HAMILTON — The Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats appear to be in uncharted waters.
The CFL teams are to meet Thursday (5:30 p.m., CKRM, TSN) in the second half of a home-and-home series. Saskatchewan won the first game of the back-to-back set, posting an 18-13 victory over the Tiger-Cats at Mosaic Stadium on July 5.
But both teams had a bye last week, extending the series by a week. CFL statistician Steve Daniel examined schedules from each of the past 25 seasons and didn’t find another example of teams going back to back in games that weren’t played in consecutive weeks.
“We just try to show up, do our job, coach hard, play hard and prepare.
Interesting, yes. Big deal to the Roughriders, no.
“It’s definitely different, but I don’t think it will make a huge difference,” guard Brendon LaBatte said. “They’re coming off the same thing, so it’ll be interesting to see what adjustments they’ve made.
“I think we only had 12 or 13 first downs (on July 5), so I wouldn’t suspect they’ll do a whole lot different than what they did defensively (in that game). Anytime you give coaches like they’ve got over there a week to work on something, they’re going to have something schemed up.”
Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones isn’t a big fan of byes in the first place — he’d rather just play games every week — but the week off allowed some of his players to recover from the bumps and bruises they accrued in Saskatchewan’s first four regular-season games.
Asked Wednesday if having a bye week in between back-to-back games throws a wrinkle in the way coaches prepare for the second contest, Jones said no.
“We’re going to work out the same number of times,” he said. “Sometimes we overthink stuff as coaches and try to give (the players) too much. We’ve got to guard against giving them too much to think about.”
The coaches don’t want to overload themselves, either.
Earlier this week, Jones was asked if the extra seven days of preparation between games against the same team made the second contest more of a chess match for the coaches.
“I’ve never even played one game of chess, so I have no idea,” Jones replied. “We just try to show up, do our job, coach hard, play hard and prepare.
“There are going to be some things that we ran last time that we’re going to run this time. Are we going to have some things new? Yeah, we’re going to have some things new and I’m sure that (the Tiger-Cats) will be the same. It comes down to execution.”
The Roughriders’ defence did its part in the first meeting, and a repeat performance Thursday would certainly help the cause.
Hamilton quarterback Jeremiah Masoli threw for 333 yards in that contest — tying a CFL record with his ninth straight 300-yard passing game — and the Tiger-Cats put up 25 first downs and 418 yards of net offence.
But Saskatchewan’s defence kept the visitors out of the end zone and scored a touchdown of its own, courtesy of Charleston Hughes’ 57-yard fumble return for a major.
Saskatchewan’s offence had its struggles, though, recording only 12 first downs and 275 net yards while rotating quarterbacks Brandon Bridge and David Watford. Jones plans to use the two-QB system again Thursday, but hopes it’ll work to greater effect.
“We’ve got to limit (Masoli’s) opportunities,” Jones said. “Hopefully we can stay on the field offensively to limit the number of times that they throw the ball down the field.”
According to the CFL, there have been 150 back-to-back series in the league since 1996. Those sets have produced 77 sweeps and 71 splits, while two of the series have featured at least one tie game.
After Thursday’s outing, the Roughriders are to have one more home-and-home series in the 2018 regular season. They’re to play host to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Labour Day Classic on Sept. 2 before visiting Winnipeg for the rematch on Sept. 8.
For Roughriders defensive back Ed Gainey, back-to-backs can be helpful.
“You don’t have to play against three, four, five different teams and then come back and try to refresh your memory,” he said. “That’s the good thing about it.
“You’ve also got the best film that you could possibly have. They’re not going up against another team that’s running different schemes than you do. They’re going up against your defence and your personnel, so you can learn scheme-wise how they’re going to try to take advantage of you.
“It’s really just an opportunity to stack a good week on another good week or to do better than you did last week if it wasn’t so good.”
LaBatte also is a fan of home-and-homes, mainly because they cut down on preparation. In his mind, the two contests simply become one eight-quarter game — albeit, in this case, with a halftime that was two weeks long.
“We’re going to have a good feel for how some of their D-line plays and they’re going to know what we’re about,” he said. “The surprises are kind of rolling out.
“There might be one or two (wrinkles) that you can do to counter what the other guys have done leading up, but for the most part, it’s just going to be man on man. There’s nothing you can do other than win.”
