'He's earned the right to keep playing': Riders remain locked in on Mason Fine as QB

Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Mason Fine has yet to lead a successful touchdown drive or win a game since taking over as the team’s starter following a significant injury to Trevor Harris.

Despite the tough look for Fine, he remains calm about the task at hand and is not letting the stats get to his head.

“I don’t feel any pressure or anything like that. We just have to keep running our offence, obviously have to put points up and, you know, that’s what I care about is putting points up on the board, no matter how you get it down,” Fine said.

Even with no touchdowns on the stats board for Fine, he has thrown for 580 yards the past two games, which is enough to keep him as the team’s starter according to head coach, Craig Dickenson.

“He played well. We watched the film and he made a lot of tough throws under distress and, you know, for the most part, played a pretty sound game. I feel good about Mason. I think he’s going to get better this week and he’s earned the right to keep playing,” Dickenson said.

Regarding his performance last week, Fine said there’s some positives and negatives to take away.

“You want to get the win, so obviously that’s a letdown. But you go back and watch film and you grade what you could have done better and what you did well,” he said. “But a lot to build on moving forward and I’m just going to keep my head down and keep working.”

Following the team’s 31-13 loss to the Argos, it was expected Dickenson might waver about who would lead the team going forward. However, he immediately told media that Fine would remain at the helm.

“Just have to keep doing your job and he thinks I’m doing an okay job to keep the spot, so he makes the call at the end of the day. I just have to focus on doing my job each and every play,” Fine said about the decision.

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The team did find the back of the end zone once in last week’s game. However, it came at the hands of backup quarterback, Jake Dolegala who found Shawn Bane for a 31-yard touchdown.

“I thought we did what we wanted to on that drive, executed pretty well, scored, so that was pretty good,” said Dolegala lightheartedly.

Dolegala also added his two cents about being the backup in this current state.

“There’s always going to be frustration when you’re not playing but I’m just going to do whatever I can to help this team. That’s my job right now is to be ready, and stay ready,” he shared.

Now that Ridernation got a taste of excitement with Dolegala, social media has been buzzing about who the team should use as their starter. Despite that, Dickenson is not phased by the outside noise.

“I try not to listen too much, but I’m a human being. I read the news and I get messages from my buddies too,” he said. “Everybody’s got an opinion. I think it’s great but we get paid to try to make the best decisions for our football team and there’s no sure thing. But we feel like Mason’s the right guy and we feel like Jake’s ready to go if called upon.”