The Saskatchewan Roughriders are set to entertain one of their more stubborn houseguests.
The Ottawa Redblacks have made four visits to Regina since coming into existence as an expansion team prior to the 2014 CFL season. Those four games have been decided by a total of eight points.
“Oh, great,” Roughriders defensive tackle Zack Evans muttered Friday when that statistic was relayed to him.
Saskatchewan beat the visiting Redblacks 35-32 in overtime in 2014 and 30-29 in 2016. Ottawa won 30-27 in Regina in 2015 and 33-32 last season.
Evans has first-hand knowledge of what it’s like on both sides of the matchup. After spending the first two years of his CFL career with Saskatchewan, the Regina product played four seasons with the Redblacks before returning to the Roughriders as a free agent prior to this season.
“For me, seeing my hometown crowd got me more hyped,” said Evans, whose current team takes on his former team at Mosaic Stadium on Saturday (7:30 p.m., CKRM, TSN). “It’s so shocking when you step into this stadium as an away team and everyone’s booing you.
“You hear people behind you (in the stands) talking trash and it’s just a hostile environment. But it honestly helps you with the adrenaline and the rush … It feels like a Grey Cup. It feels like you’re in a big game, so you’ve got to step up.”
Judging by the result of the 2017 game in Regina, the Redblacks have been capable of overcoming the crowd (and the Roughriders) in late-game situations.
On Oct. 13 at Mosaic Stadium — two weeks after Saskatchewan scored 18 unanswered points to overcome a 17-0 deficit in Ottawa — the Redblacks scored 13 straight fourth-quarter points to rally from a 32-20 deficit.
“They’re a scrappy bunch,” said Roughriders guard Brendon LaBatte. “As a team, they’ve done a good job of giving us problems and taking away wins from us.
“They’re going to fight through the whistle; we’ve seen that in the playoffs and in their Grey Cup appearances. They’re definitely a gritty group, but I couldn’t pin (the eight-point differential over four games) down to one thing they do.”
The teams have played nine regular-season games since the Redblacks were formed — and six of them have been tight.
Three of the games in Ottawa were blowouts (the Roughriders won 38-14 in 2014, and the Redblacks prevailed 35-13 in 2015 and 40-17 this season) but the other two featured narrow margins of victory; Saskatchewan posted a 32-30 overtime victory in 2016 and the aforementioned 18-17 triumph last season.
“We definitely have the same type of players,” Evans said. “I feel like we’re always scrapping and we’re always fighting for every inch and every blade of grass. It’s a very scrappy team, a very well-coached team, on both sides. It’s a great matchup.”
Saskatchewan swept the two-game season series in 2014 before Ottawa returned the favour in ’15. After the Roughriders took both ends in ’16, the teams split the regular-season series in ’17.
The series to date has featured two other non-exhibition games, neither of which was close. Saskatchewan beat the host Redblacks 31-20 in the 2017 Eastern Semi-Final and Ottawa trounced the visiting Roughriders by 23 points in Week 2 of the 2018 regular season.
But entering the matchup’s fifth game in Regina, the teams are heading in different directions. The Redblacks (6-5-0) have lost two straight contests, while the Roughriders (7-4-0) are on a four-game winning streak for the first time since 2014. That season, they won seven straight before losing.
“We’ve got a real bond,” defensive back Loucheiz Purifoy said when asked why the 2018 Roughriders are rolling. “You see in this locker room that everybody loves each other. There’s no arguing. We’re not bickering with each other on the field or off the field.
“We do this and we get it right. If we all get it right, we know we can do our jobs fast.”
“Everyone’s buying into what Coach (Chris) Jones wants, and they’re starting to trust each other and 
starting to understand how each other plays,” Evans noted. “We’re just kind of attacking it.”
The Roughriders have taken down some quality opponents during their streak, with two victories over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and one each against the Calgary Stampeders and B.C. Lions.
The Redblacks have lost to the Lions and Montreal Alouettes during their skid. But Jones — Saskatchewan’s head coach and general manager — was quick to point out that Ottawa’s recent struggles don’t mean anything come Saturday.
“It wasn’t too long ago that we were in the same situation, paying attention to detail, showing up with the right attitude and trying to dig yourself out of a hole that you created,” he said.
“They’ve won enough football games over there to know how to win and you don’t have to think back very far to when they got after us pretty good in Week 2. Hopefully our guys are understanding that.”
It would appear they are.
“(The Redblacks) are well-coached, they’re physical and they’re going to come to play,” said Purifoy, who appeared in eight games with the Redblacks this season before being released Aug. 6. “They’re a good team; it’s just that everybody goes into a slump once in a while.
“They’re going to come in here fighting. They’ve got to. They’re in a fight for first place over there (in the East Division) and it’s a must-win for us every week.”
