So how does the DDD club explain a Grey Cup Championship in 2013, several trips to the Grey Cup with Darian at QB, and seven game win streak, one shy of establishing a new team record. And if you go back to the playoffs of last year, the Rider QB has a sparkling record of 11 wins and 2 losses.
But according to the DDD club, it the run game, or the special team, or the defence or the kicking that has got the Riders to where they are. Anything but give credit to Darian Durant.
So how to you explain this weekends drubbing of 28 - 3 at the hands of the Hamilton TigerCats. You can't blame Darian. He's on the sideline with a season ending injury. The ball was handed to backup quarterback Tino Sunseri and he dropped it…big time. Now you can't put all the blame on the rookie quarterback. The stellar running game, thought to be the best in the league, or at worst second to only Calgary, did a no show. The receivers thought to be the best around dropped balls they should of caught. The defence played well enough but when you only put three points on the board and you're defence is on the field constantly, well let's just say the defence did as well as the could.
The kicking game was horrible and the special teams were worse.
But wait a minute aren't these guys the same ones that are on the field when Darian leads them. So what happened ? Well allow me a little comparison. Let's say you are a soldier. Your leader is the great General Patton. You will go through walls to go into battle with this outstanding fighter. You know he will lead you. Nothing can go wrong. But suddenly he's not there. Your leader is a fuzzy cheeked recently graduate of West Point and he is going to lead you into battle. Suddenly you're not so confident. You have doubts. You wonder if you will get out alive. Darian Durant is a leader. He leads on and off the field. His players trust him. The know what he is going to do and they are ready to follow him into battle on the gridiron.
It's highly probable that Tino Sunseri is capable of building that kind of respect. The problem is it takes time. And for the quarterback devouring fans of the Saskatchewan RoughRiders, what they did last year is not good enough. And for Tino Sunseri the ever demanding RoughRider fans may not afford him that kind of time.
Even the members of the DDD club don't have an answer for what happened against Hamilton. The best they could muster was…well it would have happened to Durant to. Would it. I have my doubts on that one. A healthy Darian Durant and I'm betting the Riders have an new record eight game winning streak.
So what happens now. Do you give Tino Sunseri another shot against Ottawa. Do you try Seth Doege. Of do you give up someone of high calibre to in effect buy a rental quarterback for another run at the Grey Cup ? One of the problems with that is the high number of injuries happening to CFL quarterbacks this year. Bo Levi Mitchell of the Calgary Stampeders and Drew Willy of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were the latest to go down. Mitchell apparently will miss only one game. CFL teams are reluctant to trade away a QB the way it is goingDrew Willy we haven't heard about yet. The
usually friendly Mike O'Shea Bomber head coach could only snarl "I'm not a doctor" when asked about his number one quarterback's injury. The Bombers were once 5 & 1, Now they have turned that around into a 1 & 5 streak to fall all the way down to last place in their division.
Will the Riders join them ? Well one thing is for sure. The quarterbacking issue has to be solved and quickly. If it isn't that the Darian Durant Distractors Club may be out of business.