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This Saskatchewan Roughriders season has been one big hangover

Since there is a very real possibility our football team's season could be over by this time next week, I've decided to talk about the Saskatchewan Roughriders. I notice interest in the Riders has gone straight down the past number of weeks.
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Since there is a very real possibility our football team's season could be over by this time next week, I've decided to talk about the Saskatchewan Roughriders.


I notice interest in the Riders has gone straight down the past number of weeks. It seems people have fallen right off the bandwagon and are simply waiting for the Riders to finally be put out of their misery, as if this season is a write off.


The losing streak, and the fact the Roughriders are condemned to going on the road for the playoffs, has prompted the gloom.


The season has hammered home the importance of enjoying a championship season when you can, because next season is never guaranteed. It happens in every sport. Star players leave as free agents. Injuries happen. All kinds of things can derail a winning chemistry.


That has been 2014 for the Riders. From the start, it has been one big hangover from the party that was the 2013 Grey Cup season.


It was not long after the victory celebration tour had died down that the Riders lost receiver Weston Dressler and running back Kory Sheets to NFL training camps.


They lost other players as well, including the retirement of Geroy Simon as well as others to the Ottawa RedBlacks in the expansion draft. But the impact of losing Sheets and Dressler to the offence was noticeable, even when the team was winning games.


The running game was a work in progress early on, with the low point coming when Hugh Charles fumbled the ball away against the B.C. Lions in his first game back with the Roughriders, and he was cut after the game.


Fortunately, the running game righted itself with folks like Anthony Allen and Jerome Messam performing well, and that became the strong suit of the team. It had to be, because Sheets never did return to the Riders.


While trying to make the Oakland Raiders roster, he tore his Achilles against Green Bay. Done for the season.


Weston Dressler's absence was also noticeable as the Riders receiving corps struggled without him in the line up. Fortunately for the Riders, Dressler was struggling in his own right, trying to make the Kansas City Chiefs.


Let me tell you, I tuned in to one of those pre-season games on TV and it was a waste of my time, waiting in vain for the coach to put Dressler into the game.


When Dressler was finally cut, it prompted a free-for-all by CFL teams to sign him. Dressler finally returned home to the Riders - swayed, perhaps, by the offers of free sandwiches from that deli in Regina.


He came back for the Labour Day classic and it was great watching our QB Darian Durant finally get his chemistry back with Dressler as they demolished the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.


Then came the infamous Banjo Bowl game in Winnipeg when Roughriders fans watched as Durant winced in pain holding his arm as he walked down the tunnel off the field.


If there is some good that has come of this train-wreck of a second half, it is that people must finally know how valuable Durant is to the offence.


Durant has been a polarizing figure to the fan base. A lot of people will not give the man his due, no matter how many games he won or how many passes he completed.


I remember the reaction when backup quarterback Tino Sunseri was announced as the starter. There were actually people who acted as if this was great news. "Go Sunseri! Woo hoo!"


Those folks must feel dumb today.


When Edmonton shut the Roughriders out, Seth Doege was put in as QB, and he did a much better job completing passes than the hapless Sunseri. The problem was they were to the opposing team.


In utter desperation, the Roughriders convinced their former 2007 Grey Cup-winning hero, Kerry Joseph, to come out of retirement to be the starter.


I'll say this: he was better than these other two imposters. The problem was by the time the fourth quarter rolled around Joseph would always look like every last one of his 41 years.


The Roughriders' tailspin with Durant on the sidelines had better shut up the Durant haters for all time.


Those haters already were silenced after Durant hoisted the Cup. But with him out of the line up, these "fans," a term I use loosely, have had no choice but to find other people to beat up on - like the general manager and the coaching staff.


Thankfully, the Riders found a way to beat the Eskimos in the season finale to end the five-game losing streak. Good. I was getting tired of the complaining.


But the win came too late to prevent the team from hitting the road. There will be no playoff games at home.


This will surely silence critics who always complain how cold it is at late-season games at Mosaic Stadium. They won't have to deal with that problem now.


Come to think of it, this sums up 2014 perfectly: the "shut up" season. Shut up, and shut down.


Some people wish the hype from Riderville would do the same. Talk lately has been about Durant coming back for the playoffs, and I don't know whether this is true or simply more bull.


If Durant really is healthy, that's great news. That is the only hope left for this year.


In that regard, Riders fans can only hope history repeats itself. It was 25 years ago that the Roughriders also lurched through an injury-filled season.


They finished 9-9 and were also forced to head on the road for the entire playoffs, just as they finally got their key players back healthy.


I need not remind you how it all turned out.


We can only hope for the same sort of epic finish for this year's Roughriders. With that, I'll shut up now.