Chad Owens eager for Roughriders debut

It has reached the point of "don't believe it until you see it," but Chad Owens seems poised to finally make his Roughriders debut this week.

The CFL's Most Outstanding Player in 2012 was signed by the Riders last winter but a training camp aggravation of an old foot injury has kept him on the sidelines for the first 14 weeks of the season.

Owens has been practicing this week leading to speculation, again, that he will finally suit up.

"I'm ready to go," Owens said Wednesday, with a tone of frustration in his voice, leaving no doubt he is growing tired with this line of questioning.

We were led to believe Owens first game was imminent at least a couple times before, the last time prior to the Labour Day Classic.

However, rather than being activated, Owens was placed on the six-game injury list again, with Riders' head coach Chris Jones barking he would not discuss Chad Owens again until there was something to talk about.

Jones hasn't brought it up this week, nor has he been asked, but Owens is doing all he can to get the green light.

"I'm not the only guy on this roster that wants to play that's not playing. All I can do is control what I can and go out there work hard and show I know what I'm doing and do it at a high level."

"Do I feel I can help the team? Absolutely."

Underwhelming 1st game

Trent Richardson has only been a Saskatchewan Roughrider for a couple weeks but he already has a game under his belt.

Richardson touched the ball only five times in Toronto for 20 rushing yards.

"Well he got limited touches, he's still actually getting into CFL shape, figuring the game out," said Chris Jones.

"Imagine a guy who has only been here ten days, we're still in camp." 

Richardson was seen at the end of the game in Toronto sitting alone on the bench while his new teammates celebrated the victory.

He had a look on his face as if to say, "What have I got myself into?" 

Richardson admitted Wednesday, his frustration stemmed from a lack of understanding of the CFL, specifically the ratio.

"Just how it was, you know me wanna be in, me wanna be in," said Richardson, not understanding why running back Kienan LaFrance was getting the bulk of the plays in the fourth quarter.

"The way we practiced, I didn't know that there's only so many Americans on the field at one time."

While Richardson looks forward to a second opportunity Friday night against Ottawa, so does Jones.

"He's a big, compact guy that can certainly bring it downhill and break tackles so we look forward to seeing him this week in the second outing."

Game time is at 8 p.m. CST Friday night at Mosaic Stadium.