{"id":922572,"date":"2026-07-26T07:14:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/26\/davis-perfect-outing-from-roughriders-kicker-unnoticed-after-coverage-breakdowns\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T07:14:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:14:21","slug":"davis-perfect-outing-from-roughriders-kicker-unnoticed-after-coverage-breakdowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/26\/davis-perfect-outing-from-roughriders-kicker-unnoticed-after-coverage-breakdowns\/","title":{"rendered":"Davis: Perfect outing from Roughriders kicker unnoticed after coverage breakdowns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nobody was talking about Saskatchewan Roughriders rookie kicker Alex Hale last week.<\/p>\n

Nobody really noticed that Hale made both of his field goals and all four converts against the Toronto Argonauts.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do your job and that\u2019s what everyone expects,\u201d Hale said following a recent practice as the Roughriders prepared to visit the winless Ottawa Redblacks on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake your kicks and kinda help the team win. And if no one knows who your are, it\u2019s a good thing, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of fretting over Hale\u2019s kicking, fans, players and coaches had instead been wondering how the reigning Grey Cup champions surrendered another special-teams touchdown and lost to the Chad Kelly-led Toronto Argonauts at Mosaic Stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They joked about the Riders\u2019 hideous, unreadable, all-white Prairie Blizzard jerseys They worried about injuries to most of Saskatchewan\u2019s starting receivers<\/a>. They discussed a face masking penalty assessed by the God Centre<\/a> that negated a pivotal Riders turnover.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kicks were all good, but the goal is to win the game,\u201d said Hale. \u201cAt the end of the day, if I make them all or miss them all, I\u2019m just trying to help the team win, so the win is most important.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Saskatchewan\u2019s first loss of the season, but Hale\u2019s best performance.<\/p>\n

An Australian who moved to the U.S. after high school to play college football at Oklahoma State, Hale had two tryouts with the NFL\u2019s Green Bay Packers, where he handled similar weather conditions to chilly, rainy and ultra-windy Saskatchewan. Hale tore knee ligaments in college and last year suffered an eye injury that led him to wearing a contact lens and tinted protective goggles during games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a little bit of nerve damage so the pupil doesn\u2019t quite control the brightness,\u201d said Hale.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese just take the edge off. I can play without them, but they help a little bit so \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In his first two games with the Roughriders, Hale missed one of six converts and made only five of seven field goals, all shorter than 40 yards. His 71.4 per cent accuracy rate was worst among the CFL\u2019s regular kickers.<\/p>\n

One missed field goal was returned 120 yards for a touchdown by Calgary Stampeders returner Tyreik McAllister<\/a>, creating immediate concern for a team that had released veteran kicker Brett Lauther following a season in which he made a career-low 72 per cent of his field goals.<\/p>\n

That was the first of two straight game with a special-teams TD against the Roughriders \u2014 Toronto\u2019s Janarion Gran<\/a>t returned a punt 68 yards to paydirt in the Argos\u2019 40-34 victory \u2014 as they look to face a team with another dynamite returner in Kalil Pimpleton.<\/p>\n

Riders head coach Mace admitted he was concerned about his team\u2019s kick coverages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not ideal,\u201d said Mace. \u201cIt\u2019s stuff we talk about and drill constantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou learn it from yourselves and you learn it from other teams as well, who find themselves in that position. It\u2019s gonna be harping from the coaches, keep harping on the tape and showing the whys and where we went wrong and ultimately drilling it in and making sure we get that done on game day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The phone-in shows were rough on Hale following his first two outings, suggesting the Roughriders shouldn\u2019t have released Lauther<\/a>, referring to the newcomer as \u201cAlex Fail\u201d and speculating when he would be replaced.<\/p>\n

Mace insisted the entire team had faith in Hale. Of course, that was a common refrain about Lauther in 2025 before he was waived and joined the Redblacks as a free agent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just one of those things,\u201d said Mace, when asked if Hale is settling into his role.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, new to the league, the responsibilities of the job, the (bad weather) this guy\u2019s had to deal with through the first part of the season are not ideal for any specialist. It\u2019s good to gain confidence for himself because we see every day what he\u2019s capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauther is 10-for-10 this season in field goals but has also missed a convert. Hale hasn\u2019t met Lauther, but plans to say \u201cHello\u201d in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know of him,\u201d said Hale. \u201cHe was here for a long time and was a great, great kicker for a long time. I have plenty of respect for him and what he did here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to meet him. Of course I\u2019ll meet him because you\u2019re never wishing bad upon anyone. As a specialist, you always go say hi to the opposing kickers and wish them good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

They should have lots to talk about.<\/p>\n

The Regina Leader-Post has created an\u00a0Afternoon Headlines<\/strong>\u00a0newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day.\u00a0Click here<\/a> to subscribe.<\/em><\/p>\n

With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark leaderpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here<\/a> to subscribe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Darrell Davis
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nobody was talking about Saskatchewan Roughriders rookie kicker Alex Hale last week. Nobody really noticed that Hale made both of his field goals and all four converts against the Toronto Argonauts. \u201cYou do your job and that\u2019s what everyone expects,\u201d Hale said following a recent practice as the Roughriders prepared to visit the winless Ottawa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":922573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[468,1886],"tags":[6688,6551],"class_list":["post-922572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-davis","category-perfect","tag-davis","tag-perfect"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}