Riders on a roll for rematch with Redblacks

They’ve won their last two games, writes Tim Baines.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders vs. the Ottawa Redblacks. While the western team clings to the faintest of playoff hopes, the inconsistent eastern team sits atop a division that is still up for grabs.

On a Friday night where anyone watching the SaskatchewanOttawa showdown on TSN will be able to hear what’s said by the quarterbacks and coaches, thanks to microphones bringing it into your living room live, you can throw the stats and the probabilities out the window.

This Saskatchewan team, which has just three victories on the season, has taken two straight — and its other win came at the expense of the Redblacks, a 30-29 barnburner way back in July in Regina. Thanks to injuries to starting quarterbacks, that game was the Mitchell Gale vs. Brock Jensen show.

Tonight at TD Place Stadium, it’s Darian Durant vs. Trevor Harris.

The Roughriders will play three talented newcomers, all signed in the past week. Receiver Jeff Fuller, linebacker Henoc Muamba and defensive end Willie Jefferson will make their Rider debuts. The Redblacks get running back Travon Van, who will split time with Mossis Madu Jr., back in the lineup.

“They can play with anybody in this league and we think we can, too,” Redblacks coach Rick Campbell said. “We have to make sure we’re guns a-blazing (tonight) at 7 o’clock.”

“They pressure the quarterback, they can man cover, their linebackers are fast,” said Roughriders coach Chris Jones, singing the praises of the Redblacks. “You don’t just have one or two guys catching the football, you have five guys evenly distributed. Their run-pass ratio is great. Their quarterbacks are delivering the football and not throwing interceptions. They’re a dynamic offence.”

Harris is coming off a huge effort in B.C., where he threw the ball for 485 yards. The Redblacks will look to mix in a bit of a run game and keep that air attack going on Friday. A couple of months ago, Harris was knocked out of the Rider game with a leg injury.

“They’ve changed and evolved,” Harris said. “They’ve got great pass rushers so it’ll pose a different challenge.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to be Chris Jones and they’re going to do what they do — they’re going to blitz, put heat on you and make you get the ball out and they’re going to jump routes.”

Jensen threw for 271 yards as he stepped in behind centre in July.

“I’ve grown so much from that experience,” he said. “Looking back at the film, there are a lot of things that the offence could have taken advantage of and done better, but there were a lot of things we did well, too. We’re going to mix it up, continue to keep our tempo up and attack these guys again.”

In the final five weeks of the CFL regular season, both teams have things to accomplish. The Riders, who will stay in Ottawa until the middle of next week before leaving for a Saturday game in Toronto, will look to continue what they’ve been doing in recent games.

“There is such a thing as learning to win, learning to finish,” Jones said.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been on the wrong end of a lot of close games this year. Over the last couple of weeks, the guys seemed to relish being in the moment and going out and making the play. We just have to try and continue that trend.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys who are very fast, we have to continue the trend of not killing ourselves with pre-snap penalties. If we do that, it’ll be a good game.”

As for wearing a microphone and other teams maybe figuring out the Riders’ plays, Jones said: “We’re not going to create anything different. Being able to hear what we call and taking that information into the next week — I’ll tell them the name of the plays we run, defensively at least. I’m going to run the same plays next week, too. They just don’t know when we’ll run them.”

MISSING IN ACTION

Receiver Jake Harty mysteriously wound up on the six-game injured list on Thursday, though he might be back before those six games are up. Harty’s injury is not related to getting tangled up with B.C.’s Adam Bighill last week. Said Campbell: “It has nothing to do with that. He’s sick. He’s going to be OK, but he was much more sick than anticipated — it required some doctors and a hospital visit.” It looks like linebacker John Boyett, who also went on the six-game injured list, will miss the rest of the season.