To suggest avenging last week\u2019s loss to the Edmonton Elks in Saturday\u2019s rematch is imperative for the Saskatchewan Roughriders doesn\u2019t do it justice. It\u2019s more critical than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hate to say must-win so early in the season, but it\u2019s a very, very, very important (game),\u201d legendary Riders quarterback Darian Durant said Monday on the SportsCage. \u201cThis is the biggest game to date for the Riders. You don\u2019t want to let Edmonton go up another two points.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s as close to a must-win game as you could call it at this point in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Riders now trail the Elks by four points for first place in the West Division standings, albeit with a game in hand, after last Thursday\u2019s 36-34 loss.<\/p>\n
The decisive points came courtesy of a 57-yard field goal by Elks kicker Vincent Blanchard on the last play. It\u2019s a game the Riders could have \u2013 and probably should have \u2013 won for a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n
That the Elks emerged victorious was an eye-opener to Durant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the test for me to see if Edmonton was for real,\u201d he said. \u201cThey came out and showed the entire league that they\u2019re for real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durant was naturally quick to give flowers to a fellow quarterback in Cody Fajardo, deservedly so considering the former Rider threw for 510 yards and four touchdowns.<\/p>\n
But there was more to it than that. He felt the Elks\u2019 game plan was smart and executed to perfection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted to make sure than they play actioned the Riders and put these linebackers in situations where they had to think,\u201d Durant said. \u201cThey did a good job of confusing this Riders secondary and getting some big plays off and making it tough on this Riders team. Kudos to the Edmonton offence for just coming out throwing when the whole world knew that they\u2019d be focused on (running back) Justin Rankin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durant points to defensive backs Rolan Milligan Jr. and Tevaughn Campbell as the veterans who must lead the way when it comes to rethinking the group\u2019s awareness in coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis needs to more so be a player-led meeting because these are just mistakes that the guys made themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think coaching was the problem. I just think the guys had eyes in the wrong place and it\u2019s just mental errors that caused them to give up some of these big plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Riders are behind the eight-ball in this home-and-home series given that they dropped the opener. Worse still, Durant noted, they dropped the opener at home.<\/p>\n
A huge tilt \u2013 bigger than the last one \u2013 all with the desk stacked against them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be tough for the Riders going on the road this week, especially after losing such a heartbreaking game. Edmonton\u2019s going to be fired up,\u201d Durant said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be tough to go out there and win.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To suggest avenging last week\u2019s loss to the Edmonton Elks in Saturday\u2019s rematch is imperative for the Saskatchewan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[224145,224143,49,48,521,522,520,224144,4398,224142,1893,4397,4402,4401,4400,4399,82,4403],"class_list":["post-831310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-100-year-celebration","tag-620-ckrm","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-ckrm","tag-country-music","tag-countrys-greatest-hits","tag-radio","tag-regina-news","tag-reigna-pats","tag-rider-radio","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan-sports","tag-sports","tag-sportscage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}