Riders receivers Chris Getzlaf and Andy Fantuz leave the field Saturday after Saskatchewan's second nail-biting overtime game in the past two weeks.
Photograph by: Bryan Schlosser, Leader-Post
Photograph by: Bryan Schlosser, Leader-Post
REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ propensity for heart-stopping comebacks makes for exciting games for fans and great television for viewers.
It’s not so great for coaches, though.
It’s not so great for coaches, though.
“I’d much rather win by 50,” Roughriders head coach Ken Miller said with a chuckle Tuesday after the CFL team practised at Mosaic Stadium.
In each of their past two games, the Roughriders rallied from 30-22, fourth-quarter deficits with a touchdown and a two-point convert to force overtime.
On Oct. 17, Saskatchewan and the Calgary Stampeders scored two TDs apiece in OT in a 44-44 tie. On Saturday, the Roughriders kicked a field goal on their first possession and then intercepted a pass to end the B.C. Lions’ possession in a 33-30 victory.
Four of Saskatchewan’s nine wins this season have been by four points or fewer. In three of those games, the Roughriders scored fourth-quarter majors to either take the lead or to force overtime.
Quarterback Darian Durant suggested the players are in a different place mentally in the fourth quarter than they are earlier in the game.
“You have to be; there’s no more time,” he said. “In the first quarter, you don’t want to have this attitude, but it feels like you have the whole game in front of you. In the fourth quarter, if you don’t make it, you lose the game.
“You have to have a different mindset when it comes to the last quarter of the game. That’s where mental toughness, that’s where physical toughness, that’s where the strong-minded and strong-willed always come out on top.”
And, right now, there isn’t any sense of panic in the Roughriders’ offensive huddle when they need a late score.
“If you’re worrying about panicking, you’re probably not going to run a successful play,” noted receiver Chris Getzlaf, whose 65-yard pass-and-run TD with 1:17 left in regulation time helped Saskatchewan post a 24-23 victory in Calgary on Aug. 1.
“Everyone’s in there saying, ‘Let’s go. This is our time. We’ve been here before. Let’s go out here and get it done. Run the plays and see what we’ve got.’ ”
The Roughriders have exuded that same confidence on two-point convert attempts. In three of their past four games, they’ve needed a two-point convert to knot the score — and have succeeded. One game ended in a loss (19-16 to the Lions on Oct. 2), one resulted in a tie (Oct. 17 in Calgary) and one ended in a win (Saturday against B.C.).
“The players do a good job,” said offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice, whose squad is 6-for-6 on two-point tries this season. “Each week we practise the scenario of the two-point play. It’s not something new to us. They’ve just done a great job of executing.”
But while the Roughriders have pulled off some amazing comebacks, they’ve also been victimized by them.
On July 25, the Edmonton Eskimos rallied from 22-0 deficit to take a 38-33, fourth-quarter lead. A late Saskatchewan drive failed to generate any points and Edmonton prevailed.
On Sept. 20, the Eskimos scored a late touchdown to take a 31-27 lead. The Roughriders marched down the field, but a last-play pass into the Edmonton end zone fell incomplete.
And on Oct. 2, after the Roughriders scored a late TD and two-point convert to tie the game 16-16, the Lions drove for a game-winning field goal with five seconds left in the fourth quarter.
The fact that comebacks are sometimes necessary irks Durant.
On Sept. 20, the Eskimos scored a late touchdown to take a 31-27 lead. The Roughriders marched down the field, but a last-play pass into the Edmonton end zone fell incomplete.
And on Oct. 2, after the Roughriders scored a late TD and two-point convert to tie the game 16-16, the Lions drove for a game-winning field goal with five seconds left in the fourth quarter.
The fact that comebacks are sometimes necessary irks Durant.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” he said. “We’ve jumped out to a nice lead numerous times this year and had to fight to win the game — and that’s not what we want to do.
“If you give yourself a 20-point cushion or a 14-point cushion, the thing you want to do is extend that cushion. For whatever reason, we haven’t been able to. But there’s no panic with this team and this staff. I know we’ll be able to capitalize more in the games to come.”
That’s because of their success in the games that have come and gone. That includes Durant’s first career start.
On July 12, 2008 in Hamilton, Durant led Saskatchewan on a five-play, 82-yard drive that culminated in a one-yard Wes Cates scoring run with 32 seconds left in regulation time. The Roughriders defeated the Tiger-Cats 33-28.
“In games I’ve played after that, we’ve been pretty successful in the latter parts of the fourth quarter,” Durant said. “When you start doing something and it works well, it carries over. That’s what’s happened with us in the fourth quarter.”
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