Mitchell Blair
Kerry Joseph has not walked off the Mosaic Stadium turf as the quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders since the 2007 Western Semi-Final. Two weeks later, Joseph helped the team to a Grey Cup championship as he quarterbacked the Riders to a 23-19 win over Winnipeg. Joseph never got a chance to wear green and white again in 2008 as he was traded to Toronto in the off-season, but seven years later he will return to the Mosaic turf wearing the Rider colours in what is a huge football game for both his team and the Edmonton Eskimos.
The two squads will fight it out with the Riders trying to end a three game losing streak and keep dreams of finishing second and hosting the Western Semi-Final alive with the Saskatchewan quarterback being the big story.
After an injury to Darian Durant and less than stellar performances under center from both Tino Sunseri and Seth Doege, the Riders have turned to the 41 year old Joseph hoping he can help light a fire under a team that has had very little spark since the injury to their franchise quarterback in Winnipeg in September. Joseph is looking forward to getting back under center and says his age has no factor in this game as far as he is concerned.
“I don’t worry about others’ opinions. Everybody is entitled to their opinion.” Joseph told reporters. “I know my body feels good. I might not be as fast as I was in ’07, but I think my arm is still just as lively as it was back then. When you lose something physically, you gain something mentally. I think just being around and seeing the game, I’ve picked up some more knowledge mentally that I can help bring to this team.”
Joseph has only had a handful of practices since returning to the organization making some wonder just how much of George Cortez’s playbook he can utilize. He says you might be surprised.
“It’s not hard to adjust at all. A lot of the concepts throughout this league are the same.” Joseph said. “When George called me, he told me to pull out my Edmonton playbook. When I got here, you could see the similarities that are there. It’s just studying, just digging into the playbook.
After seeing Sunseri and Doege have their shot and not capitalize, one wonders what Head Coach Corey Chamblin is thinking going into what is a must-win game if the team wants to host a playoff game. Chamblin says he feels no different with Joseph calling the signals than he did when Sunseri and Doege earned their starting assignments.
“He’s done a good job this week, but it was just one of those things to where it’s about the opportunity. I don’t think it’s what he did to do it. It was just about, ‘Hey, here’s an opportunity.’ I’ll admit I didn’t think I’d have a 41 year old starting at quarterback, but I am excited.” Chamblin revealed. “The one thing about football is you never know what challenge you’re going have, and this is one of the challenges we have now, so I’m excited about it.”
If the Riders are to win the football game, they will have to control an Edmonton team which ran for 299 yards in a 24-0 win on September 26. John White ran for 192 yards on that evening which is something that can’t be repeated if the Green-and-White hopes to come away with the two points. Defensive lineman Ricky Foley won’t guarantee a better performance, but he says there is no way the Eskimo run game will have the same success they had in that September matchup.
“We’re going to be focused on the run,” Foley stated. “Execution-wise, to an individual, we’re taking it personally that as a team they put up 299 yards rushing. That’s embarrassing. That’s the only way I can put it. Last week versus Montreal, towards the end of the game running the ball that one drive, they just kept on running the ball down our throats. I thought guys fought hard, but we were letting guys fall forward. We definitely, individually, need to take a stand against the run.”
Game time Sunday afternoon is 2 o’clock. 620 CKRM is the official voice of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and they will begin its pre-game coverage which is the longest, most continous and comprehensive across the league at 11:30 with “Roughrider Gameday” live from Pilsner Place in a show you can see streamed live on Riderville.com. That will be followed by “Rider Nation Pre-game” with Rod Pedersen at 1. He will then be joined by Carm Carteri for the play-by-play. TV coverage will once again come courtesy of TSN and ESPN2 for those watching in the United States
GAME NOTES:
- Rider receiver Chris Getzlaf will get his 100th career start on Sunday
- In their last 26 games at Mosaic, the Riders are 17-9. All but one of those nine losses have been by seven points or less
- With a big day on the ground, Anthony Allen could become a 1,000 yard rusher, He starts the day 151 yards away
The game will feature the top 3 in QB sacks this year. Going into the weekend, John Chick has 14 sacks with Edmonton’s Odell Willis at 13 and
