The Montreal Alouettes aren’t taking any chances with any of their elite players picking up an injury in the final weeks of the CFL regular season.
With their playoff position having been clinched weeks ago and a bye through the first round of the postseason on the horizon, the Alouettes have opted to rest quarterback Davis Alexander and 1,000-yard receivers Tyson Philpot and Tyler Snead for the rematch with the Roughriders on Saturday at Mosaic Stadium.
Saskatchewan’s reaction to that news?
Don’t care.
“We talked about it a little bit this morning, we've got stuff to focus on ourselves,” Roughriders head coach Corey Mace said after the team’s walkthrough on Friday afternoon. “We know that we're playing the Montreal Alouettes. They are a good football team. Regardless of who they put out there, those guys have been around winning football.
We expect a great game from these guys, but we're in a position right now where we got to focus strictly on ourselves. So that's where our mindset's at.”
The Riders have spent a good portion of the short lead-up to Saturday attempting to clean up some communication issues that plagued the team last week, and Mace feels that’s one area that’s improved quickly.
“In all three phases, we've had to move guys around and play in different spots and different situations and stuff like that, and that's not even an excuse, because we've been doing that since we've been here in 2024,” Mace said.
“It’s about stressing ourselves to put the extra time in, because it’s necessary. I've been pleased this week on the attack of that. Truthfully, it helps that it’s the same opponent, because you're really watching the film from two weeks ago on top of last week's game.
You see yourself versus the opponent. So I think that's been helpful for us throughout the week.”
As tough a stretch as Saskatchewan has been through in their four-game losing skid, they still control their own destiny. A win in either of the final two games of the season and a playoff spot is all but guaranteed, but Riders quarterback Trevor Harris is opting to take a much narrower view of things.
“It's win one play at a time, six seconds of extreme focus, relentless mentality, go make the play, do what we need to do, do the next right thing, and then do the next right thing again,” Harris said. “If you don't do the next right thing, wipe it clean, do the next right thing. It’s the micro version of what we need to do to be the best team we can be in that moment.”
It’s all part of growing as a team and what they’ve learned over the last handful of weeks, Harris added.
“The ups, the downs, the recent slide, how we're going to respond to that. We've talked this year about our factor, and now's the time to do it. And I didn't say the time to say it, I said the time to do it.”
That’s something Harris spoke about earlier this week, the Roughriders being a team that’s talked a lot about doing the right things but then not following through. Coach Mace hopes this week is when the words become action.
“We're just so intrinsically focused on ourselves, it's just miscues that are kind of uncharacteristic, but at some point it does become part of your character if it's something that keeps repeating itself,” he said. “So we hammer it in meetings, we hammer it on the field at practice and walkthroughs, but ultimately it's going to come down to having that focus on every single play during a game.
“If we can do that, then I think we should be able to get back into the world and where we were living earlier in the season. There's still two games for us to go out there and put forth our effort to prove to ourselves that we are who we expect to be.”
A major factor in that happening could come from what happened with the roster this week. As has been often mentioned, the Riders trio of standout receivers — KeeSean Johnson, Sam Emilus and Kian Schaffer-Baker — will all be on the field together for the first time since late July.
That gives Harris a lethal set of weapons at a time when they need them the most, and he hopes it’s a key point in their quest for a season-saving win.
“I think if you go ask Montreal, having Tyson and Sneader out all season, how do they feel?” Harris said. “B.C, without (Keon) Hatcher and (Justin) McInnes, it's a big difference, right?
So the fact that we've got these guys back is big time. We can move them around on the checkerboard and let them kind of do their thing. It makes our offense more versatile, helps our run game because they're very good run blockers as well. So A.J. (Ouellette) benefits from that, our line does too. So we look forward to having them all out there at the same time.”
The Roughrider Broadcast Network will have all the action from Saskatchewan’s meeting with Montreal beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Teagan Witko and Wes Cates will have plenty of special guests, and Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder will have the game call at kickoff at 1 p.m.
