The Saskatchewan Roughriders are sitting tight at that number 3 position in the CFL’s West Division. As it stands, they’ve got 5 wins and 5 losses, so in the end, things are pretty much even as far as the positive and the negative go for a team that’s had a few seasons of struggle.
But after Sunday’s game against the Lions, can the team expect a shift and add a few more wins to that positive end of the wins and losses columns?
Food for thought, but this is football, dear readers, and we’ve seen the impossible turn into the possible in just a few seconds flat, so you never know.
The game ended 34 to 29 in favor of the Riders and no that’s hardly an impressive difference, but still for a team that has, as mentioned, struggled for many seasons over the last few years, something like this certainly has the potential to boost morale, as the saying goes.
The last time in which they faced the mighty and roaring BC Lions was back in July—the 22nd to be exact—and it was then that they suffered what many would indeed call a devastating loss. The game ended 19 to 9 in favor of the Lions of course.
But this past Sunday, it was almost as if it wasn’t the same team battling it out there on the gridiron, or was it? And how much did the win have to do with the Lions having a bad day at the office, so to speak.
Remember, this is sports, and speculation, conjecture and opinion are a huge part of the game these days, and with social media running rampant, these three above-mentioned factors of a sort have a way of turning into the mightiest of snowballs as they run down that steep hill.
Some say it ended for the Lions in one single instant, and that was when Keon Hatcher missed a pass from Vernon Adams in the end zone, but the truth of the matter is quite simple: The Riders established for themselves quite the lead and no matter how hard the Lions tried to catch up, the clock ran out and the Riders emerged victorious. How’s that for staying away from any sort of conjecture?
The win cannot be taken away from a team that has heart, and they showed it on the field this weekend.
*Rick Campbell – image via Wikipedia
Head coach for the BC Lions, Rick Campbell, had this to say about the game and his team. He too stayed away from conjecture and stayed on point as far as the facts go, and he had some true and kind words for the Riders. Here’s some of what he had to say:
“I’m proud of the way (Adams) battled all the way to the end. I’m glad our team battled all the way to the end, and we almost got it done…We came up one series short of getting it done….
In this league, we’ve got to be playing good football for 60 minutes in order to beat people and I think we had signs today of playing good football, but we didn’t get it done over the total 60 minutes, and they beat us…
I like the energy on the bench and the fire in the belly (down the stretch). We just got to have that from the get-go….That’s why people like the CFL and the way the last few minutes is structured, as you get multiple possessions and things can happen. We were in position there to win the game and … their defense made plays.”
-via theprovince.com
NEXT: CFL Week 12 Power Rankings: Elks Finally Win, Montreal Stuns Ottawa, Riders Survive Late Lions Surge
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