.png;w=960)
REGINA – On paper, it’s a game the Saskatchewan Roughriders should have little difficulty winning.
The defending Grey Cup champions and their 5-2 record against the struggling 0-7 Ottawa Redblacks at home in Mosaic Stadium: What’s not to like?
And that’s why many a conversation leading up to the contest brings up the dreaded trap game: a contest where a team is overwhelmingly favoured, but the opponent finds a way to pick up the huge upset.
Like every CFL team, the Roughriders have been in this position before, and, while they’ve naturally won most of those games, that hasn’t always been the case. Plaza of Honour member Scott Schultz remembers one that got away.
Schultz joined the SportsCage for his Midweek Sound-Off segment on Wednesday afternoon and harkened back to Sept. 12, 2003 when the 7-5 Riders were in Hamilton to take on the 0-12 Tiger-Cats.
Hamilton ended up putting together its best performance of the season and would take a 27-24 victory. That would be the Tabbies' only win of the campaign, and Saskatchewan went on to finish 11-7 before falling to Edmonton in the Division Final.
“We were trying, trust me,” Schultz said of the contest. “I mean, you don't ever want to be known as the one win on a winless season for a team.”
Even as the game progressed, Schultz and his teammates were confident things would eventually come together, but they didn’t. The result was the humiliating loss.
“It was surreal because you get to a point where things start falling apart or things aren't going right and you’re still like, ‘We're going to get it fixed,'” Schultz said. “Then it doesn't get fixed and then slowly but surely it's just a nightmare.”
Schultz said that heading into the contest there was no talk about an easy outing for the Riders, but getting through that kind of thing mentally was a different story.
“You make a deal with yourself that you're good and you feel good and you're going to work hard, but there's something about this team that doesn't deserve your full attention,” Schultz explained. “I don't think anybody ever really gets to that, but it's just what happens when you don't dedicate the maximal amount of attention to the task that you're doing in anything, much less football. Things will start to unravel and then what happens is: How do you react to things unraveling when you're in the now? It just becomes a calamity and it was a rough one for sure.”
The Roughriders are heading into the contest with difficulties of their own, with a spate of injuries to a host of their elite players leading to a depleted lineup. Schultz expects that to be a part of Saskatchewan being able to avoid a trap, especially when it comes to the preparation they’ve done this week.
“Cross all the T's, dot all the I's and if anything, dedicate more time, a little more film time, a little more study just to ensure that there isn't a letdown,” Schultz said of how to avoid a team-wide, losing breakdown. “They're all pro players and, like we talk about this all the time, the other team gets paid, too. They've all got contracts and they're going to be desperate for a win. So it's a very dangerous, dangerous team when they're backed into a corner like this.”
Part of concern is how Ottawa has lost games due to different facets of its team collapsing at bad times and, if everything comes together at once, a win could certainly be in the cards.
“Finding ways to lose… I wouldn't say it's a positive, but it shows that the whole team isn't bad,” Schultz said. “It's just they're taking turns at lacking the discipline and getting caught with the self-sabotaging activities. To me, that shows that you can see that that's a team that is going to right the ship at some point.”
The Rider Broadcast Network coverage on Friday begins with the pre-game show with Teagan Witko and Wes Cates at 4 p.m., with Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder bringing you the game call at 7 p.m.
