The Saskatchewan Roughriders don\u2019t appear to be all that concerned that they\u2019re preparing to face arguably the best quarterback in the CFL and the league\u2019s top offence.<\/p>\n
Nathan Rourke and the B.C. Lions, winners of six of their last seven games, will oppose the Riders on Friday. Slowing down Rourke and his crew seems like a daunting task on paper, but the Riders insist they\u2019re ready for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t have a lot of kryptonite. He\u2019s an incredible player. We all understand that,\u201d Roughriders coach Corey Mace told reporters in Regina on Tuesday. \u201cBut can we force him into some bad decisions? He\u2019s a great quarterback, but he\u2019s thrown interceptions. He\u2019s lost games before. Same as any other quarterback.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about fine-tuning the details of what we have as far as our game plan to attack him, knowing that he\u2019s probably going to make a few plays. We\u2019ve just got to make sure we make one more than they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rourke has guided the Lions, now 7-6, to an incredible turnaround since returning from injury. They\u2019re suddenly just two points back of the Riders.<\/p>\n
Rourke has thrown for 3,476 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions in 11 games. His 71.1 completion percentage trails only Montreal\u2019s Davis Alexander, while his 107.1 quarterback rating is third behind Alexander and Calgary\u2019s Vernon Adams Jr.<\/p>\n
With Rourke leading the way, the Lions rank first in the CFL with 121.3 rushing yards per game and second with 322.5 passing yards per contest.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s going to be a lot for the Riders to manage, at least in theory. But the film work they\u2019ve done this week has them locked in, defensive lineman Aaron Patrick said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot, but nothing that we\u2019re not prepared for,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a great coaching staff. They help us throughout the week (with) the things that we\u2019ve seen from when we\u2019ve played them before as well as new tendencies that we need to prepare for and personnel and different schemes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got a team of players and coaches that are working all week to try to do whatever they can to move forward, the majority of the time you\u2019re going to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rourke has had a fair bit of success against the Riders this season.<\/p>\n
He completed 24 of 37 passes for 330 yards in the teams\u2019 first meeting, a 31-27 Saskatchewan win way back on June 13. He was even better in the next matchup, a B.C. victory, going 22-for-28 for 355 yards with two touchdowns and an interception with the score out of reach.<\/p>\n
That should be worrisome, but the Riders aren\u2019t fretting much.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great player,\u201d Riders safety Nelson Lokombo said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to make sure that we\u2019re in our zones, that we\u2019re in our drops and making sure that we make plays on the ball if we need to.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust make sure we\u2019re keyed in on our assignments and make sure that we\u2019re out there and we do our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doing their jobs will be integral in their efforts to secure a win in this pivotal game.<\/p>\n
Not only are the Riders trying to fend off the Lions (and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers) for second in the West Division, but they\u2019re hoping to catch the 10-4 Edmonton Elks for top spot.<\/p>\n
Patrick said it\u2019s \u201csuper important\u201d that Riders get a home playoff game this season. A win Friday would help immensely in that regard, especially since it would earn them the season series and the tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely plays a part in the standings and everything,\u201d Lokombo said. \u201cIt matters in terms of wanting to get the best chance to win the division. We just want to win. That\u2019s what we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
To do that, they\u2019ll most likely have to make things difficult for Rourke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders don\u2019t appear to be all that concerned that they\u2019re preparing to face arguably the best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[3878,49,48,521,522,520,3290,4398,27684,27683,1893,4401,27682,4400,4399,82],"class_list":["post-905853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-agriculture","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-contests","tag-country-music","tag-gx94","tag-manitoba-news","tag-radio","tag-rider-radio","tag-saskatchewan-news","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905853","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=905853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}