Fifty-two points or one point, it doesn't matter to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. It probably doesn't matter much to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers either.
The Riders completed a sweep of the Bombers on Sunday with a nail-biting, gut-wrenching, cliffhanger of a game in Winnipeg that ended on a last-second 40-yard field goal by Rider kicker Sandro DeAngelis. The Riders won the game 25-24, just seven days after destroying their Prairie rivals 52-0 on Labour Day in Regina. This game featured seven lead changes.
The fact is the Bombers were up 24-22 with 28 seconds to go and I wasn't sure rookie Rider quarterback Drew Willy could march his team down the field and give his team the chance to win. We had seen Darian Durant do it many times before, but he was knocked out of this game with a hip injury.
No, I was starting to prepare for a long, blistering week back home if the Riders were to lose. They could have lost very easily, having taken double the number of penalties Winnipeg did and losing the turnover battle as well. But Willy had other ideas and so did DeAngelis, the most-accurate field goal kicker in CFL history.
"I've been in a lot of big games with Sandro DeAngelis and that's why he's here," Rider coach Corey Chamblin said after the game. "I've been in the trenches with a lot of guys that are here and that's why we have them. I believe in each and every guy."
It was a feeling from agony to elation in 28 quick seconds as the Riders raced down the field and ripped the win right out of the Bombers' hands. And now the agony resides in Winnipeg where the Bombers are 2-8 and thinking about next year. It's bad there right now. Really bad.
As for the Roughriders, it was a jubilant plane ride home right after the game and the buzz was that this team's not content with their modest two game winning streak. They want three in a row ... four in a row ... and so on.
It starts for them next Sunday in Montreal, one of the few places the Riders won during their ill-fated 2011 season.
It's going to take a monster effort to beat the Alouettes - and likely some luck too. Certainly the team has had its share in the month of September after suffering through a ridiculously long five-game losing streak in July and August. Chamblin preached it then just like he is now; if they work hard and play honest, things will turn around.
"Good teams find ways to win. I told the guys before the game if you want it, you can have it," Chamblin said on CKRM's post-game show. "They fought to the end and we got it. I told them after the game, 'I don't know why you're so happy, because I expected to win!'"
Good Lord, this season has been a ring-a-ding-dong-dandy. A thrill a minute.
These Riders have made their fans laugh, cry, scream in anger but also in celebration.
They've had some breaks, but had them taken away as well. And there's still a very long way to go beginning with Sunday's game in Montreal. But as far as the wins go, Corey Chamblin's Riders will take them however they come.
"We've had a lot of things stolen from us this year so it was nice to steal one like this."
(Rod Pedersen is the voice of the Riders on CKRM radio)
