CALGARY — Thaddeus Coleman’s sentiments toward the Calgary Stampeders run deep.
The veteran offensive lineman spent three CFL seasons with the Edmonton Eskimos before joining the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2016. Over those six seasons, Coleman has been caught up in his teams’ disdain for the Stampeders.
“I probably play my best games against Calgary because there is a little rivalry against them for me,” Coleman said in advance of Saskatchewan’s game against the Stampeders on Saturday (5 p.m., CKRM, TSN). “I always play just a little bit harder against them than I do against anybody else.”
The Roughriders (10-6-0) can clinch a home playoff game if they defeat Calgary (12-3-0) and if the B.C. Lions lose to (or tie) the Eskimos on Friday evening.
If Saskatchewan wins Saturday, it also will take the season series against the Stampeders. If that happens and if the teams eventually finish the regular season tied atop the West Division at 12-6-0, Saskatchewan will play host to the Western Final.
When you take Coleman’s Calgary-inspired level of intensity and add what’s at stake in Saturday’s game, you get an offensive tackle who’s pretty fired up.
“I’m trying to get that home playoff game, so I’m going to play my heart out — and I’m trying to bring the guys along with me,” Coleman said. “We’re going to try to play our best. It’s a tough place to play, but I think we can do it.”
The last time the Roughriders played in Calgary, they won 30-7 on Oct. 20 of last season. That snapped Saskatchewan’s 10-game losing streak at McMahon Stadium.
The teams split their first two meetings of the 2018 regular season at Mosaic Stadium — Calgary won 34-22 on July 28 before the Roughriders posted a 40-27 victory on Aug. 19 — so each club knows the other’s tendencies.
Saskatchewan played one of its best games of the regular season in the teams’ most-recent clash, racing out to a 24-6 halftime lead en route to handing the Stampeders their first loss of the season after seven wins.
Asked if his team looked back at that game as it prepared for Saturday’s outing, Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones replied: “They’ve got the film too, so the things that we did well, I’m sure they’ll have counters for. We’ve got to have counters for their counters.”
The Roughriders may not want to look back at their most-recent game.
On Saturday, Saskatchewan lost 31-0 to the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a contest that left the Roughriders with what defensive tackle Eddie Steele called “a nasty taste in our mouth.”
That loss has to be sticking in the Roughriders’ craw, but Steele and his colleagues have moved on — at least to some degree.
“Our focus is definitely on Calgary, but we want to show the league that we’re a good football team,” Steele said. “Clearly our record indicates that, but we want to put that on tape and we want to put the league on notice that that (effort in Winnipeg) was just a one-weekend affair.
“We’re going to be playing our style of football moving forward.”
Calgary also lost its previous game, a 26-21 defeat at the hands of B.C. last Saturday. That kept the Stampeders from locking up first place in the West.
The Stamps are banged up — particularly in the receiving corps — but Jones doesn’t believe that the Roughriders’ hosts Saturday are in trouble.
“What’s amazing to me is all the people who all of a sudden are writing the Calgary Stampeders off,” he said. “You don’t do the things that they’ve done over the course of a decade or more without being a tremendous football team.
“We’ve certainly got our work cut out and we’d better show up with a hard hat on and go to work.”
Much of the work required is on the offensive side of the ball.
The Roughriders are coming off their least-productive game of the 2018 season, having put up just 12 first downs, 128 yards passing and 170 yards of net offence against the Bombers. Saskatchewan ran just six offensive plays on Winnipeg’s side of half.
Slotback Patrick Lavoie believes the Roughriders will bounce back Saturday.
“We like what we put in for this game and we have to (rebound),” he said. “Everything that could go bad went bad in the last game: Dropped ball, catch it but drop it after that, fumble — everybody did things that they normally don’t do. I just think we’re going to be solid (Saturday).”
The Stampeders’ defence poses a significant test, though. It entered the week ranked first in the league in most of the CFL’s statistical categories, allowing the fewest touchdowns (21), passing touchdowns (nine), rushing yards (81.1 per game), yards per play (5.5) and net offence (301.4 yards per game).
Saskatchewan’s defence wasn’t far behind in many of the key statistics, ranking second in rushing yards (96.4 per game), third in passing yards (253.1 per game) and third in net offence (328.8 yards per game).
The Roughriders’ defenders also have recorded nine touchdown returns this season, including a team-record seven interceptions. That number includes one each against the Stampeders by Nick Marshall and Tobi Antigha.
But as Jones said, the Roughriders have to be ready for a stern test.
“When you play the No. 1 team, sometimes people use them as a measuring stick,” safety Mike Edem said of the Stamps. “But we beat them before, we know what we can do and we know what we’ve got in our locker room. We’ve just got to execute.”
