Courtesy Winnipeg Free Press:

THE two teams that were ranked No. 1 and 2 in pretty much every off-season poll are set to square off in a back-to-back scenario starting this Friday at home.

The fact that both teams are searching for their first wins of the season goes to show you that just because something is said and awarded to you in the off-season does not mean it will not have to be earned once the opening whistles are blown.

There are two schools of thought to move forward with when you come off a performance like many of us had last Friday night. Do you embrace the negativism and have it fuel your resolve for the upcoming game or do you get the game out of your mind as quickly as possible, focus on the positives and pretend it never happened?

There are benefits and detriments to both strategies that need to be examined before a player and coach can decide what course to accept and employ.

Some coaches like to embrace and charge the negative energy that surrounds a team when you lose a game in the manner like we did on Friday night. It creates an “us against the world” mentality and can force the team to internalize and search for salvation within the locker-room and for individual players to look within themselves for answers to their struggles.

When you are embarrassed in the course of a nationally televised contest it is natural to get angry about the occurrence. And of all the professions in the world, football is one of the few where anger is an optimal emotion to play with if it can be channelled and controlled correctly.

If you are frustrated by failures in your own performance or that of your team, taking that frustration out on your next opponent can pay dividends.

In a game where hitting, aggression, intimidation and doggedness are standard attributes, adding venom and spite to these actions can only magnify their effectiveness.

So often in a small league like the CFL, where it is commonplace to play your opponents three or four times a year, the casual and common relations between opposing players sometimes soften the ire that is expressed on the field. In the wake of a game, during which you feel your fans and franchise were let down, hostilities are naturally rekindled to take care and address your own state of urgency.

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