Riders pre-season loss has head coach 'perturbed'

The Saskatchewan Roughriders dropped a lopsided decision to the Calgary Stampeders Friday night to finish 0 for the pre-season.

The way they lost leaves Chris Jones's comfort level in not a very happy place.

"I'm a little perturbed we're not further along than we are," said the head coach following a 39-12 defeat at Mosaic Stadium.

"I think this one was much worse," said Jones, comparing this latest defeat to the one in Edmonton two weeks ago where they lost 35-12 to the Eskimos.

Both games were similar in one aspect: Penalties, and a lot of them.

In Edmonton, the Riders were flagged for 114 yards. 

Against the Stampeders on Friday night, 10 penalties for 139 yards.

Two infractions directly resulted in Calgary touchdowns and both were incurred by receiver-defensive back Duron Carter playing defence.

"I'm just going to keep on playing hard," said Carter after the game, claiming he would stockpile all his questionable infractions for future reference.

"It might not be me, it just might be them."

Whether it's questionable pre-season officiating or not, it's an area the Riders have less than a week to clean up.

"We sure need to; we're going to do everything in our power to figure that out," said Jones.

"That's two weeks in a row where the penalties have been a big difference in the game. If we don't figure it out we won't win a game."

Penalties are fixable. A struggling offence with a giant question mark over the quarterback position is another matter.

Zach Collaros' Roughrider debut was a shaky one.

In his first start since last September, Collaros went 6 for 16 for 41 yards in about two quarters worth of work.

He described his own performance as "not very good," which was the only personal critique he would offer reporters.

"It's obviously not the result that we wanted but there's going to be good film from it and things we can take away from it that will affect us positively going forward and help us get ready for next week," Collaros said.

Collaros and Brandon Bridge were expected to share all the playing time against the Stampeders.

However after Collaros took a pair of nasty shots in the third quarter, the head coach decided he would not take any more chances with his top two quarterbacks behind a porous offensive line.

He opted to throw a second year guard under the bus instead.

"Emmanuel Adusei is at guard, he had three or four busts in a row, he's trying to make our football team and earn a living doing that job. That's what you get paid to do and that's why we're here; we get paid to play winning football and when you get our quarterback hit, then your opportunities are limited."

A quarterback who was not supposed to play was the most productive.

David Watford went 9 for 17 for 172 yards including the Riders' lone touchdown: A 34 yard strike to Caleb Holley in the fourth quarter.

But he also capped off an impressive third quarter drive by throwing an interception.

Watford will not be in the conversation when the Riders' coaches discuss a starting quarterback for the season opener this Friday.

Surprisingly, considering his very large salary, Collaros has not been publicly declared the starter by Jones, though it sounds like his mind is made up.

"(Collaros) has won too many football games to be rusty forever; he'll knock it off," said Jones, adding he has the luxury of having Bridge, who helped them win 10 football games last year.

Final cuts this weekend

The CFL deadline for declaring rosters is Sunday.

Chris Jones won't need that long.

Following Friday's loss he told his staff, "stay the night if you have to" but he wanted all players graded by 8 a.m. Saturday.

Final cuts were to be made shortly after.

The Riders host the defending Grey Cup champion Argos in the season opener on Friday at Mosaic Stadium.