The all too long CFL season is finally over and a long journey that started on Canada Day weekend comes to judgement day this weekend as the Riders will head to McMahon Stadium in Calgary to face off with the second place Stampeders in the West Division semifinal. If you told any fan in Saskatchewan that this is where the Riders would be at the end of the season, almost every single person would take it. Sure, there will be no home playoff advantage of Taylor Field, but after last year's meltdown of a season a West Division semifinal in Calgary would have probably been ok in many's books.
However the Riders aren't exactly heading into the playoffs under the happiest of circumstances, four straight losses will have the Riders attempting to defy history in winning the Grey Cup after heading into the playoffs with four straight defeats. Last weekend's game in Vancouver can be counted as a wash as Darian Durant and Weston Dressler sat as well as the Lion's Geroy Simon and both teams looked as if they were going through more of a controlled scrimmage than a CFL Week 19 matchup.
So the Riders will head into familiar enemy territory in McMahon Stadium as the meeting between the two rivals will be the fifth time in seven years that the Riders and Stamps have faced off in the CFL postseason. The Roughriders have had the upperhand over the Stamps during those five meetings as former quarterback Henry Burris never could get over the hump in the rivalry he infamously started by shipping out of Saskatchewan after professing his love for the city of Regina and stabbing the Rider faithful in the back just weeks later.
Burris is now long gone, and the Stamps are now the sexier pick of the two teams to advance and upset the Lions on their way to a Grey Cup, but the Riders still have experience in beating the Stampeders on the road in the playoffs as Durant, Dressler, and Chris Getzlaf all know a thing or two about putting the dagger in the hearts of the Stampeders.
The Stampeders 12-6 record does have them as one of the hottest teams in the CFL, and the Stampeders have bragging rights in the season series winning two out of the three matchups, but there is one key storyline heading into this game that makes this matchup unlike the rest. Stampeders quarterback Drew Tate, who was injured very early in the season and didn't take one regular season snap against the Riders has been announced as the Stampeders starting quarterback for Sunday's Remembrance Day clash over Kevin Glenn, the man at the helm for pretty much all of Calgary's twelve wins this season.
The two Stampeders quarterbacks posted nearly identical stats in splitting snaps in last week's finale against the Eskimos, but Tate is undoubtedly the Stampeders most talented quarterback and is clearly Calgary's quarterback of the future. Whether or not Tate can play at the rate he did last year in driving Henry Burris out of town will be a deciding factor in if the Stampeders can get the job done and avoid the Saskatchewan upset.
On the other end of the quarterback matchup is Darian Durant, who sat out of Saturday's game against the Lions to try and rest up from a season that saw him battle with injuries and inconsistent play throughout the season. Still a fan favorite throughout most of Saskatchewan, Durant has the reputation of doing things when it matters most and showed he can still lead his team over top notch competition earlier this fall in their home win over the Lions. Durant has yet to lead the Riders to a fourth quarter comeback this season, but all stats are out of the window now and he has the chance to erase what was yet another mediocre year by his standards with a vintage Durant playoff performance on Sunday.
Stopping the run will be a big part of the Riders checklist to beating the Stampeders as running back Jon Cornish has been the best Canadian running back of this generation, becoming the player many thought Jesse Lumsden would become and setting the CFL record for rushing yards in a season by a Canadian this year. In the Riders two losses to the Stampeders this season Cornish ran all over the field and appeared to be unstoppable. A man with four 150 plus yard rushing performances in the CFL is no joke, and after being shut down in the last matchup between the Riders and Stamps and Coach Chamblin's guarantee they would hold Cornish under 100 yards, he will be motivated and ready come Sunday.
The Riders have a running back phenom of their own in Kory Sheets who has replaced Wes Cates and Hugh Charles and is appearing to be the next long time staple in the long line of explosive Riders feature backs. Sheets will need to move the chains to ease the pressure off of Durant and the receiving corps if the Riders offense is going to have success.
This game is one that is hard to predict, being an unabashed Riders fan like many of the people reading this column it is nearly impossible for me to outright pick a team other than the Riders to win. Plus when you add in the fact that the Stampeders are employing an entirely new quarterback and that the Stampeders won the first two games of the series, but the Riders won the last meeting and you have yourself a situation where anything can happen.
One thing is certain though, if the Riders come out like the 2011 and 2012 uninspired versions of themselves that have finished 0-4 to end the regular season Sunday might be a very long day for the province. But if the Riders play like that team that has came up against the Stampeders four times in the playoffs since 2006 and won every single time, then maybe, just maybe, we will be on the way to talking about this November being one of those magical wintery runs we have become accustomed to in Saskatchewan. Either way in a year that was supposed to be a rebuilding campaign for the Riders, they have proved that they are back on the right track in returning to playoff football after the disaster that was the 2011 season and now have a chance to erase bad memories and prove that they have the pieces to contend for Grey Cups once again. A win over the Stampeders would just be icing on the cake in a season of low expectations.
