Derek Mortensen/Electric Umbrella
Playoff implications abound in the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ final regular-season game of 2017.
That’s not their problem.
“For us, it’s the last home game that we get to play in 2017 in front of our fans, so we want to make it worthwhile,” defensive end Willie Jefferson said Friday at Mosaic Stadium, where the CFL’s Roughriders are to face the Edmonton Eskimos on Saturday (5 p.m., CKRM, TSN).
“We came into this season wanting to do big things and we did that, making it to the playoffs in the first year of the new stadium. Now we just want to win this game. It’s another game, it’s another week, it’s another opponent and we want to come out on top.”
If the Roughriders do come out on top, they’ll finish third in the West Division and will visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the division semifinal on Nov. 12.
If the Eskimos win or tie, Saskatchewan will finish fourth in the West and will cross over into the East Division playoffs. The Roughriders will visit either the Ottawa Redblacks or Toronto Argonauts in the East semifinal on Nov. 12.
If Edmonton wins and Winnipeg loses to (or ties) the Calgary Stampeders on Friday, the Eskimos will finish second and will entertain the Bombers in the West semifinal.
If Edmonton wins and Winnipeg wins, the Bombers will play host to the Eskimos in the West semifinal.
None of those scenarios really mean anything to the Roughriders. They already know they’re going on the road for the playoffs, so they’re focusing on Edmonton.
“We’re not worried about all that,” Jefferson said. “We just want to play football, execute our game plan offensively and defensively, listen to the coaching that we get and try to capitalize.
“If we go to the East, we go to the East. If we stay in the West, we’ll stay in the West. We’ll just try to win out however it is.”
Saskatchewan’s goal is simply to peak at the right time.
The Roughriders have won four of their past five games and can go 5-1-0 in the final third of their regular season if they can defeat Edmonton on Saturday.
A victory over the Eskimos would be the Roughriders’ third straight win, which matters more to them than their destination for the first round of the playoffs.
“We’re judged off of wins and losses, so we want to go in and win,” Saskatchewan quarterback Kevin Glenn said.
“If something was to happen and you lose the game, it doesn’t affect what you’re going to do the following week. But at the same time, the mindset that we want to go into the playoffs with is that we’re winning. We don’t want to have that taste of losing in our mouths.”
This week, the Roughriders’ coaching staff presented the players with a statistical analysis of the past 10 seasons. It provided tangible proof that the hottest team entering the post-season usually wins the Grey Cup.
That message has resonated with the players, a fact proven by the fact that many of them have repeated the findings to the media during interviews.
“We want to be playing great football going into the playoffs,” said defensive tackle Eddie Steele. “People talk about how we don’t have anything to play for because we’re already in the playoffs and Edmonton is potentially playing for home field. We’re not looking at it like they have more to play for than us because we want to beat them going into the playoffs.
“Historically, the hottest teams going into the playoffs end up winning the Grey Cup. Last year with Ottawa was an anomaly, but we want to go into the playoffs playing hot football and beating teams.”
If the Roughriders lose Saturday, they will cross over to the East — somewhere.
If Toronto beats or ties the B.C. Lions on Saturday, the Argos will finish first and the second-place Redblacks will play host to the East semifinal. If the Argos lose in Vancouver, they’ll finish second behind Ottawa, and Toronto will be the scene of the East semifinal.
Since the CFL instituted its current playoff scheme, no team has crossed over and won the Grey Cup. So, if the Roughriders want to stay in the West, they have to take down the Eskimos on Saturday.
Saskatchewan won the teams’ first meeting this season, prevailing 54-31 in the Alberta capital on Aug. 25. Unfortunately for the Roughriders, history is against them as they attempt to sweep a season series from Edmonton; a Saskatchewan team hasn’t done so since 1969.
“I guarantee you that nobody in this locker room would know that,” slotback Bakari Grant said when that statistic was brought up. “You’ve just got to play football.
“It’s like if you look back to our game in Calgary (a 30-7 Roughriders victory on Oct. 20). How many streaks were broken? But nobody knew. We just knew we had a team in front of us that was playing well and we had to play our best football to show them what we could do.
“That’s the situation we’re in. We’ve got to focus on us, play our best football and let the chips fall where they may.”
