THE CANADIAN PRESS
They say football is a game of inches but Sunday’s game between the Riders and Tiger-Cats could come down to 18 inches.
Yes, a foot and half could decide who wins and who loses the battle between the best run game in the CFL and the best run defense in the CFL.
“It’s going to be who can move the other guys forward or back 18 inches is what it’s going to come down to,” explains Roughriders left guard Brendon LaBatte.
“We have to make sure we take care of all our individual techniques and we’re efficient and we’re on point on how we come off of the ball and I think that’s where a lot of battles are going to be won or lost is in the first two steps.”
After four weeks, the Roughriders have thrived along the ground. Jerome Messam leads the league in rushing and in fourth place sits his teammate Anthony Allen.
The Ticats and Riders are deadlocked this week in CFL Pick’Em. Who’s your pick to win?
On the other side of the ball will be the Tiger-Cats, who feature one of the best defensive lines in the league despite suffering season-ending injuries to Linden Gaydosh and Brian Bulcke before the season even started.
The Tabbies have only allowed 68 yards per game along the ground and rank in the top-three in almost every key defensive category.
And in the eyes of the Riders, it’s all been driven from a strong front.
“They’re playing at a very high level,” acknowledged Riders right guard, Chris Best.
“They’re moving all over the place and they have some great guys up front, and their linebackers too. They’re bringing everyone in the house and they’re having a lot of success doing it so we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
The biggest challenge may be the man who casts one of the biggest shadows among opposition defensive linemen, Ted Laurent.
Laurent has appeared unstoppable at times and Best is looking forward to his latest battle against a familiar foe.
“Ted Laurent is as good as anyone out there right now,” said Best. “Laurent is the one you’ve got to watch because he’s such a good player and I’m looking forward to playing him.”
‘Fun!’ Yes, fun is how Chris Best described his man to man battles against Laurent through their lengthening careers.
| Pedersen on the Riders |
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If the Riders are going to get their season back on track, CFL.ca’s Rod Pedersen writes that it’ll require shutting down all outside distractions. |
How can smacking heads and all other unmentionables that happen in the trenches be fun? Well it’s all about facing the challenge and succeeding.
“We’ve played against each other for four or five years now,” admitted Best. “He’s not a finesse guy and I’m not a finesse guy so the immovable object meets the unstoppable force.”
And it’s going to be fun to see what gives.
That won’t be the only ‘friendly’ rivalry between the two sides on Sunday. Former Eskimo teammates Simoni Lawrence and Jerome Messam are looking forward to bringing their social media smack talk to the football field this weekend.
“I’m very excited for this matchup,” Messam said as a smile spread across his face.
“Like you said, best run defense in this league, best rush offense and to make things better, Simoni Lawrence sent me a Snapchat talking a whole bunch of trash so I’m definitely fired up for this game.”
The content of that Snapchat?
“He told me, ‘Don’t think I’m out here sleeping. I’m icing my ankle every day. I’m coming to get you.’ So I’m like, ‘Alright, lets go!’”
The battle between Messam and Lawrence is a typical one in the tight knit CFL, where players on opposite sides of the ball are either former teammates or very familiar with each other. And it won’t bother Messam one bit if he makes Lawrence eat his words.
“I could be lining up against my brother but I’m still going to go out there and try to whoop his ass. In the game, regardless of the relationship off the field, we have to go out there and compete hard against each other.”
But for the Riders there is a lot more on the line than just proving their run offence can succeed against the best run defense. They’re 0-4 and the veteran LaBatte knows how important a win would be for this team.
“There may be some guys saying to the media everything is fine and dandy and there is no pressure, but inside there everybody knows how much we need a win here to get things turned around.”
And if it just so happens that the run game can seal the Riders’ first victory, that would be just fine for LaBatte.
“Every week you want to go out there and take the game over when it’s halfway through the third quarter or somewhere in the fourth quarter, when you can kind of feel 
when you have a team up against the ropes. We just have to be able to finish them when we’ve got them there.”
“The best way, offensively, to do that for us would be pounding the ball. We’ve done that in the past, I mean, when you think back to ’13 and ’14 we were finishing a lot of teams just by pounding the ball on the ground.”
The immovable object against the unstoppable force and the Riders may just be 18 inches away from their first victory of the season.
