It wasn’t all that long ago that the Saskatchewan Roughriders were looking at this part of the season as a final rundown before comfortably coasting into the CFL playoffs.
Oh, how things have changed.
Three straight losses and only two wins in their last seven outings now see the Green and White in a battle for their postseason lives while facing the top two teams in the league in the process.
Now, that’s pressure. And it’s something Riders running back A.J. Ouellette plans to put to good use as Saskatchewan prepares to face their first final stretch hurdle: the Montreal Alouettes on Thanksgiving Monday.
“Like they always say, pressure is a privilege,” Ouellette said after the Riders returned to practice on Thursday. “If you have no pressure in your life, I feel like I'd have a boring life. I would hate my life. This added pressure, we thrive on it and we seek it. Especially as athletes, we want the adrenaline.
“That's what we got right now.”
Ouellette said each player will respond to the pressure in their own way. He noted that he would ‘get a couple extra headbutts in’ on his offensive linemen, with that kind of physicality being an emphasis in practice this week.
“Some other people that might be making plays differently, trying to make an extra catch or do something spectacular down the field,” Ouellette said. “Everybody's a little different.”
One thing that’s for certain is the mindset of the team. Everyone knows what’s at stake for the club over the final three games. If the Riders don’t find a win they’ll be on the outside looking in.
That obviously has come up in team meetings, with a focus on every player being asked to step up and get the job done.
“We know we got playmakers and we said it in meetings today: Be the person to make that play,” Ouellette said. “Stop waiting around for someone to make the play; you be the person to make the play. You got to start adding those up, stacking them. We make good plays. We just don't make them back to back, so that's what we're going to start doing.”
There is a concern that the Riders have become a bit of a fragile team, with the drop on the first punt return against the Calgary Stampeders as an example.
Ouellette said the tough start was just something else the team had to fight through.
“We have some veterans on our team. We know how to overcome adversity,” he said. “Maybe it's a learning lesson for the crowd, too, to be a little bit more into it after some stuff happens. Instead of us making big plays, we could bring some energy some other ways.”
Saskatchewan has had and will have plenty of time to think about it all. The Riders been off since the loss to the Stampeders last Friday and took some time for team bonding to help get that last push started off right.
“It was a really good thing for us,” Ouellette said. “I took some guys out to the racetrack and kind of got to drive slow in a race truck. Some other guys went bowling. We had an O-line dinner, had way too much food that Trevor (Harris’) wife prepared. Bless her heart, she fed all of us fatties.”
Monday’s contest features a very early start, with the Rider Broadcast Network pregame show with Teagan Witko, Wes Cates and plenty of special guests beginning at 8 a.m. Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder will then have the game call at kickoff at 11 a.m.
