Riders’ Maas offers his take on Fajardo benching

Over the bye week, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were searching for answers as their season reached a tipping point.

Ultimately, a decision was reached that a change would be coming at the quarterback spot.

Mason Fine will get his first career start in the CFL on Saturday against the Calgary Stampeders, with Cody Fajardo as his backup. Kickoff for the game is set for 5 p.m. The Green Zone pre-game show begins at 3 p.m.

“It’s one of those things where you evaluate your whole team over the bye week,” Riders offensive co-ordinator Jason Maas said Thursday. “(We focus) on what we can do better and that’s everybody; that’s not just one person.

“We always say quarterbacks get way too much credit or way too much blame if things are going right or wrong. (Head coach) Craig (Dickenson) spoke to me about making a change and I gave him my two cents about what I felt with the grades and everything that has been going on with Cody and our offence over the year.

“It was Craig’s sole decision — it had nothing to do with me making a decision or anyone else in the organization. I think the head coach should always make those decisions. He made it and we all do right by it. We’ve coached Mason hard over the last two years he has been here.”

Fajardo has started all but one game for the Riders (6-10-0) this season, throwing for 3,360 yards with 16 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He has rushed for 342 yards and eight touchdowns as well.

But the Riders’ offence has averaged only 22.7 points a game when he has started, and Saskatchewan has eclipsed 20 points only twice in its last eight games.

“Cody has played through a severe injury for a majority of the year and we’ve had multiple moving parts throughout our offence throughout the year … He’s done as much as he possibly can do to make our offence successful every week,” Maas said.

“The majority of stuff he does you agree with and then there are things you wish you could have done better because no one is perfect in a game. It just so happens for our year and the way our offence has been, a play here and a play there could be the difference in a number of games.

“We’ve had a ton of games come down to the wire and we have not won those games. It’s never just on one person, though, and that’s what I look at the most.”

Fine has thrown for 326 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions in the limited action he has seen this season.

Fine played in 49 games for the University of North Texas Mean Green and in his career completed 62.8 per cent of his passes for 12,505 yards with 93 touchdowns and 39 interceptions.

“There isn’t a lot to go off of. He’s played a half of football against B.C. (Lions on Aug. 19) and then played cleanup in a couple other games,” Maas said.

“The times we’ve seen him go in the game, he leads the offence the way he’s supposed to, he can progress through our offence (and) he throws the ball extremely well. He’s a smart guy, but experience is experience and that’s what he is lacking.”

Maas said history has proven a change can work for CFL teams, but it’s not a guarantee.

“To say that you can throw one guy in in a team sport and he’s going to make the difference whether you win or lose, you could say that was the difference but I think history would tell you it’s a team sport and generally speaking, everybody on the roster plays the game,” Maas said.

In order to make the playoffs, the Riders need to have more wins than the Hamilton Tiger-Cats or Ottawa Redblacks. Any combination of Hamilton or Ottawa wins and Saskatchewan losses adding up to two would give the Tiger-Cats or Redblacks the final playoff spot in the East Division.