THE CANADIAN PRESS
The Saskatchewan Roughriders will play follow the leader along their playoff path.
While the end of the season didn’t go according to plan, losing their starter to injury and then following that up with a 2-6 record down the stretch, the Riders knew there was a new season ahead.
That season is here, but can they just flip the switch like they did last year?
If you were keeping track, a 3-6 record in the back half of the season in the 2013 season turned on a dime midway through the West Semi-Final when Darian Durant took it upon himself to carry the Riders to the Western Final.
If history is going to repeat itself this time around they’ll rely on Kerry Joseph to get them another trip to Calgary.
It will take a lot more than Joseph to help carry this team, though, as the leadership core has stepped up to preach the focus needed come playoff time.
“Everyone is stepping up and understanding that it’s do or die right now,” says linebacker Sam Hurl.
“I think this team knows that, and we understand that’s what it’s all about. It’s playoff time, it’s time for everyone to step up, the older guys to step up and start helping the younger guys out.”
19 of the 24 starters for Sunday’s game were on the Riders roster last year. Behind them is a depth chart full of players in their first go around in the CFL playoffs.
What will take place at Commonwealth won’t be anything new to them after fighting off the 14-4 Stampeders in the Western Final last year.
That’s not to say they didn’t need a little bit of a reminder from the head coach on what is being asked of them, stopping practice to give the team a profanity-filled tirade.
“Everyone has a job to do and my job is to make sure they have that urgency,” explained a cool-headed Chamblin shortly after practice.
“We got some guys that don’t understand the level of playoff football in the CFL. I just want to make sure they’re ready.”
After a rant like that, they better be.
But again, the leadership took over and while he won’t play in Sunday’s game, Darian Durant huddled the team together to stress just how important every rep in practice can be to the result on Sunday.
“There is no room for mistakes, or ‘my bads’, or ‘I’ll get it next play.’ Each and every play is very important. Each and every play could be the play that wins or loses you the game.”
Durant knows they are without Geroy Simon, Keith Shologan, Craig Butler, Mike McCullough, and other leaders who left in the off-season that picked the team up this time last year.
The veterans, like Simon, are why you see the injured quarterback trying to provide that guidance.
| Western Semi-Final |
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 Only a week after the Edmonton Eskimos fell to the Saskatchewan Roughriders both teams face-off with a lot more on the line in the Western Semi-Final. Western Semi-Final playoff centre  |
Experience in the Western Semi-Final can’t be underrated for the Riders.
With 35 Grey Cup Championship rings bouncing around that locker room, there is no denying the Riders know what it takes to win.
The Eskimos don’t have that experience. They have veteran players like Fred Stamps or Adarius Bowman but neither of them have a lot of playoff success on their resume.
Patrick Watkins has a Grey Cup ring and of course so to do many in the coaching staff, especially Head Coach Chris Jones. But there is something to being told how to do it, and knowing how to do it.
Most of the Riders know and for those that don’t, they’ll have someone in the locker room to show them the way.
“Actually, I speak to (Kerry Joseph) a lot,” says running back Steven Miller, who was signed on October 23 and has worked his way very quickly to a role on the Riders offence.
“If I feel like, if there is something that I’m not so sure of, I’ll ask him or I’ll ask (Anthony Allen), so I speak to those guys a lot.”
And there’s no shortage of players someone like Miller can turn to seek advice.
So if you’re looking for an ‘X’ factor for Sunday’s Western Semi-Final, it may just be experience.
