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On Friday night Roughriders head coach Corey Mace and Blue Jays manager John Schneider both took heat for who they decided to have throw the ball for their respective teams.
Only one of them deserved the heat — Schneider.
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Schneider’s decision to play Brendon Little in the Blue Jays most important inning of the season was far more egregious than Mace putting in Jack Coan to get some action in the fourth quarter of the Roughriders 17-16 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
But according to Green Zone Game Day analyst Darrell Davis and a plethora of callers, texters and social media followers, Mace deserved heavy criticism for his lack of winning attitude.
An indication, apparently to them, that Mace’s mantra of winning being a top priority this week was misleading.
All the other players he swapped in and out of the lineup during the game and into the fourth quarter didn’t seem to bother anybody. However, because they lost, it all fell at the feet of the quarterback.
As it so often does.
As it too often does, I should say.
No one was complaining when Trevor Harris, A.J. Ouellette, Sam Emilus, Kian Schaffer-Baker, Logan Ferland, Jermarcus Hardrick and Micah Johnson were given the night off for rest and recovery with first place all wrapped up after last week’s win.
Resting them was far more important than winning this one, or so I thought?
Many of the same observers, including myself, knew whoever played in green and white were going to put up a fight. And they did!
Why? Because of the very coach they’re criticizing.
Mace’s desire to win this game was evident all week.
Mace could have given them an extra day off and he didn’t.
Practices could have been scaled back but the intensity remained high.
The game plan could have been vanilla, instead we saw more creative and timely blitzes and a flea flicker of all things.
Mace was not going to let complacency set in. And it didn’t!
The Riders showed up in Winnipeg ready to play, while having a plan to play everyone — including Coan.
While some want to sell a narrative that the playing of Coan didn’t lend itself to a win, they’re also ignoring the culture and attitude Mace has built here.
If you are a Saskatchewan Roughrider, you are expected to be ready and perform at the level necessary to win.
And we saw that from almost every member of the team that suited up in Winnipeg. Mace had a team of backups believe they could beat the five time defending West Division Champions in the loudest and toughest stadium in the league to be in.
And they almost did!
Yes, Coan didn’t live up to the standard expected, but Mace sure as heck wants to show every player he trusts them to get the job done.
He followed through on giving Coan that chance and the young quarterback let the coach down.
But remember, Coan did get the ball into field goal range to take a five point lead and Brett Lauther missed.
But that’s a column for another day.
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