The Roughriders are looking out for No. 1

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are grateful for the help, but they’d rather do the work themselves.

The Roughriders’ magic number to qualify for the CFL playoffs is down to one, thanks to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ 26-20 victory over the B.C. Lions on Saturday. One Saskatchewan win or one B.C. loss from now until the end of the regular season will clinch a spot in the post-season for the Roughriders.

The Green and White can lock up a spot with a victory over the host Calgary Stampeders on Friday or if the Edmonton Eskimos knock off the host Lions on Saturday. That latter piece of information was news to Roughriders offensive tackle Thaddeus Coleman.

“I seriously didn’t even know that was the scenario,” he said following Monday’s practice at Mosaic Stadium. “I’m not even looking at it like that. We’re going to go in and beat Calgary and get ourselves in the playoffs.”

Coleman’s outlook is shared by others in the Roughriders’ locker room.

“When a team does you a favour, you cheer about it,” quarterback Kevin Glenn admitted. “It’s good that Winnipeg beat B.C., but we don’t go out taking that into consideration, saying that, ‘If we lose, then we need Winnipeg to win.’ We want to just go out and win.”

“(The Bombers) gave us the opportunity that we need,” added cornerback Jovon Johnson. “But at the end of the day, we control our own destiny. With the magic number being one, we have to put a good football game together and get a victory.”

Saskatchewan could have cut down its magic number on its own Friday had it defeated the Ottawa Redblacks at Mosaic Stadium. Had the Roughriders won Friday and had the Bombers won Saturday, Saskatchewan already would be celebrating a post-season berth.

But the Roughriders blew a 32-20, fourth-quarter lead against Ottawa and lost 33-32. That means the Bombers helped out Saskatchewan on Saturday — but there was only some grudging appreciation from the Roughriders on Monday.

“I really don’t care about that,” Coleman said of the Winnipeg victory. “We need to handle business. We handled it for most of the game the other night except for the last three minutes. That’s on us as players and coaches; we can’t let wins like that slip away.

“We’re not worried about other teams winning or losing as we try to get in the playoffs. We’re going to handle our own business and get ourselves in the playoffs.”

Johnson agreed.

“When you leave it in the hands of another team, it’s a tough situation to be in,” he said. “You never know what that team is going to do for you.

“Winnipeg came through for us in the clutch, but that could have gone a different way and could have put us in a tough predicament. But they did what they had to do, they won the game and they gave us a better chance of putting ourselves back in position.”

The Roughriders were in pretty good position against Ottawa.

Saskatchewan held the ball for more than 38 minutes and had 446 yards of net offence to the Redblacks’ 330. And yet the Roughriders lost.

Tyler Crapigna’s sixth field goal of the game gave Saskatchewan a 32-20 lead with 5:49 left in regulation time, but Ottawa drove 68 yards in nine plays en route to a Greg Ellingson touchdown with 2:31 remaining.

The drive featured a successful fake punt and a roughing-the-passer penalty on A.C. Leonard that cost the Roughriders a potential game-sealing interception by Henoc Muamba.

After Saskatchewan failed to move the ball — and kill the clock — the Redblacks went 87 yards in 10 plays for Ryan Lindley’s game-winning, one-yard TD run with two seconds left in the fourth quarter.

The Roughriders were still shaking their heads about it Monday.

“That was a tough one,” Coleman said. “I told the guys after the game that I was disgusted because things like that shouldn’t happen in any kind of professional sport.

“When you literally have a game won and you hand it away in the last couple of minutes, it sucks. It’s a very bad taste in my mouth and in pretty much the whole team’s mouth. We really want to bounce back and (Calgary) is a great team to bounce back against to get that taste out of our mouths.”

The Roughriders have lost 10 straight regular-season games against Calgary, so they’ll have to show resiliency and discipline to take down the Stampeders and clinch a playoff spot.

If Saskatchewan does lock up a post-season berth, it will have to display a killer instinct that has been lacking in some games this season if it’s to make any kind of post-season run. That instinct was lacking Friday.

“Those (losses) are the ones that hurt because we know we let one slip away,” Glenn said. “But we’ve got to have a short memory because we can’t dwell on the past. We’ve still got games to play and we’re still in control of what we know we’re in control of.

“If we win, then we know we can take care of our business and get into the playoffs.”