Rod Pedersen
CFL.ca
The Saskatchewan Roughriders just got finished with an emotional and scrappy first-place showdown in the CFL West Division and now they have to get ready for another.
38,683 fans poured into Calgary’s McMahon Stadium Saturday afternoon on a beautiful autumn day to watch the 8-6 Riders battle the 8-6 Stampeders with first-place in the CFL West on the line.
Henry Burris’s Stampeders scored on their opening two drives in the first quarter and led throughout the entire game with quarter-by-quarter leads of 10-1, 20-18 and 23-18. However the resilient Riders fought back with a last minute touchdown drive and successful two point conversion engineered by quarterback Darian Durant to tie the game at 30-30 and send it to overtime.
Every last fan was on the edge of their seat as the teams continued to slug away at each other like a heavyweight bout. Perhaps the Riders got too aggressive, as Rider DE John Chick got nailed with an unnecessary roughness penalty on Burris with the Stamps in 2nd and long on the first Calgary series. It gave the Stamps an automatic first down and an extra 15 yards. Burris found Rob Cote in the endzone for a touchdown in the first mini-game, but the Riders answered back with a Chris Szarka rushing touchdown, his third of the day.
The Rider players were beyond livid at the call on Chick, as Burris had slipped on the turf and referee Kim Murphy deemed Chick’s tackle to be too severe. Saskatchewan composed themselves in time for the second overtime mini-game and Chris Getzlaf caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Durant to make it 44-37 for Saskatchewan.
Calgary came back to tie the game when Burris found Brock Ralph in the endzone to make the final score 44-44 and leave the teams deadlocked for first-place with identical 8-6-1 records with three games left to play. The Riders and Stamps will meet in the final game of the regular season Saturday, November 7 in Regina in a 6:00pm kickoff.
“It’s tough when guys go out and play their butts off and leave it all on the field, and then we still gotta earn respect every week,” said Rider DB Lance Frazier. “We’re just getting tired of having to playing football outside of what we do. But it gives us more drive to get better so it doesn’t come down to plays like that. We still got a few games left to get things right.”
Rider coach Ken Miller was more reserved with his comments upon the team’s return to Regina later that night.
“You know there’s a mandate in the league to protect quarterbacks,” Miller explained. “But from my point of view, John was just trying to make a play and was closer than I think he thought he was to the quarterback so the hit was a little bit harder than maybe what he intended it to be.”
“(The players) are frustrated. But they look ahead as opposed to looking back.”
Indeed they do have to look ahead, as they have the B.C. Lions coming into Mosaic Stadium this Saturday for another first-place showdown at 3:30pm MT (TSN, CKRM Rider Radio Network). With the Lions’ 24-21 comeback win at Winnipeg on Sunday, they have pulled to within a point of the first-place Riders and Stampeders. Should they earn a road win on Saturday, B.C. could find themselves in first-place if Edmonton is able to knock off Calgary in this upcoming week.
“We can’t take any team lightly the rest of the way,” reasoned Rider FB Neal Hughes. “Every team’s going to be fighting for their playoff lives.”
AT HOME ON THE ROAD
Additional temporary seating for the 2009 Grey Cup has pushed McMahon Stadium’s seating capacity to 46,500. In Saturday’s game, the crowd was its usual near 50/50 split of Riders and Stamps fans. “There were times in the game where we actually thought we were playing at home,” offered Hughes. “When they were on offense, our fans made as much noise as they could. It was awesome.”
RIDER NOTES
-Injured Rider slotback Weston Dressler (fractured fibula) did not make the trip with the Riders as therapist Ivan Gutfriend said Dressler is in no condition to travel. His return for the playoffs is questionable…
-P Jamie Boreham did make the trip however, as he missed a second straight game with a herniated disc injury in his neck. He is slated to see a specialist and his return date is unknown. For the second straight game, kicker Luca Congi handled all kicking chores and had a 45.0 average on five punts and a 63.3 yard average on seven kickoffs and was 2/3 on field goals…
-The Riders need to beat B.C. by 15 points or more to win the season series. The Lions are 2-1 against Saskatchewan this year and have outscored them 78-64.
