RIDERS PREPPING FOR LIONS

The Saskatchewan Roughriders held Day 2 of their practice week on Wednesday at Mosaic Stadium.  Saturday they host the B.C. Lions at 5:00 pm in the last-ever Rider game at the stadium formerly known as Taylor Field (TSN, 620 CKRM Rider Radio Network).

The Riders are 5-11 and out of the playoff chase while the Lions come in at 10-6, and tied for second place in the CFL West with two weeks to go.

For the Riders, not much is left for motivation other than to play the role of spoiler and they can do just that with this home-and-home series with the rival Lions to end the regular season.

“We’ve talked about it,” said Riders Head Coach & GM Chris Jones.  “We’ve set the stage.  This is a very important game for our organization and a very important game for Saskatchewan itself.  It’s a very important for them too because they want to try to host a playoff game that means a lot of money (the Western Semifinal.)

“Again, what we need to do is we’re approaching this like a 2-game series where we’re playing a very good football team that’s very well-coached and has a lot of veteran players.”

It’s a topic which has been bantied about on our call-in and TV shows this week: just how important is it for the Roughriders to win their last game at Taylor Field?

“It’s very important that we try to go out and get this win,” said Rider quarterback Darian Durant.  “First and foremost it’s for our momentum going forward.  We’re coming off a tough loss so we want to get that bad taste out of our mouth.”

Meanwhile running back Joe McKnight made a brief appearance at Wednesday’s practice leading many to believe he could be available for Saturday’s game.  He missed Tuesday’s walk-through as he went through the Concussion Protocol after the helmet-to-helmet hit he received at the end of Saturday’s 19-14 loss to Montreal.

Roughriders Offensive Coordinator Stephen McAdoo will be the featured guest on 620 CKRM’s Coaches Show at 5:00 pm today.

RP
@rodpedersen