Mitchell Blair
The CFL schedule says the playoffs start on November 10, but for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the B.C Lions the playoffs start Saturday afternoon. A Rider win guarantees a home playoff game while a B.C win puts them in the drivers seat to host the Western semi-final.
With second place at stake, it is expected the 13th man will be called upon to bring their “A” game hoping the green and white bring theirs as well.
Quarterback Darian Durant believes it will be a wild night at the archaic Mosaic with so much on the line.
“It’s going to be crazy,” Durant admitted. “I expect it to be the most electric game of the year. The Calgary game this year was pretty good and Labour Day is always special, but whenever we play at night there is an electric atmosphere around here and with what’s on the line, it should be something else.”
Durant also knows a win means a huge advantage should the Lions come back to Regina for the Western semi-final.
“You want a home playoff game every year. Its one of your goals. “Durant said.” Those guys might have to come back out here where its cold and they don’t work out in weather like this while we do. It will be huge for us to have that game here.
If the crowd is going to be loud, chances are Weston Dressler will have to make a couple of big plays to get the offence going. Dressler knows for a game like this how important it is to have the 13th man in their backpocket.
“It’s a big game for us and we know what we have to do,” Dressler said. “We hope we can finish first still, but we want a home playoff game. This is when it gets fun. We are extra amped for this one and we know our fans will be excited. We just have to worry about coming out here and executing our game-plan and move the ball when we need to move it. We know we need to put some more points on the board and make some tough plays and we will have to earn what we get against that secondary because they are so experienced. We had a lot of success the last time around and we hope to use a lot of that going into this one.”
Head Coach Corey Chamblin had to deliver some words to his team as they got ready for work this week thinking they didn’t have the energy needed to be successful. After taking his team into the dressing room and having some words for them, his message got through to the point that he knows his team will be ready when the gun sounds.
“We had great energy and enthusiasm this week.” Chamblin said. “Just because you have that doesn’t mean you win because on game day you have to bring it. I’m expecting a tough football game with guys playing hard on both sides. Both of us know what’s on the line.”
The Lions for whatever reason haven’t utilized the talents of Canadian running back Andrew Harris. After a stellar 2012, Harris has seemingly not been as big a part of the Lions offense as some think he should. Linebacker Craig Butler knows what Harris brings to the table and he knows Harris can become a focal point of the game-plan so he will be making sure Harris doesn’t have any revival of his 2012 campaign.
“it’s surprised me to see he hasn’t had the ball as much this year,” Butler concluded. “At the end of the day though it doesn’t matter who has the ball, what matters is we stop them whether it be Harris, (Thomas) Dimarco or (Shawn) Gore. We can’t concern ourselves with what they want to do, it’s just a matter of playing our game and doing what we know we can. If we do that, we will be successful.
Kickoff is 5 o’clock with the game time temperature expected to be eight degrees with it falling throughout the course of the night. TSN will have TV coverage with Gord Miller and Matt Dunigan on the call while 620 CKRM will bring the radio call starting with pre-game activities at 230 as Michael Ball, former Riders receiver Matt Dominguez and John Lynch bring you “Roughrider Gameday” which you can also see on www.riderville.com. That leads into the play-by-play with Rod Pedersen and Carm Carteri.
GAME NOTES:
- Darian Durant is one TD pass away from 30 on the season. His 29 TD tosses leads the league with the next guy being Hamilton’s Henry Burris at 22.
- The Riders have had the most QB sacks in the league with 50.
- Chris Getzlaf is 18 yards away from what would be his 2nd career 1000 yard season. Teammates Weston Dressler and Taj Smith are also flirting with the 1000 yard mark. The only other times the Riders have had three receivers over 1000 yards was 1991 and 1993 when Jeff Fairholm, Ray Elgaard and Don Narcisse did it.
- The CFL average for points per game is 26.6. The Riders average for points per game is 28.9
