NO LETTING UP FOR STAMPS
Winless Riders rested and hungry
Ignore the beseeching hand clinging to the skyscraper’s ledge. Turn a deaf ear to the sounds of panicked thrashing; resist the humane temptation to toss a life preserver into the deep end of the pool.
Keep that jagged jack- boot heel squarely on the larynx.
“Man, you don’t want them so much as lighting a match,” says safety Josh Bell. “Because where there’s smoke, there’s fire, if you see what I’m sayin’.
“That fire catches and all of a sudden it’s out of control and we’ve got to put it out.”
A soft, slow, mournful shake of the head.
“Uh, uh. No, sir. Rather not have to do that.
“They’re due.
“That’s a good team, a VERY good team. Don’t care what their record says.
“We get up on ’ em, we’re doing high- fives and backflips, chanting, laughing, coming off to the sidelines, having a good time. The crowd sees that, they feed off that, and it can be infectious. “The wrong way.” One of the oldest, most dogeared cliches in the sporting biz is the necessity of getting off to a quick start, particularly in hostile territory. And there can be no place across this land more hostile, more discombobulating, than Mosaic ( It’ll Always Be Taylor Field) at full bellow.
These, however, are far from normal times out east in the flatlands. The Saskatchewan Roughriders, as everyone is doubtless aware, are in the throes of crisis at 0- 7. The entire province, top to bottom, from Selwyn Lake in the north to Estevan down south, is in need of a collective visit to Dr. Phil. The sports talk- show circuit boards are overloading on the reasons for the shocking fall from grace and possible solutions. Anger. Frustration. Confusion.
There was rampant, ongoing speculation of a palace coup that has yet to come to pass. Their hopes of a turnaround ride on a third- string quarterback making his third career start.
The Riders, plain and simple, need a piece of wreckage in the debris field to cling to.
Embattled coach Corey Chamblin is hoping the bye week can act as a tonic, an elixir, a refreshing agent, for a team that has actually played far better than its record indicates. On the flip side, the Calgary Stampeders would be tickled pink for more of the same. The 48- 3 defilement of the Ottawa Redblacks on Saturday at McMahon Stadium was far and away their most complete game of the season.
“That’s something you want to do to a team that’s really got to come out on fire, looking for that first win,” echoed quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell of the importance of a fast Calgary start. “We’ve been saying all week that they’re not an 0- 7 football team, but you still try and treat ’ em like one, get out, jump on ’ em early and see if the fans don’t turn against them. All fans can.
“I know they’re pretty passionate. I think it would take, like, multiple touchdowns for that to happen. So that’s the plan.”
They’ll be there, 33,427 13th men ( and women) strong, waiting, hoping, for a renaissance that simply can’t wait too much longer to occur.
“Everyone,” says Stampeders DB Jamar Wall, “knows Regina is a very hard place to play. Those fans are huge for them. The stands are still packed. They’ll be waiting for something good to happen. So it’s very important to kill the momentum. Eliminate it as quick as we can.”
We’ve been saying all week that they’re not an 0- 7 football team, but you still try and treat ’ em like one.
“( Head coach John Hufnagel) told us this week they’re first or second in 22 offensive categories. So it’s nothing you can really pinpoint, why things are happening to them.
“But when you’re losing — and every guy here has been through it — frustration definitely sets in. Then you get some finger- pointing going on here and there, little things turn into big things, one things leads into another. “Everything gets magnified. “If we can jump out, get on them early, put some doubt in their minds and the minds of their fans, it’ll definitely help us.”
So the storyline on a game that pundits had circled on their CFL calendar as a mano- a- mano firstplace showdown for top spot in the West Division has switched focus.
It’s not about bragging rights and pecking order anymore.
It’s about survival. About pulling a ship run aground on the rocks back into open water. About whether the Riders will slip ever lower into the mire or at long last find their feet, and a measure of traction.
“I love playing there,” says the wise old hand, Keon Raymond. “Those people, as a visiting player they do not like you. Just that atmosphere ... I don’t think they understand how much that noise pumps up the visiting team, too. Especially me.
“You have to be a band of brothers when you play there. It can’t be this guy or that guy. It’s got to be everybody. Together. That’s the only way. It’s an environment like no other.
“They’re sorting through some things, obviously. But we know how much the bye week can mean.
“They haven’t won yet, but we’re the defending Grey Cup champions and in terms of getting their season turned around ... I’m sure they think ( Saturday) would be a pretty good place to start.”