For the guys who have never played a game in Saskatchewan before — if they like the competition, they’re going to like this game.
The fans out there are pretty rowdy and they sit right on top of you and you’re going to hear everything. The bottom line is just coming out and executing. If we come out and execute from the start, we’ll get the crowd out of it and that won’t be a worry. But if we let them stick around and do what they do, then it’s going to be a tough situation to play against the Riders and the crowd.
The Riders are at home, where they haven’t lost yet this season. Any time you play at home, you’re in a comfort zone. So if they are having any struggles, they have a chance to fix them at home where they play so well. We understand everything that comes with playing that team in that stadium.
We understand that they have a rowdy crowd, a great quarterback, a good set of receivers, a good tailback and their defence is pretty good, too. We have to execute in all three phases.
On the defensive side, what we’ve got to do is to try to get the ball back to our offence as much as possible.
If Ricky Ray is the Mechanic, then Darian Durant is the Brickhouse. You can hit him all you want top hit him and that won’t faze him. He’s built for that. He’s solidly built and he has strong legs so when you come up in there, you really have to wrap up. When he does break loose and starts moving around, that’s where the problems come. On the back end, we have to stay with our man for the whole play.
That’s how we have to play against these guys because Durant makes plays with his legs. The scramble rules will be in effect.
People want to talk about what this game might mean in terms of putting some distance between us and second place but all we’re focused on is this one game. That week-to-week approach has been our focus from Day 1. Even though we’re 9-1, we’re going into every game as though this is the game that could knock us out. You have to play with that little bit of fear. It’s all about executing your game plan as best as you can. It’s a commitment thing — each guy has to be committed to his job.
Dwight Anderson, #33
>> Anderson bio