It’s not a must-win for the Saskatchewan Roughriders when they host the undefeated Calgary Stampeders at Mosaic Stadium Sunday night, but it would certainly be welcomed.
A win would put the Riders back to .500 (4-4) and just two points back of the third-place Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the CFL’s West division.
The Roughriders dropped the first of three games against the Stampeders back on July 28, when they let Calgary score 24 points in the first quarter en route to a 34-22 loss.
With the defeat fresh in their minds, Roughriders general manager and head coach Chris Jones knows they need to come out of the gate flying and focused.
“We can’t put ourselves in a position where we’re down 24 again. We just got to play good, solid football and let the chips fall,” Jones said.
In their loss to the Stampeders, quarterbacks Brandon Bridge and David Watford carried the load for the Roughriders but struggled to generate much offence against a stingy Calgary defence.
But with a healthy Zach Collaros, the team’s expectations are much different.
“It always starts with the quarterback, and we had a good week. It’s an exciting time and who better to have in here than the best team in the league right now,” Collaros said.
Although the offence starts with Collaros, he says it’s going to take the whole team playing well to get a win against the red-hot division rival.
“It’s about not having missed assignments, proper execution — whether it’s in the blocking game or the route-running game for the receivers — and knowing your assignments as a running back and for the quarterback,” Collaros said.
“There’s a lot of little details that have to be done the right way in order for us to win the game.”
The team is coming off a busy bye week following a 19-26 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos on Aug. 2, when they replaced one fan favourite with another in the release of receiver Duron Carter and the re-signing of slotback Rob Bagg.
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