The Riders are the defending champs, but they’re hardly satisfied with their recent success.<\/p>\n
With the CFL playoffs just to start, most of the Grey Cup attention seems to have centred around teams like the Montreal Alouettes, Edmonton Elks, and even the B.C. Lions.<\/p>\n
Notably missing from that group are the defending champs, the Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just fine with Jameer Thurman.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood,\u201d the star linebacker told reporters in Vancouver ahead of Saturday afternoon\u2019s Western Semi-Final clash against the favoured Lions. \u201cThere\u2019s always extra motivation. Everybody has their own way of motivating themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love when people overlook us. I love when we are not respected in the eyes of everyone else. This season has been an up-and-down year for us. We deserve that (distinction) a little bit. It\u2019s playoff time now. Anything can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Riders-Lions matchup features teams that had drastically different first and second halves of the season.<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan won six of its first eight games and was in a battle with the Elks for the West Division lead. But injuries \u2013 lots of them \u2013 caught up with them and they lost six of their next eight contests to hit the .500 mark with just two games to go.<\/p>\n
The Riders needed a last-possession touchdown drive in their 17th game against an Alouettes team resting many of their key players just to secure a playoff berth. They enter the playoffs with a two-game winning streak and a 10-8 record thanks to a backup-filled win over the Elks in the season finale last Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever you\u2019re winning games, that builds momentum,\u201d Thurman said. \u201cIt builds the confidence in the guys that you play with. It builds the confidence throughout the rest of the team as well. It just builds confidence when you\u2019re out their on the field, that winning feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions, meanwhile, started the season 1-5 amid their own injury problems \u2013 most prominently to quarterback Nathan Rourke. They rounded nicely, including two resounding home wins over the Riders to take second in the division with matching 10-8 record.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a very explosive team,\u201d Thurman said. \u201cThey found a way to gel after a rough start. They responded, and they\u2019re hot right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Riders have knocked the Lions out of the playoff in two straight years. There\u2019s no doubt the Lions would love to exact some revenge.<\/p>\n
Lions linebacker Darnell Sankey is also trying to spark a narrative that his team is more motivated because they haven\u2019t won a championship as a group yet.<\/p>\n
Thurman said that\u2019s a bunch of poppycock.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case because I\u2019m hungrier than ever now,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone loves the feeling of winning. Everyone\u2019s always chasing that. If you win, I don\u2019t see how that correlates.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s always hungry, especially when it comes to playoff time because we\u2019re trying to get a ring on our fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan coach Corey Mace mostly backs up Thurman\u2019s assessment. He said he understands why Sankey might think that, but he\u2019s convinced the Riders have the same drive as last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you that the mindset for us hasn\u2019t really changed,\u201d Mace said. \u201cWe\u2019re not ignorant to the fact that we have experience in big games. However, we are very hard on (how) \u201925 has nothing to do with this team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team is just as hungry as the team that was here last year. There are new pieces. You put in so much work. There\u2019s really only one thing that really makes you feel like it\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Riders have a long, tough road in defence of their Grey Cup. It starts Saturday against the Lions, who feature a quick-strike offence led by Rourke.<\/p>\n
Rourke has torched the Riders this season, passing for 1,060 yards with six touchdowns and one interception in the three meetings. The Riders\u2019 objective is to limit his big play down the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know our guys are ready to rise to the occasion,\u201d Mace said.<\/p>\n
That starts with Thurman, the team leader with 101 tackles and their top defensive player. He believes the Riders are ready for the task at hand thanks to their invaluable Grey Cup experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cBend-don\u2019t-break mentality. Resiliency. We\u2019ve been there before,\u201d he said \u201cThe pressure and the intensity of the game, guys have been in those games before. It\u2019s all about going out there and executing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rider Broadcast Network will have all the action from the Western Semi-Final beginning with the pregame show at 11:30 a.m. Dave Thomas and crew will get listeners set up for the game, and he\u2019ll then join Luc Mullinder with the game call at kickoff at 2:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Riders are the defending champs, but they’re hardly satisfied with their recent success. With the CFL playoffs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-952720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952720","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=952720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}