Mitchell Blair
Points are expected to be at a premium Sunday night at B.C Place when the Saskatchewan Roughriders look for their 5th straight win against the B.C. Lions in a Western Division showdown.
The two teams lead the league in points allowed and are very stingy in allowing the opposition offense to move the football. If it’s the type of game Riders Head Coach Corey Chamblin is expecting, it will be a hard-hitting affair.
I hope it’s one of those games where you see the snot, blood and all that stuff, and one that when it’s over, you say, ‘That’s a football game,’ ” Chamblin said. “I know they’re excited about it and we’re excited about it as well.
The Lions are so excited about Sunday’s contest that their president went on a Vancouver radio show Wednesday proclaiming it’s a guaranteed win for his side. It’s a statement Chamblin laughs off, but he says they aren’t forgetting about it.
“I’m not taking it personally, but everything is a slight to me.” Chamblin said with a smile while talking to reporters Friday afternoon. “We’re going to use it as motivation and it adds a little more intensity to what should already be an intense game. I’m ready to play it now.”
Defensive lineman Ricky Foley is also shrugging off the guarantee talk. He says it is a motivator, but what motivates him and his mates some more is what happened the last time the two teams met when the Lions walked out of Mosaic Stadium with a 26-13 win.
“186….that’s what they put up on us last time,” Foley said referring to the 186 yards rushing Andrew Harris and Stefan Logan had on that July 12 evening. “We take that 186 yards as more disrespectful than we do the guarantee.”
Foley adds the Lions can expect a completely different looking team than the one they beat that night.
“Not so much a different look, but a different attitude.” Foley said. “We’ve got things sorted out since the bye week as you’ve seen. Practices are completely different, meetings are different, and the daily schedule is different. Whatever it was that wasn’t going right around here has been fixed and the practices have been really good and when they’re not you can see that changes pretty quickly.”
The Riders offence has been struggling and with the Lions being as ferocious on defence as what the Riders have been this season, it is expected Darian Durant and company will be extremely challenged to move the football up and down the field with tremendous success. Durant realizes in a game like this, you have to earn every yard because nothing will be given away.
“Both of us have great defences,” Durant said “At the end of the day, it’s going to be which defence can hold and which offence makes the most plays.”
Durant is expecting a playoff type atmosphere as the two teams fight it out.
“I think it will be a slugfest from the beginning to the end, “Durant said. “It will be about the team who makes the fewest mistakes, whoever can take care of the ball and do all the fundamental things right like making blocks, shedding blocks and making tackles. The team that does that the best will win this one. Both of us will make plays, but what defence will hold and what offence makes the best plays will decide this one when you look at what our defence and theirs bring to the table.”
Fans can watch the game on TSN starting at 5 o’clock with radio coverage starting on 620 CKRM at 2:30 when Michael Ball along with ex-Riders Mike McCullough, Chris Szarka and Luc Mullinder bring you “Roughrider Gameday” live from the Four Seasons Sports Palace on 909 Arcola Avenue East. That show will also be streamed live on Riderville.com
GAME NOTES:
- This will be the 183rd regular season meeting between BC and Saskatchewan (94-84 Riders with 4 ties) and the 42nd at B.C. Place Stadium where the Lions hold a 23-18 edge
- The Riders have not turned the ball over in their last 37 possessions
- Defensive end John Chick goes into the game with 12 sacks. He is on pace for 31 which would be a CFL record. He also tries to become the first player since B.C.’s Brent Johnson in 2005 to have three straight games with at least three sacks.
- The Riders lead the CFL in turnover differential at plus 11 (24 takeaways, 13 giveaways), the Lions are at 0
