Any time you have teams from the same division meeting each other in the CFL playoffs, odds are pretty good they’re going to be very, very familiar with one another.
That’s most certainly the case with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and B.C. Lions.
When the two teams cross paths in the West Division semifinal on Saturday afternoon, it’ll mark the fourth meeting this season between the two clubs. That means both teams will be more than aware of the personnel and tendencies each bring — with the key now being who makes the better adjustments.
That’s been the focus for defensive coordinator Josh Bell ever since Saskatchewan locked down third place in the West and set up their match-up with the Lions, and he feels the familiarity is good thing.
“In my opinion, I think it's the best thing that you can have,” Bell said after practice on Wednesday morning. “You know each other, so it really comes down to just playing football. It's just, can you correct the mistakes that you made throughout the season from the first game to the postseason? So it actually gives you a little bit of confidence if you have a little coaching ego and believe that you can coach a little bit and trust your guys.”
The Riders and Lions first met way back in Week 2 when Saskatchewan took a dramatic 31-27 win in their home opener. The next two meetings were in Vancouver, first when B.C. took a 30-16 win in Week 12 and then when B.C. came away with a 31-24 win in Week 17.
The two most recent meetings were most of note, as the Lions were one of the hottest teams in the league at that point, and showed some facets of the game that gave the Riders fits.
One of those was up-tempo play, and that’s something Bell aims to be especially ready for this time around. The key will be identifying when the Lions are in that mode and knowing that quarterback Nathan Rourke will be communicating with his offence and getting set before Saskatchewan even has time to line themselves up.
“He's already telling them, all right, we're going to get this, going to get that and he's almost communicating to the boundary and the field side before we were even lined up,” Bell said, adding that it’s then up to the Riders to get their hustle on. “It's that simple. We know exactly what they want to do and how they want to attack us and we just got to be able to get in that moment and say, ‘okay, it's not a regular play, they're going to come fast’. Hopefully we can do that in the game.”
Riders linebacker and leading tackler James Vaughters is of the opinion that knowing what’s coming in that regard will be of a benefit to his defensive teammates.
“It's good to go against a team that you're familiar with and make all the adjustments that we can,” he said. “Sometimes you can learn more from a loss than you can from a win, so looking forward to putting our best ball out there.”
One thing that’s for certain is Saskatchewan’s defence has been getting the job done in recent weeks. While they faced a pair of teams in the Montreal Alouettes and Edmonton Elks that were destined to finish in first place in their respective divisions and were resting players, they still gave up only 12 and six points in two season-ending wins.
That’s given the team some extra confidence they can get the job done, especially late in games.
“That's one big thing the last couple weeks, we've been able to finish a game and we've been able to limit the explosions,” Bell said. “That's what we've been working toward for the back end of the season.”
Vaughters felt that comes from just playing like they’re capable of and everyone knowing what they have to do.
“I think everything feels a little bit cleaner, and I think guys are really understanding what's asked of them,” he said. “We changed some things up here and there, and I think it's going well for us.”
One aspect Saskatchewan especially hopes to put to good use is getting pressure on the quarterback. The Riders were rarely able to really bother Rourke in their two losses, but if they get a similar showing compared to their six-sack takedown of the Elks, that will most certainly help turn things in their favour.
That’s all part and parcel with dealing with Rourke in general, says Vaughters.
“He's a good athlete, good quarterback, he's one of those guys that's pretty good at everything, so we kind of have to be ready for everything,” he explained. “Just continue to watch the tape, understand what we can expect out of him when he does break down coverages and make plays.”
The Riders are so focussed on turning in a good defensive outing against the Lions that head coach Corey Mace — who has worked as the defensive play caller in the past — has been helping out on that side of the ball much more this week.
“It's getting tighter here at the end of the year so me and him, we're spending more time together,” Mace said. “How we go out there is not really much different in the defence. Just some different things that we see up front and different communications that we can have. I think it's all hands on deck from everybody.”
The Rider Broadcast Network will be on the air at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, featuring plenty of special guests during the pregame show to get everyone up to speed on the contest. Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder will then have the game call at kick-off at 2:30 p.m.
