After beating Ottawa at Mosaic Stadium on Saturday night, the Roughriders took three days off.
It’s back to work on Wednesday though as they start getting ready for the annual back-to-back games against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers starting with Sunday’s Labour Day Classic which will go at Mosaic Stadium starting at 1.
The Riders go into the game riding a five game win streak and a record of 6-3 which is good for second in the West. The second half of the season will be much tougher than the first with three games against the 8-2 Bombers, two against Edmonton to end the season and a matchup in Calgary against the Stampeders so nothing is written in stone as to where the green-and-white will finish the season.
Head Coach Craig Dickenson is well aware of what the second half brings and so does the club.
“There’s no doubt the second half of the season will be tougher.” Dickenson said. ” Our guys know that, we’ve talked about it and we know we have to play better.”
One area where the team has to get better if they are to keep being successful is penalties. Despite the win on Saturday, the Riders took 16 penalties for 186 yards which is something Dickenson found to be unacceptable.
Quarterback Cody Fajardo knows it is an area that has to get cleaned up as games can be won or lost on the amount of flags a team takes in a game.
“We know with games against our Western rivals including two against a very good Winnipeg team that we can’t put ourselves behind the sticks.” Fajardo said. “If you look at the Winnipeg-Edmonton game last week, the Eskimos hurt themselves with penalties. The CFL comes down to penalties as well. You have offense, defense, special teams and penalties.”
The Riders have not won six in a row since the 2014 season when they won seven straight.
