Riders’ masked men deal in art of confusion
EAST SEMIFINAL Shifting defenders provide a stern challenge: Calvillo
MONTREAL— Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo lists the Saskatchewan Roughrider defence as the second best in the CFL.
No. 1 in his books? The Toronto Argonauts. The Riders figure Calvillo has it all wrong and are determined to prove it in today’s East Division semifinal at Olympic Stadium. “ That’s what it’s all about,” said Riders defensive tackle Scott Schultz. “ That’s why we’re here.”
While he may rank the Riders second to the Boatmen defensively, there’s no doubt Calvillo has plenty of respect for the team from Regina.
“ Everybody knows exactly what Toronto’s going to do, but they do it so well,” he said.
“ Saskatchewan is probably the second best. The thing we don’t know is what ( formation) their defence is going to be in. You look at their defence and they play about 15 to 17 different coverages so they’re going to challenge a quarterback.” The Riders defence, as Calvillo sees it, will plug up the middle with tackles Schultz and Nate Davis to stop the run, while the secondary, led by veteran Eddie Davis, picks up the receivers.
“ They like to bull rush and put the ( offensive) linemen in my lap,” he said. “ That’s the battle my linemen are going to have to deal with.’’
That’s music to Schultz’s ears.
“ We would hope we can confuse the opposition,” he said. “ We have, I would venture to say, the best DBs in the league. And with their experience they’re able to disguise their coverages. But with Anthony you have to do that or he’s going to kill you.’’ The Riders come into this game as the crossover team after finishing fourth in the West. Their 9- 9 record was two games better than Ottawa in the East and bumped the third-place Renegades from the playoffs. But they also arrive under a cloud of controversy that has swirled around the team ever since starting middle linebacker Trevis Smith was arrested two weeks ago and charged with aggravated assault on allegations he had sex with a woman while knowingly having the HIV virus. Smith did not play in the Riders’ 13- 12 win over the B. C. Lions in last week’s regular season finale and will not play today. Head coach Danny Barrett said he doesn’t expect the distraction of Smith’s situation to affect his team’s performance.
“ He didn’t play last week in B. C. either,” said Barrett. “ We’ve stayed focused on the task at hand. We’ve stayed beyond all the stuff swirling around in the media.”
Schultz said the team did a good job of outlining the situation to the players.
“ That’s why we were able to move on from there,” he said. “ The first couple of days the situation was itchy, but everyone’s questions were answered and internally we said ‘ come on, be professionals, let’s play football.’ ” And if the Smith situation weren’t enough, the Riders didn’t get into Montreal until 3 p. m. yesterday after their flight was delayed 1 1⁄ hours during a
2 stopover in Winnipeg.
“That’s the way things have been all season with this club,” said Schultz. “ If things began to go our way it would be kind of a weird feeling. So I don’t think any of this ruffles anybody’s feathers.”