Keeping Collaros clean all the motivation Bombers need

Keeping Collaros clean all the motivation Bombers need

Scrolling through the CFL’s statistics package through 12 weeks this season and there’s not a lot that pops out when it comes to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The Roughriders are 6-5, a result that feels even more mediocre when you consider they opened the season 4-1. In most other league stats, they’re positioned middle of the pack, which you’d think is difficult to digest for a football-mad province like Saskatchewan.

But there is one area that stands out above the rest and that’s the Roughriders ability to get to the quarterback. Saskatchewan leads the CFL in quarterback sacks through 12 weeks, registering a combined 34 this season – one better than the B.C. Lions in second place and 12 more than the Bombers in seventh, despite playing one fewer game than Winnipeg.

“That’s where you need to start with your game plan as a co-ordinator,” Bombers offensive co-ordinator Buck Pierce said following practice Thursday. “They’re physical and they do a lot of movements up front. When they are adding five-, six-, seven-man pressures, they’re still able to get pressure with four. When you can do that and play some zones or different shells behind that, you really make teams earn it.”

The Roughriders four defensive linemen have been a nightmare for opposing quarterbacks this season.

The unit is highlighted by CFL sack leader Pete Robertson, who is tied with Ottawa’s Lorenzo Mauldin, with eight, despite playing three fewer games. Anthony Lanier isn’t far behind, with seven sacks in 10 games, while A.C. Leonard and Charleston Hughes have also chipped in with three apiece.

Garrett Marino, who has become one of the most disliked players in the CFL this season, Charbel Dabire and DeMarcus Christmas round out the group of regulars that have caused havoc in the trenches for Saskatchewan this year.

As Pierce alluded to, the Roughriders use a constant rotation of D-linemen, to keep the players fresh and the pressure constant. Like any team in the league, they’re willing to blitz, which includes bringing in a linebacker or defensive back to rush the quarterback. They’re just as content and, more importantly, as effective relying on the front four.

“The tough part is they’re not just getting their sacks when they’re rushing six or seven. They can get home with three. They can get home with four,” Bombers O-line coach Marty Costello said. “You got to be ready on every single play to play your best because they’re good.”

The Bombers and Roughriders face each other in back-to-back weeks, beginning this Sunday in the annual Labour Day Classic at Mosaic Stadium, followed by the Banjo Bowl rematch Saturday afternoon in Winnipeg. As prairie rivals, the emotions will be high on both sides, and the stakes even higher for the Roughriders if they plan to make a push in the West Division.

It’s among the most exciting games on the CFL schedule, the kind of matchup that will be physical in the trenches. When the fierceness of the Roughriders D-line is combined with the ferocity with which the Bombers O-line plays, it’s a recipe for fireworks.

“Everything is just kind of revved up that extra mile and it’s channeling that energy and not sort of crossing any line or getting too emotional,” Bombers right guard Patrick Neufeld said. “It’s really walking that fine edge and making sure we’re just teetering on it but not crossing anything.”

Neufeld added that with a veteran group like the Bombers, finding the right balance shouldn’t be a difficult task. Looking at the Roughriders, however, and that might not be the case. Outside Hughes and Leonard, no other player has more than three years of experience in the CFL, with a few having just one or two.

Saskatchewan’s push up front has had devastating consequences for opposing teams this year that go beyond the expected bumps and bruises from playing a violent game. In fact, three times this season the Roughriders have forced a quarterback from the game owing to injury.

Of those three occasions, two of them have come in the last two weeks, both injuries to players on the B.C. Lions. Michael O’Connor injured his groin last week, while star pivot Nathan Rourke the week before suffered a sprain to the Lisfranc ligament that required season-ending surgery.

While both of those were viewed as collateral damage from otherwise clean football plays, the first one certainly wasn’t. Marino, the Roughriders second-year defensive lineman, was suspended four games following a series of incidents during a Week 5 win over the Ottawa Redblacks.

Marino was given two games for a dirty hit on Ottawa quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and his ensuing celebration as he was getting escorted off the field, while also earning one game for delivering a racially insensitive comment to Masoli and a fourth game for another illegal hit earlier in the night. Masoli had to undergo surgery on his left leg and is currently weeks into a 10-to-12 week recovery.

“It’s not something we talk about but you’re aware of what’s happened, you watch film,” Bombers right tackle Jermarcus Hardrick said, while noting Marino is a tough opponent. “We’re not going to put anything out there, but I know it’s going to be a fight. And I know he’s a fighter, that’s for sure.”

Like Hardrick, no one on the Bombers was all that interested in fuelling anyone’s fire by making bulletin board comments. They know what’s at stake anytime a quarterback gets hit, and it’s for that very reason the O-line’s number one priority is to keep Zach Collaros on his feet.

Collaros has been the catalyst to the Bombers winning back-to-back Grey Cups. He’s also a big reason Winnipeg is 10-1 so far this year and vying for a third straight league title.

“We never want to have Zach get hit. We never want Zach to feel pressure,” Neufeld said. “That is all the motivation we need, and our job is to make sure Zach stays as clean as possible.”

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Twitter: @jeffkhamilton