Rider Pride Report

CFL Insider's Saskatchewan Roughriders Columnist Terry McEvoy weighs in with his take on Gang Green.

Remember the old saying about the dog that chased the car?

The question was this: will the poor pooch know what to do if it ever catches the car? Now, I am not trying to necessarily parallel the Saskatchewan Roughriders with dogs, but the saying entered my mind prior to this week’s Hamilton rematch. The Rider resurgence after the Stinkers of September led to the clinching of a home playoff game finalized by Calgary’s loss on Friday. This elusive home contest, the team’s first since 1988, was finally in the bag. The question was, as mine usually are, quite simple: would the Riders have a letdown playing before their home fans?

As an unfortunate spectator at several Riders “need to win” games in the past few years, the letdown thought certainly entered my mind. It’s true this game was close to insignificant, but to tell the truth, the Saskatchewan fans deserved the very best effort from their Riders.

I love to mentally speculate on things that can only be debated and never really decided. In recent years past, my speculation says, if a Rider team was ever in the position these 2007 players found this past Sunday, a letdown would have very possibly occurred. Things are different this year. There’s seriousness and focus from Kent Austin on down that, in my opinion, was not present in the recent past. One can notice it even at practices and walk-throughs, and most certainly it is evident in nearly every Austin comment.

Hamilton, thus, was in for a long day. Staked to a 3 – 0 lead after an opening field goal, the Tiger Cats were simply overmatched and out gunned. Kerry Joseph had yet another strong day under center, completing 70% of his passes for 261 yards and adding two more rushing scores to his impressive season total. It’s pretty clear that Joseph is well positioned to command very serious consideration for post season honours.

On this day of both sunshine and hail in Regina, the Saskatchewan defence also had a strong showing. The Cats were stopped without a touchdown, as kicker Nick Setta accounted for all of Hamilton’s points in the lopsided 38 – 11 final score.  It was good to see solid pressure from the Rider D-line nearly all afternoon. I particularly enjoyed Lance Frazier’s touchdown on a fumble recovery, a bang-bang play where he plucked the ball out of thin air and quickly galloped in for the score.

Like some of you, I often check out a couple of popular Saskatchewan fan forums. If you did after this game, you are probably shaking your head just as I did after reading certain fans’ need to find something to criticize. This player did that, this coach didn’t do this, why the @#%& didn’t the Riders use this, that, or the other play or scheme. This is a potential team of destiny for Saskatchewan, a team whose most awful blunder this past Sunday was truthfully a horrendous fumble by a fan when Frazier tossed the ball into the stands following his touchdown. The nit picking gets really old at times, and one wonders how some of these folks function in real life, if in fact they have one.

By all reports, there is a well deserved air of excitement floating around Regina these days. The home playoff game is finally a certainty, with first place and a bye still even a theoretical dream, although it’s hard to imagine the B.C. Lions losing both their remaining games. Saskatchewan travels to Commonwealth Stadium this week to face an Eskimo team on the brink. Hey, Kent, give them that same speech again, eh?