Home field in the CFL’s West Division semi-final is on the line when the Saskatchewan Roughriders host the Edmonton Elks.
A win would allow the Riders to clinch second place in the West Divsion; no better, no worse.
A loss means the Riders must win their game in Hamilton next week in order to clinch home field in the West semi-final against Calgary, who punched their ticket to the postseason with a 33-23 win over the BC Lions.
The Riders will also be in the snow and the cold Saturday at Mosaic Stadium for the first of what could be a long stretch of games in winter weather.
Riders’ QB Cody Fajardo says he believes the cold won’t impact his game too much.
“As a Quarterback, for me most importantly mentally, I’ll never let myself feel like my right hand is getting cold — I’ll feel cold all over my body but I’ll never say my right hand is cold — because as soon as you lose that, I think you lose the grip of the ball and you don’t throw it as accurately and you don’t throw it as confidently.”
Fajardo says this is the start of a stretch of important games in the cold.
“The weather is not going to get any warmer moving forward and I think and hope guys know that,” Fajardo said. “It’s not just like this weekend’s going to be cold and then next week it’s going to be nice and sunny all of a sudden. I think we’re going to be in this for the long haul and we’re going to have to win some important games in this weather.”
Head Coach Craig Dickenson says it’s important to get a cold weather game in before the playoffs start.
“I think it’s going to show who really loves football and who really enjoys competing regardless of weather, and I think if you see a team with everybody over by the heaters, you’re going to know that maybe weather is affecting you a little more than you’d hope,” Dickenson said. “Hopefully our guys respond well, we’ve had a good week of practice, and I do think it’s a good test run in terms of seeing how you’re going to perform going forward.”
620 CKRM has the game starting with our pregame show at 12:00 PM. Kick-off is at 3:00 PM.
