before escaping with a 28-26 win over the Elks<\/a>, who handed the Green and White a 36-34 loss the week prior.<\/p>\n\u201cWhoever is available for us, go out there and play,\u201d Mace said when asked how the team is dealing with the recent influx of injuries. \u201cI thought last game was kind of proof of that. <\/p>\n
\u201cGuys were called upon. Some guys hadn\u2019t played a game in the CFL. Some guys had minimal snaps. But we found a way to come out with a win on the road versus a really good football team. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it speaks to the culture of what we have around here and the expectations. We\u2019re not making exceptions or excuses for anybody. We have a standard that we\u2019ve got to meet.\u201d <\/p>\n
Some of those players who stepped up into starting roles were defensive back James Burgess Jr. and receiver D\u2019Sean Mimbs, who both made important fourth-quarter plays to secure the victory for the Roughriders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know most people would say next man up, but I try and not be like too much of a clich\u00e9 person because it\u2019s like, what are you going to do, not play with people?\u201d said quarterback Trevor Harris. \u201cWe know who we are, and everybody in this locker room is here for a reason, and we have total faith in them. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously losing guys stinks. Injuries and people getting released is the worst part of football. (But) it\u2019s banding together as brothers and believing in one another and having guys step up.\u201d <\/p>\n
While the Roughriders are used to seeing Emilus, Schaffer-Baker and KeeSean Johnson, who did have Saskatchewan\u2019s lone touchdown catch in the game, serve as their leading pass catchers, Harris had to rely on his less experienced group in the second half on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Third-year receiver Dhel Duncan-Busby led all receivers with four catches for 66 yards on the night while rookie Johnny Johnson III chipped in with four receptions for 48 yards. The Green and White also called upon others like Mimbs (one catch, 18 yards), Daniel Wiebe (one catch, nine yards) and Dylan Djete, who saw the field but didn\u2019t get a target in his CFL debut. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn pro football, you can\u2019t have moments get too big,\u201d said Harris, who threw for 239 yards. \u201cAnd I didn\u2019t see any deer-in-the-headlights looks. And if I do, typically I pull them aside and just say like, \u2018Hey man, just run your route, do your job, do what you\u2019ve done your whole life, and you come out of the route, the ball is going to be there for you.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in those guys, and they know that. I\u2019m not going to have any hesitation. I\u2019m going to let the ball go on time and throw it to where I think they should be. And I got all kinds of faith that they\u2019ll be where they\u2019re supposed to be. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo flinching here and that\u2019s kind of our MO as a team \u2014 we don\u2019t flinch.\u201d <\/p>\n
As the Roughriders (5-2) get set to host the winless Ottawa Redblacks (0-7) on Friday, they certainly aren\u2019t flinching, but they are altering their preparations with less than a full week between games.<\/p>\n
Typically, the Roughriders practice three times per week before holding a walk through the day before the game, but this week, Mace made some adjustments. <\/p>\n
While he said it wasn\u2019t necessarily directly related to the injuries, the team elected not to practice on Monday before holding a walk through on Tuesday. A full, closed practice is on the schedule for Wednesday before another walk through on Thursday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some guys who were probably a little bit happy that we slowed it down a little bit for the mental aspect,\u201d said Mace. \u201cBut as we\u2019ve spoke about years prior, this is where I would like to honestly get to towards the middle of the season, the back end of the season, where we can keep everybody fresh. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough game, man. To go reload and go do it again on a short week, whether you come out 100 per cent healthy in a game, it\u2019s tough on these guys\u2019 body, and I understand that. <\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, it\u2019s going to be their decision. If we can handle the mental reps today and then have a great practice tomorrow and finish it with a great game, then yeah, I\u2019d love to do this more often. But that\u2019s going to be up to them.\u201d <\/p>\n
Note: While Saskatchewan\u2019s injured list is likely to grow this week, the club should get one player back as defensive back Nelson Lokombo (ankle) was working with the starting group on Tuesday in place of Campbell. <\/p>\n
Additionally, defensive lineman Ali Saad (calf) returned to practice in limited fashion as he nears a return from the six-game injured list. <\/p>\n
Fry and fellow offensive lineman Darius Bell (ankle), who was a full participant on Tuesday, will likely remain on the one-game injured list while returner James Letcher Jr. (elbow), receiver Mathew Sexton (ankle), defensive back JuJu Hughes (ankle), fullback Morgen Runge (pec), defensive lineman Lake Korte-Moore (knee) and long snapper Aaron Crawford (knee) are expected to stay on the six-game injured list.<\/p>\n
tshire@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Instead of next-man-up, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are deploying a next-men-up mentality. Heading into Friday\u2019s home game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[294579,49,48,521,522,276177,276912,276178,158032,520,276176,82],"class_list":["post-846257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-294579","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-category-cfl","tag-category-football","tag-category-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-category-sports","tag-cfl","tag-leader-post","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846257","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=846257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}