” added Hawkins, whose team now sits one sack behind Montreal and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats after the West Division’s bye week. “It’s not a stat we look at. Yeah, Baggs and Chick from last year had 12 and 11 sacks, respectively, but we’d rather get that W any day.
“Going into this week leading in sacks, we don’t care. I heard somebody say the other day we have the worst pass defence in the CFL. We don’t care. We’re still winning. The defence we have is great. The thing is, it’s going to get better. I’m looking forward to riding with it.”
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