June 14, 2018

The Roughriders are ready for the Argos

Toronto Argonauts running back James Wilder Jr. (32) is wrapped up by Saskatchewan Roughriders defenders during first half CFL Eastern final action, Sunday, November 19, 2017 in Toronto. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Sam Eguavoen has been looking forward to the 2018 CFL season while also keeping 2017 in the back of his mind.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ linebacker admitted Thursday that he thought “all the time” through the off-season about one specific play in the Eastern Final, Nov. 19 against the host Toronto Argonauts.

The Roughriders were leading the Argos 21-18 with 1:16 left in regulation time when Toronto faced a third-and-five predicament from the Roughriders’ 40-yard line.

Eguavoen had tight coverage on Toronto tailback James Wilder Jr., on the play, but quarterback Ricky Ray dropped a perfect pass into Wilder’s hands for a 22-yard gain. Four plays later, Cody Fajardo scored on a one-yard run and the Argos had the lead with 23 seconds left.

Toronto held on to win 25-21 and advanced to the Grey Cup game.

“You’ve got to have a short-term memory, but (that play) is still there,” Eguavoen said. “It kind of fuels you for every rep you do in the off-season — bench, squat, sprint, everything. You pay attention to more details.

“On that play, I feel like my eyes were wandering a little bit. It’s just fuelling the fire for when we play them again.”

Conveniently enough for Eguavoen, that next meeting is Friday. The Roughriders open the 2018 regular season against the Argos (7 p.m., CKRM, TSN) at Mosaic Stadium.

Saskatchewan head coach-GM Chris Jones said numerous times this week that he didn’t think his team needed to use revenge for the Eastern Final as fuel for the season opener. According to a few players, ‘revenge’ may not be the right word — but ‘motivation’ certainly is.

“We know who we’re playing; you can’t hide that,” defensive tackle Eddie Steele said. “We know that they ended our season and they just so happen to be our first opponent this year.

“As an athlete, that definitely plays a factor. You know your opponent, you know what happened last year and you want to start fast this year and get that early win.”

Offensive tackle Thaddeus Coleman relived the Eastern Final all week — largely because the Roughriders watched the video of that game in preparation for Friday’s contest.

“It tears us up how good we did against Ottawa (in a 31-20 victory over the Redblacks in the Eastern Semi-Final on Nov. 12) and then how we came in the next week and played terribly against Toronto in a game we should have won,” Coleman said. “We just didn’t execute.

“We’ve been trying to get everything right for this week by watching that film. They won that game, so they’re probably going to try to do the same things they did against us in the playoffs.”

The Roughriders did a number of things right in the division final, holding Toronto to 56 yards rushing and limiting Ray to 266 yards passing. But a slow start hurt Saskatchewan — it trailed 18-3 through three quarters before rallying in the fourth — and the defence wasn’t able to stop Ray’s game-winning drive.

“I’ve got something to prove this game,” Eguavoen said. “That (third-down conversion) was a big play, but you can’t keep dwelling on you or it’s going to weigh on you.”

Jones certainly hopes his team has moved on from that game.

Several times this week, he noted that the 2018 Roughriders are different from the 2017 edition, with different players and a different personality. The current group has yet to play a regular-season game, so its identity will start to become evident Friday night.

As well, the veteran head coach has stressed that even if the 2017 team had won the Eastern Final, that wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) have a bearing on Friday’s contest.

In his mind, the Eastern Final is gone — although he did chide a reporter for reminding him Thursday that the loss kept the Roughriders from reaching the Grey Cup game.

“It’s a new football team,” Jones said earlier this week. “If we’d gone to the Grey Cup and won it, this is Week 1 of the next year so you’ve got to go on.”

Receiver Duron Carter agreed with his coach’s outlook.

“It’s not the team that we had from 2017 at all; it’s the 2018 team and that’s going to be our approach to it,” Carter said. “It’s a brand-new year, we’re 0-and-0 and it’s like we didn’t play last year.”

The Roughriders are well aware that Friday’s game is just the first of 18 regular-season contests they’re to play in 2018, so they would rather get their campaign off to a quick start than exact revenge on the Argos.

Saskatchewan started the 2017 regular season with back-to-back losses and three defeats in its first four games. That slow start helped send the Roughriders to a fourth-place finish in the West Division, which forced them to cross over into the East Division playoffs.

Which brings us back to the Eastern Final.

“That’s pretty much the whole objective, trying to get back to where we were last season,” defensive end Willie Jefferson said. “We know we dropped a big game late in the game last season, so this is basically a redemption game.

“But we know it’s the first game of the season, so we really just want to give the fans a good show and get a win.”

“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing; it’s the first game of the season and you want to come out fast and be 1-and-0,” added Coleman. “You don’t want to be behind the count in the first game. That’s what we’ve been preaching all this week.”