The Saskatchewan Roughriders want to stage a memorable grand opening of new Mosaic Stadium tonight.
The CFL team also wants to help its fans mark Canada’s 150th birthday with a special celebration.
But most of all, the Roughriders want to win a game.
Saskatchewan takes an 0-1-0 record into its CFL clash with the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers (7 p.m., CKRM, TSN). The Bombers, one of the Roughriders’ West Division rivals, are 0-0-0 after having a bye in Week 1.
There’s obviously a lot at stake for the Roughriders.
“We can’t walk off the field a loser in any game,” said linebacker Sam Eguavoen, who missed Saskatchewan’s 17-16, season-opening loss to the host Montreal Alouettes on June 22 with an ankle injury. “Last week, we all saw that.
“You’ve got to treat each week like it’s the last week (of the season). Everybody wants to win every single game. I don’t care how many fans (are in Mosaic Stadium tonight). There could be one fan in here or 2 million fans in here; we’ve got to win. With the work and preparation we put in this week, we can’t walk out with an L.”
The Roughriders enter tonight’s contest having lost four straight regular-season games. Saskatchewan completed the 2016 season with three consecutive losses before falling to Montreal in Week 1.
The Roughriders last tasted victory on Oct. 15, when they beat the Toronto Argonauts 29-11. Saskatchewan’s last home win was on Sept. 14, when it defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 20-18.
So, after just one regular-season game in 2017, the Roughriders already are being asked if they’re in a must-win situation today.
“Every game is a must-win for us, especially coming off the last two seasons that we’ve had,” receiver Nic Demski said. “We’re just looking to build upon it.
“We’ve got to go out here and show Winnipeg who runs the West and then after that we’ve got to show every other team who runs the West.”
The Roughriders played reasonably well in their season-opener in Montreal. They had the ball longer than the Als (31 minutes 34 seconds to 28 minutes 26 seconds), gained more yards than their hosts (395 to 331) and had more first downs (25 to 16) — and yet they failed to win the game.
A missed 45-yard field-goal try by Tyler Crapigna on the final play of regulation time was only part of the problem. Saskatchewan was penalized 12 times for 113 yards and committed two turnovers, both in Montreal territory.
The Roughriders ran 80 offensive plays, but only two drives reached the red zone — and only one of those reached the end zone. Saskatchewan got a touchdown pass from Kevin Glenn to Bakari Grant, but three field goals and a convert from Crapigna rounded out the visitors’ scoring.
“We feel as though we have a good team, so we emphasized the red-zone situation this week,” Glenn said. “We stressed it and we talked about it as players and as coaches in the meeting rooms and we took it out to the practice field and tried to emphasize the fact that when we do move the ball and we get into these type of situations, we’ve got to take advantage of them.
“We’ve got to put more touchdowns on the board instead of just field goals. With our type of defence, that would start playing into our hands.”
Head coach-GM Chris Jones wants to see his offence control the football — and hang onto it — in tonight’s game. Then, if his team has a lead to protect, he wants his defence to slam the door.
That wasn’t the case in Week 1, when Montreal overcame a 16-14 fourth-quarter deficit to pull ahead.
“You never want to come out of there with a loss, but we did some good things,” Jones said. “But you don’t get any kind of points when you lose a football game.”
“Every game is going to be a building block, especially Week 1,” Demski added. “We took everything to the film, everything to the classroom and everything to the field. Now we’re just going to come out here and prove that we can win games.”
There’s a lot of enthusiasm in Rider Nation for today’s game, but much of that is the result of the party-like atmosphere that is expected during the official unveiling of Mosaic Stadium on Canada Day.
Glenn doesn’t think there’s any added pressure on the Roughriders to deliver on this special day. Instead, he said, the players were relaxed and focused in the days leading up to the game.
The veteran quarterback also hasn’t heard any grumbling from fans about the team as it prepares for its first home game of the season.
“Any fan would want a win, but I don’t think they’re at a point where they’re going to go jump off a building if there’s not a win,” Glenn said. “I think they’re so dialed in to the fact that this is their team that they’ll ride or die with whatever happens.
“As players, we know that we need to put a win together for them, just to give them more enthusiasm about coming back to the next game and cheering for us.”
