Photo courtesy: Arthur Ward/CFL.ca

It’s not every week that the Saskatchewan Roughriders can boldly go where no other Rider team has gone before in their 115-year existence.

But such is the case in Saturday’s Week 12 showdown with the Stampeders in Calgary, where if the Riders emerge victorious, they will post the team’s first 9-1 record ever.

EVER.

Forget the modern era, we’re including the entire history of the franchise dating back to the team’s very first season in 1910. Not until 1939 was the schedule even long enough to accommodate such an achievement when the Riders went 6-6. Saskatchewan would finally reach nine wins in a season by 1949 and has done it many times since.

But never 9-1, not even with Lancaster and Reed. But if today’s players and coaches are thinking about it, they’re not telling us.

“I haven’t really thought about it like that,” said Rider defensive tackle Micah Johnson. “We just take it one game at a time. It’s super cliché, but we believe every week we’re trying to go 1-0. But that would be cool.”

“9-1 unfortunately doesn’t win you a Grey Cup, so there’s still a lot more work to do. 9-1 is awesome. It’s a testament to how our guys are working, but the ultimate goal is that Cup.”

Getting to 9-1 has been so elusive for this organization that even their championship teams haven’t been able to do it. Their best shot up until now came back in 2013 when the eventual Grey Cup winners, hot off a patented Labour Day win over the Blue Bombers, strutted into Winnipeg with an 8-1 mark, and a chance to make history in the Banjo Bowl against an inferior 1-8 rival.

Instead, the Riders blew an early first-and-goal from the one-yard line when Drew Willy and Kory Sheets both got stuffed, and had to settle for a field goal en route to a 25-13 loss in what turned out to be Winnipeg’s first-ever win in what is now called Princess Auto Stadium. It also turned out to be the first of many Roughrider losses in that house of horrors, as they are now 3-13 all-time in that park, regular season and playoffs combined.

The setback would start a four-game losing skid that sent Saskatchewan’s dream season reeling. Of course, the Riders eventually made up for it when they won their fourth, and to date final, Grey Cup on home turf that November. But still, how sweet would it be for the Riders to avoid a repeat of the midseason meltdown from 2013?

One would think Corey Mace would surely love to become an answer to a trivia question: Who is the first head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders to make it through double-digit games with just one loss?

“I didn’t even know that was a stat,” Mace said. “As long as we can go 1-0 this week, that’s all we’re looking for.”

This year’s Roughriders face a much tougher opponent in the 6-3 Stampeders than the hapless Blue Bomber squad that existed in 2013 before Mike O’Shea rescued that outfit. The Stamps’ only losses this year have come against struggling teams with losing records, Ottawa and Montreal, due largely to quarterback injuries and quite possibly the weirdest June weather in Calgary’s history.

Have I mentioned the Stampeders handed the Roughriders their only blemish of the year so far back in July, when the smoke cleared for Vernon Adams Junior to pass for more than 400 yards and three touchdowns, including a couple to rookie of the year candidate Damien Alford? The Stamps proved that afternoon that they were indeed capable of beating a juggernaut like Saskatchewan has become in 2025.

There is one big parallel from this 8-1 Roughrider situation to that of the scenario 12 years ago: this 10th game very much impacts the Riders’ chances to beat out the Stampeders for first in the West.

The loss in 2013 opened the door for Calgary to overtake Saskatchewan just one week later and eventually finish ahead of the Roughriders in that chase. A Roughrider win on Saturday, especially if they can grab the season tiebreaker by winning by 15 or more, would mean the magic number of Saskatchewan wins and Calgary losses to clinch West Final hosting privileges for the Riders would be down to just five.

If none of that happens, Calgary will once again be within a week of overtaking first place. All of it is a gentle reminder that regular-season milestones and finishing first do not a Grey Cup ring make.

On the other hand, making history in this way would make life a little more exciting for Rider fans all over the world and serve as a reminder of just how far this franchise has come from the hapless back-to-back playoff misses that happened not all that long ago.

Only one other CFL franchise, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, has failed to put together a 9-1 start in its history. Wouldn’t it be great if the Riders left them alone in that exclusive club?