A lot has gone right for the Saskatchewan Roughriders through their first five games as they sit tied atop the CFL\u2019s West Division with a 4-1 record.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t areas that need improving. High on the list is play of kicker Alex Hale.<\/p>\n
Hale missed a wide right on a 35-yard field goal attempt on Saskatchewan\u2019s first drive of their convincing 38-7 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He also failed to cash in an extra point in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s performance highlighted a relatively slow start to the season for Hale. The CFL rookie has made 10-of-13 field goals and 16-of-18 extra point tries.<\/p>\n
With as many missed kicks as games played, it\u2019s not hard to\u00a0have at least a little concern about Hale. Riders quarterback legend Darian Durant isn\u2019t pushing the panic button just yet, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times, especially early in the season, it just takes a lot of getting used to the weather, the elements, the pressure of being a kicker in Saskatchewan. All of these things kind of add up,\u201d Durant told Teagan Witko on SportsCage on Monday. \u201cI\u2019m really just waiting to see him in clutch situations \u2013 game on the line or, \u2018Let\u2019s send the game to overtime; we need this kick.\u2019 Let\u2019s see where his nerves are. I think that\u2019s when you\u2019ll get a bigger picture of type of guy he is. What type of ice does he have in his veins?\u00a0Can he make the big kick? Can he stand up under pressure?<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce again, we\u2019re jumping the gun. Let\u2019s give this kid a chance and see what he can do when all the chips are on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hale was a talking point after the game, especially since the Riders opted to punt when their second drive of the game was halted at the Hamilton 41-yard line.<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan coach Corey Mace attributed the decision to the head wind and put his support behind the 28-year-old Australian freshman.<\/p>\n
\u201cUtmost confidence in Alex, man,\u201d Mace said after the win. \u201cHe\u2019s been damn good for us. He\u2019s missed a couple kicks, but he\u2019s been good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durant feels as though Mace\u2019s public comments in favour of Hale should do him wonders in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what you need,\u201d Durant said. \u201cCoach Mace, as a former player, he understands. He understands the pressure of being a kicker. You only get a few plays a game. It\u2019s not an easy job at all, I keep saying, especially in Saskatchewan, man. The pressure\u2019s just always there.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing forward, you have to show the confidence in your kicker because you\u2019re going to need him at some point in time during this season.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot has gone right for the Saskatchewan Roughriders through their first five games as they sit tied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[3878,49,48,521,522,520,3290,4398,27684,27683,1893,4401,27682,4400,4399,82],"class_list":["post-801388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-agriculture","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-contests","tag-country-music","tag-gx94","tag-manitoba-news","tag-radio","tag-rider-radio","tag-saskatchewan-news","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}