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“It’s a new season for us. You reset your motor and get back to it,” said Evans, a defensive lineman. ” We beat (the Roughriders) by one, they beat us by one.”

It came right down to the final game of the regular season, with the Argonauts beating the Lions 40-13 on Saturday night to wrap up first place in the East, before the Redblacks learned their playoff destiny. A B.C. win would have given Ottawa top spot in the East and a bye to the division final.

Evans said he prefers the way it worked out. Another bye would have been the Redblacks’ third in a month as a result of a bizarre CFL schedule.

“I prefer to win, go into the East final, win again, then go into the Grey Cup and not have all that time off,” Evans said. “Having two bye weeks near the end of the season is tough.”

How does Ottawa stack up against Saskatchewan?

“We’ve played these guys so recently,” Campbell said. “We didn’t see them until late in the season, then we played them twice. They have some opportunistic playmakers. One of the keys against them is keep the turnovers down and not let them make those momentum-changing plays.”

“On paper, it’s a good matchup,” Spencer said. “We’re going to be ready. The first time we played them, we took our foot off the gas and let them back in the game with mistakes. This is the game that counts. We have to be sharp. We have to take all our tools out of the toolbox.

“We have lots of confidence going into the playoffs. Belief is everything. If you don’t believe in something, it’s not going to happen.”