‘We’re struggling:’ Riders’ offensive issues not just on Bridge

After a troublesome first half of football that included two interceptions, the Roughriders decided Brandon Bridge’s time was up.

The Canadian quarterback was pulled from the game in favour of back up David Watford, who didn’t fare much better.

It was a familiar story for Bridge, though he usually found himself on the other side of the equation.

During the 2017 season, it was Bridge who would come in when Kevin Glenn struggled.

He admitted he didn’t really like the feeling.

“I put myself in my own deficit and I wasn’t able to take myself out of it so it definitely hurt. I wish I would have stayed in. I wish the coach would have left me in so I could actually get myself out of the deficit and let me rock,” Bridge said.

While that didn’t happen, Bridge will get another opportunity to show the coaches and the fans what he’s capable of. Head coach Chris Jones confirmed that Bridge will start Thursday against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats but added that Watford could see time again if Bridge struggles.

“I’m always grateful for the opportunity to play football and for him to put his trust in me again to be the starter is actually pretty good, it makes me feel good,” Bridge said after Monday’s practice.

Bridge knows he has to improve on his performance from Saturday, but said he received a lot of support across the league — including some messages from Glenn and a call from former CFL star quarterback Damon Allen.

“A lot of people reached out to me and said not to worry about it because it looks like it’s all your fault on TV, but – when you look at the film and people that actually know football – it’s actually a team game and a lot of the mistakes we had wasn’t just on me it was as a whole,” Bridge said.

It’s a sentiment that was supported by his quarterback coach Steve Walsh.

“I think a lot of time the quarterback gets more credit when things are going well and more blame when it’s going bad because the job of quarterback is dependent on all the other positions to do their job and we’re struggling,” he said.

“We’ve had receivers open and we missed, we had receivers open and we didn’t have quite enough protection and we’ve had receivers open and maybe we didn’t capitalize on the catch … all areas have to get better offensively, it’s certainly not just the one position but my focus is on making sure the quarterbacks play better.”

With a short week, the Roughriders have just three more days to figure it out before they’re back in action against on Thursday the Tiger-Cats – a team that has had no struggles moving their offence through the first three weeks of the season.

Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Stadium.

Quick hits

• Christion Jones took reps at defensive back on Monday.
• The Roughriders have also added defensive back Matt Elam to the roster. Elam has had some legal troubles in the past, including a charge for marijuana possession and a theft and battery charge from a dispute with his girlfriend. In both cases, the charges were dropped, but Jones says Elam did go through the CFL domestic violence protocol and they were given the go-ahead to sign him.
• Carter continues to take his reps with the Roughrider defence.