REGINA -- The Saskatchewan Roughriders are like a Grey Cup dynasty without all the rings. Again this week, GM Roy Shivers said his team, just 4-5 following last night's game against the struggling Calgary Stampeders, would finally put it all together and win the title this season.

Just as the club was supposed to claim the Cup in the game it hosted in Regina last year, only to lose the West final to the eventual champion Edmonton Eskimos.

The Esks added to the misery by taking up residence in the 'Riders dressing room at Taylor Field.

Now the team -- which hasn't been to a Grey Cup in seven seasons, is without a title in 15 years and hasn't enjoyed a home playoff date since 1988 -- is once again picking itself as champion in 2004.

Confidence is one thing but an air of cockiness sometimes blows up in your face.

Just making the playoffs this fall might be tough in the wacky CFL West, although beating the rebuilding Stampeders last night will help their cause.

"He has the faith in us to go out and do it," said receiver Travis Moore of his GM's boast. "This game is 90 percent mental, 10 percent physical. You've got to know what you're doing on the field and not worry about the day-to-day media and what's going on off the field. We have to win on the field."

Moore knows as well as anyone regular-season bravado is worthless if you can't back it up in the playoffs. While with the Stampeders (1994-2002), Moore earned two Grey Cup rings with a team good enough to slip one on every finger but somehow couldn't get it done on game day.

The current Roughriders team isn't nearly as good as the Stampeders of the '90s but often talk like champions without having lived up to the hype. Moore knows better.

"You can have a 15-3 season, finish in first place, come into the West final and lose," he admits. "The main thing is having to win under pressure when you have to."

And while the team is enjoying moderate success on the field, the Taylor Field turnstiles aren't spinning at the rate expected for a Cup contender.

Just 21,119 turned out to see the Roughriders home opener June 20 against the Stamps while the self-proclaimed World's Greatest Fans have pieced together the third-worst attendance in the CFL this season, with crowds averaging ahead of only Ottawa (21,751) and Montreal (20,202).

Several theories have been put forward for tepid fan support in Saskatchewan.

The team lost starting quarterback Nealon Greene to a broken leg in the season opener, while satellite feeds of games to bars province-wide has also hurt the gate when the team depends on fans who travel hours to the games.

The best cure is to start winning championships and until then, please keep the idle chatter down.