Breaking down the Roughriders-Redblacks matchup

OTTAWA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ previous games against the Ottawa Redblacks in 2017 were a 50-50 proposition.

The CFL’s Roughriders split their two regular-season contests with Ottawa — and each team scored 50 points. Saskatchewan won 18-17 at TD Place on Sept. 29, but the Redblacks prevailed 33-32 at Mosaic Stadium on Oct. 13.

The teams will play the rubber match Sunday, when they meet in the East Division semifinal at TD Place (noon, CKRM, TSN).

So who has the edge in Sunday’s contest? Don’t ask Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones.

“The games all decide who’s ahead of who,” he said before his team travelled to the nation’s capital. “They’ve been two close football games. They jumped out on us over there (taking a 17-0 lead) and we were able to come back, and the same thing happened over here (where the Roughriders led 32-20).

“We’ve got a very good football team to prepare for and a big situation.”

The winner of Sunday’s game advances to the East Division final against the host Toronto Argonauts on Nov. 19. The victor in that contest moves on to the Grey Cup game, Nov. 26 in Ottawa.

Here’s a look at some potentially key aspects of Sunday’s game.

A history lesson: The Redblacks are the defending Grey Cup champions, having defeated the Calgary Stampeders 39-33 in overtime in the 2016 CFL final.

Ottawa was led that day by quarterback Henry Burris, who passed for 461 yards and three touchdowns. But that was Burris’ swan song in the CFL; he retired in the off-season.

On Sunday, the Redblacks’ offence will be in the hands of Trevor Harris, who has yet to start a playoff game in his six-year CFL career.

Saskatchewan counters with veteran Kevin Glenn, who has started 11 post-season games over his 17-year career. Glenn has a 4-7 record in those games.

The Roughriders haven’t won in the post-season since the 2013 Grey Cup game, in which they beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 45-23. Saskatchewan’s last playoff appearance was in the West semifinal in 2014, when it fell 18-10 to the host Edmonton Eskimos.

Bucking a trend?: This marks the 10th time since the crossover format was introduced in 1996 that a team from the West Division has appeared in the East Division playoffs.

None of the previous nine teams has advanced to the Grey Cup. Six of them lost in the East semifinal and three fell in the division final.

It’s the third time that the Roughriders have crossed over. They lost 24-14 to Toronto in a semifinal in 2002 and 30-14 to the Montreal Alouettes in a semifinal in ’05.

The men in charge: Jones has been in the playoffs in all but one of his 16 seasons as a coach in the CFL. That anomaly occurred last season — his first with the Roughriders.

Jones has appeared in 12 division finals and seven Grey Cup games in his career and is a four-time league champion.

Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell, meanwhile, has appeared in 11 division finals and six Grey Cup games in his 19-year CFL coaching career. He owns three championship rings.

In 2015, Jones’ Eskimos defeated Campbell’s Redblacks 26-20 in the Grey Cup game.

The two men were on the same staff in 2010, when Calgary lost the West Division final to Saskatchewan. Jones was the Stampeders’ defensive co-ordinator and Campbell was their running backs coach.

The triggermen: Glenn started 17 games for the Roughriders in 2017 and posted a 9-8-0 record.

But he finished only two of the final seven games he played in the regular season, being replaced each time by backup Brandon Bridge.

Glenn completed 318 of 468 pass attempts for 4,038 yards with 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in the regular season. Bridge was 92-for-138 passing for 1,236 yards with 10 TDs and four interceptions.

The Roughriders’ 35 passing touchdowns led the CFL.

Harris went 7-7-1 as Ottawa’s starter this season, completing 398 of his 572 pass attempts for 4,679 yards with 30 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. His 30 scoring passes tied him with Edmonton’s Mike Reilly for the CFL lead.

Glenn went the distance in both regular-season games against Ottawa, completing 49 of 71 pass attempts for 639 yards with two TDs and three picks.

Harris missed the teams’ first meeting due to injury and then went 17-for-33 for 262 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in the rematch.

The good-hands people: The Roughriders had three receivers exceed 1,000 yards in the regular season, with Duron Carter (1,043), Naaman Roosevelt (1,035) and Bakari Grant (1,033) surpassing that mark.

Carter had 11 catches for 231 yards — the highest single-game total in the league in 2017 — when the teams played in Regina.

The Redblacks had two 1,000-yard receivers in Greg Ellingson (1,459) and Brad Sinopoli (1,009) in the regular season, and Diontae Spencer (922) wasn’t far behind.

But Sinopoli is out for the season with a shoulder injury and his league-leading 41 second-down catches that produced first downs surely will be missed Sunday.

Ellingson led the league with 12 touchdown catches and 15 receptions of 30 or more yards in the regular season. But he had just five catches for 59 yards over the Redblacks’ two games with Saskatchewan.

Keep calm and carry the football: The Roughriders finished the regular season with the league’s least-productive rushing attack, averaging just 82.1 yards per game. The Redblacks were fourth in the league at 94.6 yards per game.

Ottawa tailback William Powell was outstanding down the stretch, gaining more than 100 yards in four of the Redblacks’ final six games and totaling 721 yards over that stretch.

That included games against Saskatchewan of 187 yards (Sept. 29) and 58 yards (Oct. 13). Powell placed second in the league’s rushing derby with 1,026 yards, nine fewer than Andrew Harris of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The Roughriders will counter with a tailback-by-committee approach led by Kienan LaFrance (68 carries, 273 yards, two touchdowns) and Marcus Thigpen (seven rushes, 32 yards, one TD).

Saskatchewan’s rushing attack will miss left guard Brendon LaBatte, who suffered a left-leg injury in the regular-season finale Nov. 4. But Derek Dennis — the CFL’s top offensive lineman in 2016 — comes off the reserve list to replace LaBatte, giving the Roughriders another veteran presence on the line.

Under pressure: This contest features two of the CFL’s least-productive pass rushes.

Ottawa finished sixth in the league with 31 sacks and fourth with 110 quarterback pressures, while Saskatchewan was eighth with 27 sacks and fifth with 106 pressures.

The Redblacks’ leading sack man was Avery Ellis, who finished the regular season with six quarterback takedowns and 16 pressures. The Roughriders were led by Willie Jefferson, who had eight sacks and a league-high 37 pressures.

Ottawa had only one sack in four of its last five regular-season games, including the first contest against Saskatchewan. The Roughriders didn’t have any sacks in three of their last five games, including the second game against Ottawa.

Isn’t that special?: In the teams’ first meeting this season, the Redblacks led 17-0 before the Roughriders rallied.

That comeback was sparked by Christion Jones, who returned a punt 97 yards for a touchdown to get Saskatchewan on the board.

In the two games between the teams, Jones had 11 punt returns for 234 yards and a TD and seven kickoff returns for 149 yards.

For the season, Jones averaged 14.3 yards on 45 punt returns (the CFL’s second-highest such number, behind only the 16.4 put up by Calgary’s Roy Finch) and 23.5 yards on 18 kickoff returns (fifth-best in the league).

But the Redblacks have a good return man in Spencer, who had the fourth-best average on punt returns (13.3) and the second-most punt-return yards (929, behind only Finch’s 1,200).

Spencer also led the CFL with 260 yards on missed field-goal returns and was fourth in kickoff return average (24.3).

Ottawa punter Brett Maher finished second in the CFL in average (46.7) but was first in net average (36.2). The Roughriders’ Josh Bartel was seventh in average (43.9) and fourth in net average (34.9).