RIDER OFFENSE THROWS CHANGEUP

By Ian Hamilton, Leader-PostSeptember 6, 2009Be the first to post a comment


Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker Barrin Simpson apparently has a future in motivational speaking.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders' offence, inspired by comments Simpson made in the days leading up to Sunday's Labour Day Classic, turned in a solid effort during a 29-14 CFL victory at Mosaic Stadium.

"Those guys made some comments earlier in the week that said that we were only a big-play offence and that we couldn't dink and dunk and move the ball down the field," said Roughriders quarterback Darian Durant, who later identified Simpson as the speaker.

"We knew we could do that. It's just that we try to take what the defence gives us. If they want to come up and play man, then we're going to take our shots down the field. They played a little bit more zone and gave us the underneath stuff, so we took it."

Simpson was quoted in Saturday's Winnipeg Sun as saying Durant was "a big-play quarterback" running a unit that was "not a dink-and-dunk, march-it-down-the-field, ball-control offence."

"When (offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice) saw that article, he gave everybody a sheet of paper with the quotes on there," Durant said. "From then on, it was, 'OK, you don't think we can execute? We'll show you.' "

"They are a big-play team, but I said that (in the Sun) to make them not throw deep," Simpson explained with a grin. "I'm a crafty vet. I figured we would have more success against the dink and dunk than we did in the first half. In the second half, we had a lot more success."

Operating into the wind in the first quarter, Saskatchewan put together two touchdown drives. The longest completed pass on the first — a nine-play, 75-yard march — was a 14-yarder to Rob Bagg. The longest hookup on the second — a nine-play, 72-yard possession — was a nine-yarder to Gerran Walker.
Durant's longest completion in the first half covered 15 yards. He topped that with a 21-yarder to running back Wes Cates in the second half.

"We figured they were going to try to dink and dunk," Simpson said. "We just didn't make enough plays on second down. They had some good calls against our calls. They had some success with the shovel (pass to Cates) versus some of the blitzes we were trying to run. They did a good job of scheming us."

"I had told (the quarterbacks) all along, 'They're going to try to take away the deep throws, they're going to try to take away (Weston) Dressler, they're not going to play a lot of man coverage and they're going to rotate some people, so we need to find the available throws,' " LaPolice noted. "That was our plan."

Durant finished with 23 completions for 246 yards, an average of 10.7 yards per completion. Going into the game, he had 126 completions for 1,833 yards for an average of 14.5 yards.

"Every quarterback loves to throw deep, but sometimes you just have to take the underneath stuff and let the down-the-field stuff happen later on in the game," said Durant who, with the wind at his back, overthrew slotback Jason Clermont and Dressler with passes that would have been long gainers. "We did a good job of that."

Dressler said the Roughriders saw on film that Winnipeg this season had been using a zone defence featuring four players deep, so the offence tried to throw the ball under the coverage.

"We did something a little different (Sunday) that shows we're not one-dimensional, that we're not just going to go after the big play," said Dressler, who finished with four catches for 47 yards and a touchdown. "We can march it down the field.

"Now defences may have to start doing different things and we can keep doing more to keep them on their heels."

ihamilton@leaderpost.canwest.com
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