Mitchell Blair
Riderville.com
To a man, the Saskatchewan Roughriders realize they should be 4-0 this season and would be, had it not been for a late game collapse against Calgary last Thursday night. Up by 18 midway through the 4th quarter, the Riders allowed the Stampeders to get back into the game and then win it in overtime.
After taking the weekend off, the team got back on the field this week for Saturday’s showdown against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats saying dwelling on the past won’t do any good so it’s time to accept the lesson that was learned and move forward.
“The guys started this morning with some good focus.” Head coach Corey Chamblin said after Monday’s workout. “I was very pleased with what the guys showed out there today and I’m pleased with where they are headed right now.”
Perhaps one reason for that focus being there was the fact the football team had the weekend off to get away from it after having played three games in 11 days—all of them against Western Division opponents. For defensive end Brent Hawkins, it was a break that was welcomed.
“I have not stepped foot in this place until this morning after getting back from Calgary,” Hawkins said emphatically. “It was great to get away from it all and spend some time with my family and just relax. We had back-to-back short weeks and it was all business during that time. It’s still all-business, but it was great to have a couple of days off and recharge. Having a loss like that still stings because we know what we let go, but it’s all Hamilton now and that’s what we are focusing on.”
As the team returned to the practice field, quarterback Darian Durant feels as if the team hasn’t let any of the momentum they have had for the first four weeks get away even though they let a game get away.
“There was no change with the vibe in the dressing room,” Durant said. “We know we let one slip away and it brings you down a little bit, but it also makes you hungry. I’m just taking that game for what it was and using it as a learning experience. We want teams to tell us we are running up the score, because you see what happens when we take our foot off the pedal it allows teams to come back. We can’t do that anymore. We had that team beat, but we just didn’t finish. We are still as good as we thought we were last week.”
Despite the stumble in Calgary, the team still finds itself in first in the West as they are tied with the Edmonton Eskimos at 3-1. As mentioned, they will take that record into a Saturday afternoon home game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in a 4 o’clock start at Mosaic Stadium. This will be the last regular-season meeting between the two teams. The two squads opened up the 2012 CFL season in Hamilton with the Riders winning that contest 43-18.
