‘Being accountable’: Riders’ Marcus Sayles ready for second game

Marcus Sayles believes he can be better in his second game as a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

While the 29-year-old defensive back feels he played well, he knows there were plays where mistakes were made.

“I just have to take it as being accountable,” said Sayles, who was signed midway through the team’s Week 1 preparation. 

“I have to be accountable to my teammates and accountable to my coaches. They trust me by putting me out there even though I haven’t been here that long. I want to be able to build up their trust so they will keep putting me out there and be accountable to this team. I’m going to fix those mental errors and I think we are going to be better this week.”

While the Riders earned a win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last Sunday, Sayles and the Riders’ defence gave up a number of big plays in the 33-30 decision.

That included a 58-yard pass to Kiondre Smith and a 60-yard play to Steven Dunbar Jr. which contributed to Hamilton quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell throwing for 380 yards.

“Bo Levi is a great quarterback and he has seen a lot of things in this league,” Sayles said. “Even some of the mental errors, that’s just me. I was seeing too much and I got things differently from the sideline and that’s all on me. I can’t blame anyone else.

“That’s something I have to be accountable to. Moving forward, I’m going to be more prepared going into those situations.”

The Riders will get a chance to earn another win over the Ti-Cats on Sunday. Saskatchewan will host Hamilton at Mosaic Stadium in the Riders’ home opener.

While a couple of those mental mistakes led directly to big plays, Riders head coach Corey Mace still has faith in him.

“With our defence, there is a lot of nuances to it. He’s an excellent pro but you need to train through some situations,” Mace said. “We will get it cleaned up, we’re not worried about it. He has been a great player in this league for a while now. The guy was here for a couple weeks and was thrown into the fire.

“There was a lot of good things he did out there as well.”

After spending years as a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and B.C. Lions, Sayles is looking forward to coming out of the home tunnel at Mosaic Stadium. 
“Being on the opposite side, I have always seen the energy and I have always seen how excited these fans get for these teams and I am just happy to be a part of it and happy to be out there,” Sayles said.

Notes: The Riders will be without offensive guard Philip Blake (thigh) in the game. Riders centre Peter Godber (personal) also missed practice and is listed as questionable. The CFL has fined defensive tackle Micah Johnson the maximum for violating the CFL Code of Conduct and verbal abuse of an official. The league also fined kicker Brett Lauther for comments he made on social media back in Week 1 about the CFL using footballs with microchips in them.