The Saskatchewan Roughriders celebrated a hard-earned ticket to the CFL playoffs by ingesting Gatorade and bottled water.
In such a situation, overexuberant members of a Major League Baseball team would have popped the corks on champagne bottles and sprayed everyone in sight.
Good luck trying to distinguish between a ball club that has won the World Series and one that dons the goggles and bursts open the bubbly simply because it has secured a wild-card berth.
Football, thank goodness, has a different tradition. It was upheld by the rather restrained Roughriders after Saturday’s 28-24 win over the Edmonton Elks.
“There’s a great opportunity in front of us,” receiver Jerreth Sterns said in a champagne-free visitors’ locker room at Commonwealth Stadium, “but the job’s not finished.”
Next on the to-do list: Home playoff game.
A victory over the visiting B.C. Lions on Saturday would guarantee a post-season game at Mosaic Stadium.
Should such a scenario materialize, the job would still be undone in the hearts and minds of the Roughriders’ players and coaches.
The ultimate objective is to win the Grey Cup, although short-term imperatives are the emphasis this week.
Beat B.C.
“Go 1-and-0 this week,” as Head Coach Corey Mace is apt to say.
Now, with all that being noted, can a (t)rusted scribe take a few minutes to appreciate what has transpired to this point in the CFL season?
At the not-inconsiderable risk of spiking the ball too early — something the players and coaches would never dare to do — I feel compelled to laud the Roughriders for their accomplishments to date.
This is written with the recognition that, on the surface, an 8-7-1 record is hardly earth-shaking.
But when you dig a little deeper, it really is quite a story.
The Roughriders have a playoff berth locked up and a winning record despite an inundation of injuries.
The offence, in particular, has been decimated.
Over the first 16 games, there have been 26 starters on offence — including 12 different offensive linemen, nine receivers, three running backs, two quarterbacks, and a partridge in a pear tree.
One look at the Roughriders’ six-game injured list shows a league-high 15 names. Add it all up and 697 man-games of CFL regular-season experience are on Saskatchewan’s scroll-like six-game list.
That doesn’t even include the one-game injury list, which consists of running back Ryquell Armstead (who erupted for 207 rushing yards in his first game with Saskatchewan), receiver Shawn Bane Jr. (a 93-catch, 1,104-yard machine in 2023) and offensive lineman Jacob Brammer (one of six starting right tackles in 2024).
Yet, Saskatchewan leads the playoff-bound West Division teams in offensive points per game (25.5) and offensive touchdowns (38).
That is despite starting quarterback Trevor Harris having missed six games earlier this season with a knee injury.
We have seen situations before where an injury to the No. 1 quarterback has effectively destroyed the Roughriders’ season (see: Harris, 2023; Kent Austin, 1991; Darian Durant, 2014 and 2015).
Fast forward to 2024. With Shea Patterson performing admirably behind centre, the Roughriders went 2-3-1 in the absence of Harris.
It actually appeared that Saskatchewan had won a third game sans Harris — on Aug. 8 in Ottawa — before the Command Centre overturned a game-ending Saskatchewan sack/fumble recovery in overtime and the REDBLACKS salvaged a tie.
That is the kind of year it has been.
A team of lesser talent, depth or character would have succumbed to the seemingly never-ending adversity several weeks ago.
The Roughriders’ resilience is a testament to leadership provided by Mace and his coaching staff, along with veterans such as the starting quarterback.
Harris set the bar back in December, when he said: “Our fan base is the best in the league, so we need our product to match the fan base.”
Suitably, the 2024 Roughriders have proven to be “Saskatchewan Tough” — to borrow a phrase from former field boss Reuben Berry.
After back-to-back 6-12-0 seasons, the Green and White has delivered an entertaining product — one that, with all the nailbiters, can be too entertaining for the central nervous system — and a team that on Saturday can secure an additional home game in 2024.
Granted, there have been some detours over the past few months, but the Roughriders have taken several steps toward appeasing the fan base that Harris cited and commended.
“We want to make sure we’re keeping our appeasing locked within the four walls of the locker room, but this is just as much the fans’ team as it is ours,” Harris said.
“We’re just grateful that we have the best fan base in the league. We just need them to show up for us the next two games.”
Which brings me to another point: The Roughriders are above .500 even though nine of this season’s first 16 games have been played on the road.
Both remaining regular-season contests are earmarked for Mosaic Stadium — Saturday against B.C. and Oct. 26 versus the Calgary Stampeders.
“With the game against B.C. coming up, we need the fans to be loud and proud,” Harris said. “We need them to show up and show how difficult a place this is going to be to play in if we can get a win next week and clinch a home playoff game.”
A possible home playoff game … after everything that has happened since this rollercoaster of a regular season began precisely four months ago.
What a feat!
Pass the bottled water.
