Davis: Head coach Corey Mace says Roughriders aren't too "geeked up" for CFL playoffs

The Saskatchewan Roughriders may have believed they could win a Grey Cup last year, but they really weren’t ready for the challenge.

This year is different.

“The way I think we attacked last year is everybody was geeked up and, you know, a storm-the-castle kind of vibe,” said Roughriders head coach Corey Mace, whose team plays host to the B.C. Lions in the CFL’s West final on Saturday.

“(This year) we’re just operating business as usual for us, which I think is a good thing.”

Everything was too new, too unfamiliar last season. Mace was a first-year head coach, surrounded by assistants he knew and a few he didn’t. Their strategies weren’t well-defined and they made some strategic blunders.

The roster was a mixture of holdovers and free agents, thrown together because they were talented players and responsible men.

They charged out of the gates with four straight victories, despite starting quarterback Trevor Harris suffering a knee injury in the fourth game. Then came a seven-game winless streak before rebounding to win their final four games and finish with a 9-8-1 record, second in the West. They eliminated the third-place B.C. Lions with a 28-19 semifinal victory at Mosaic Stadium and advanced to the West final against the hometown Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Wham! Bam! Looking for their fifth straight Grey Cup appearance, the Bombers were ready for those fledgling Roughriders.

Some coaching issues showed during a 38-22 loss in Winnipeg, with Saskatchewan’s passive zone defence getting shredded for 482 yards, plus there was an untimely third-down gamble and a predictable pattern of running A.J. Ouellette on most first downs.

There’s an old sports adage that teams have to lose before they learn how to win.

The Wayne Gretzky-era Edmonton Oilers claimed they wouldn’t have become an NHL dynasty without suffering an emotional, educational loss to the Stanley Cup-champion New York Islanders.

The Ottawa Redblacks lost the 2015 Grey Cup before winning in 2016. The Calgary Stampeders lost the 2017 Grey Cup before winning in 2018.

That doesn’t explain the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who have lost back-to-back Grey Cup appearances twice since 2013. And it will be interesting to see how the Toronto Blue Jays rebound from this month’s soul-crushing World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Roughriders believe last year prepared them for this year.

“We’re a lot more comfortable with each other,” said centre Logan Ferland, one of nine Roughriders named to the CFL’s all-star team. “I think we’ve been prepared each year since Mace has been here because they do a really good job of focusing week by week and not looking too far ahead.

“We had a bit of a fire in our belly from last year, with what happened in the West final. Our calmness comes with the chemistry we have.”

During the off-season, Mace (who doubles as defensive co-ordinator), offensive co-ordinator Marc Mueller and special teams co-ordinator Kent Maugeri regularly met for intensive strategy sessions. The result: There were very few questionable, in-game decisions. The Roughriders weathered an injury to Harris, once again had to rejigger their offensive line, dealt seamlessly with the absences of all their starting receivers and most of their defensive backfield, plus the defence blitzed more frequently and the offence diversified.

They won their first four games, convincingly beat the Montreal Alouettes and Hamilton Tiger-Cats back-to-back in character-testing contests and lost soundly twice to the Calgary Stampeders.

The Roughriders placed second with a 12-6 record, earning a bye into the West final. They’re on a two-game losing streak, facing a team that has won seven straight. But the Roughriders believe their final two games, because they had clinched first place, helped them rest and ready themselves for the postseason.

This year the Roughriders seem more mature, more knowledgeable after getting eliminated one game shy of a 2024 Grey Cup berth. Why?

“With the guys that were here last year, just their experience alone, understanding what to anticipate and dealing with, you know, the likes of you guys and the media, all that stuff,” said Mace. “The feel in the air is a little bit different.

“I heard (Harris) talk about that, the moment of the games, the big games, those guys understand that now. And we did it somewhere else, so to have it at home, I think the guys are ready for that.”

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