REGINA – It’s been the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ mantra for the past few seasons: go 1-0 every week and then move on to the next one as fast as possible.
As their record over the past couple seasons would indicate, it’s a plan that’s worked exceptionally well, as cliche as it might be.
So what happens when the team doesn’t go 1-0 and suffers what’s become a rare regular season loss?
To hear the team tell it after their 36-34 defeat at the hands of the Edmonton Elks on Thursday night, stay the course. In fact, the plan was pretty simple — let it hurt for 24 hours, and then it’s time to get back to work and improve enough to win the next time.
Not earth-shaking stuff, of course, but when you're as win-focussed as Saskatchewan is right now, it’s a proven success when it comes to moving on from disappointment.
“Sitting here right now, lets fix the things we need to fix to beat a good team,” Riders head coach Corey Mace said in his postgame remarks. “I mean, there'll be a ton of positives to get on the film, I feel like there were a lot of good things that we did as a football team. Just ultimately, we have to make sure that we fine-tune some of the big mistakes.”
Quarterback Trevor Harris was far more direct when it came to his thoughts on what it would take for the team to rebound and defeat Edmonton in the rematch on Saturday night.
“Nothing’s changed, we have a damn good football team in the end and if you think otherwise, I don’t know if you know ball,” Harris said. “Our team has full belief, (the Elks) just won because they made one more play than we did.
“This one is going to sting for 24 hours, but we’re going to turn the page and I can promise you one thing, we’ll get better, we’ll reload and we’ll be a better football team next week.”
One of the more positive things about the loss for Saskatchewan is that they get a chance to redeem themselves immediately thanks to the home-and-home schedule. That makes for fun times for the coaching staff from both teams as they try and put together plans against a team they just faced.
“We’ve got a long week and it’s always interesting, these back-to-backs, seeing what you can scheme up, what they’re going to scheme up and anticipate what they’re doing,” Mace said.
One player who’ll most definitely be looking forward to next Saturday is Kian Schaffer-Baker, who had a career-high eight catches for 185 yards and a touchdown against the Elks. A repeat of that performance, and the odds of a Saskatchewan win certainly increase.
“It’s right back to the drawing board after tonight,” Schaffer-Baker said. “Nobody's out here pointing fingers, and that’s a special part of this team. Everyone's gonna go home, look in the mirror and just reflect on what they could get better at today. We're just gonna carry that over the next week.”
The Riders are back on the field for practice on Tuesday, with their rematch with the Elks set for Saturday at 5 p.m. from Commonwealth Stadium.
