Liam Richards/Electric Umbrella
Chris Jones is back in familiar territory.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach and general manager has been to the playoffs in 15 of his 16 seasons as a coach in the CFL, so he’s well aware of what’s about to happen.
And he can’t wait.
“It’s a one-game deal now,” Jones said Saturday after the Roughriders wrapped up their regular season with a 28-13 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos at Mosaic Stadium. “It’s do or die, so there are no more mulligans — or whatever you call it in golf …
“You get beat, you go home. I like that pressure. It’s kind of fun because you know how much you’ve put into it. It’s fun to be under that kind of pressure.”
The only season in which Jones missed the CFL playoffs was 2016, which was his first campaign as the Roughriders’ bench boss. Saskatchewan went 5-13-0 that season and finished fifth in the West Division.
But Jones made it to the playoffs in every other season — and his coaching resumé includes appearances in 12 division finals and seven Grey Cup games. He has been part of four Cup-winning teams.
On Sunday, his Roughriders will appear in a post-season game for the first time since 2014. Saskatchewan is to visit the Ottawa Redblacks in the East Division semifinal.
The winner of that game will meet the host Toronto Argonauts in the East final on Nov. 19, with a berth in the Grey Cup on the line. The CFL’s title game is to be played Nov. 26 in Ottawa.
Saskatchewan will be trying to defy the odds in the playoffs.
The Roughriders are the 10th West Division team to appear in the East Division playoffs since the CFL introduced the crossover format in 1997 (no East team has ever gone West). The previous nine crossover teams — including Saskatchewan in 2002 and 2005 — have lost before reaching the Grey Cup game.
But at least the Roughriders have an opportunity to play in the post-season, and that means ramping up the intensity.
“You don’t take anything for granted now,” said quarterback Kevin Glenn. “It’s one-and-done if you lose, so every game means something and every play means something. You take it for what it’s worth.”
“Everything gets more intense and every play matters because this is it,” added defensive tackle Eddie Steele. “The small details are what win you or lose you playoff games.
“I’ve been on both ends of winning and losing playoff games and it’s the finite details. I don’t want to say you have to play perfect football, but you have to try your hardest to play as perfectly as you can.”
The Roughriders weren’t perfect in the regular season, riding a rollercoaster en route to a 10-8-0 record. They finished fourth in the West Division but, because their record was better than the East’s third-place team — the 6-12-0 Hamilton Tiger-Cats — the Roughriders earned the crossover.
Saskatchewan also posted a better regular-season record than the Redblacks (8-9-1), but the teams split their two meetings, with each club winning on the road.
However, those games don’t mean anything now. And, unlike the regular season, the loser of Sunday’s game won’t have another chance to bounce back the following week.
“It’s one game and you either go on or you go home,” said Roughriders offensive tackle Thaddeus Coleman. “You’ve got one opportunity, so you’ve got to take your shots early and often. You can’t wait around and put yourself in bad situations.
“It’s a mindset that, ‘If you want to move on and try to get that ring, you’ve got to correct this one game.’ Yeah, it’s three games altogether in the playoffs, but that one game is the first step, so everybody has to focus in on it.”
But the Roughriders can’t change their approach for the playoffs. Any drastic alterations at this point of the season can throw off the balance that has been created through training camp, the pre-season and the regular season.
“If you change, you’re doing things that are new and foreign to you,” safety Mike Edem said. “What you’ve got to do is prepare the way you have but understand that every rep — every play — counts more than it did before.
“Yes, there’s more at stake, but you can’t change what you’ve been doing for six months. You can tweak a few things, but you’ve got to realize that what has got you this far is going to get you through the playoffs.”
Receiver Rob Bagg agreed, suggesting that a sense of normalcy will help the Roughriders as they try to make a post-season run.
“Generally speaking, you’re in the playoffs because you did enough good things throughout the season that you’re a quality football team,” he said. “We’ve just got to focus on the things that we do well, try to stay consistent and try not to overplay the moment but take advantage of our opportunities.
“It’s going to be the first playoff game I’ve been in with a lot of these guys, so I’m excited to see the heightened energy and everything else that’s going to come with that.”
