The high-flying Roughriders are staying grounded

Chris Jones knows the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ confidence level is soaring these days.

At the same time, though, the Roughriders’ head coach-GM is trying to keep his players grounded.

“The three games that we’ve played have not been perfect, if you’ve watched the same game that I have,” Jones said earlier this week when asked about the CFL team’s three-game winning streak. “We’ve still got a lot of things to work on, a lot of detailed technique things to work on in all three phases.

“We’ve not arrived.”

The Roughriders take their winning streak into Saturday’s contest against the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Game time at Investors Group Field is 1 p.m., Saskatchewan time (TSN, CKRM).

That string of victories has given Saskatchewan a 5-4-0 record, marking the first time the team has been over .500 since 2014. In nine games this season, the Roughriders already have matched their win total from 2016.

The Green and White has outscored its opponents 133-63 in the past three games (41-8 over the B.C. Lions on Aug. 13, 54-31 over the Edmonton Eskimos on Aug. 25, and 38-24 over the Bombers on Sunday). According to the CFL, that’s the most points scored by Saskatchewan in a three-game span since they had 136 points in back-to-back-to-back victories in 2006.

The league also reported that it’s the first time the Roughriders have had three consecutive wire-to-wire victories since a run in July and August of 1993. The club record for such wins is five, set in 1964.

The Roughriders’ defence has been impressive during the current run, forcing 16 turnovers and scoring three touchdowns on interception returns by Ed Gainey, Jovon Johnson and Kacy Rodgers II.

The offence also has been proficient, with quarterback Kevin Glenn completing 70 per cent of his passes with eight touchdown passes. In the Labour Day Classic, Saskatchewan had three players exceed 100 yards receiving — the first time that had happened for the Roughriders since Oct. 23, 1993.

Despite all of the positives, the Roughriders aren’t worried about overconfidence entering Saturday’s game.

“We have to ignore the noise,” slotback Bakari Grant said. “It’s just like when we had a rough start. Everyone was saying how bad we were and how (poorly) we were going to do throughout the year. But it’s not about what people talk about because right now everybody is saying we’re Grey Cup contenders and this and that.

“If we come to work and put in the work, we’re going to see the results. If we stop putting in the work, we’ll stop seeing the results. That’s the way of the game.”

That message has spread through the Roughriders’ locker room and has gone with the players onto the practice field.

“We worked hard this week,” receiver Naaman Roosevelt said. “Coach Jones told us we’ve got to work even harder because we know (the Bombers) are going to be mad and their fans will be going crazy.

“All week, we’ve been trying to stay mentally locked in. We know it’s going to be a war when we get over there.”

The Bombers have won three of the past four Classic rematches in Winnipeg, including two in a row. But the Roughriders won four of the previous five, so they have had success in the Manitoba capital.

Crowds at Investors Group Field are notoriously loud — and the volume no doubt will be turned up Saturday. TSN is conducting a test to determine whether Investors Group Field or Mosaic Stadium is the loudest venue in the CFL, so the folks in Winnipeg surely will be trying to win that battle.

That’s why the Roughriders spent the week practising with crowd noise pumping out of the speakers at Mosaic Stadium.

“I know their fans are going to be very loud and rowdy,” said defensive tackle Eddie Steele. “It’s Winnipeg; they always are. I’m looking forward to hearing a lot of trash talk and it’s going to get me fired up.”

“If (the noise) does anything, it’s going to motivate us,” added defensive end Tobi Antigha. “The worst thing you could do is try to talk to us and try to get us off our game because that’s just going to make us want to play harder.”

The Roughriders are eager to correct the mistakes they made in the latter stages of the past two games — errors that Jones feels allowed their opponents to stay in the games.

In Edmonton, the Eskimos scored 24 points in the fourth quarter. While that ultimately only made the score more respectable, Jones wasn’t happy with his defence’s late lapses.

In the Labour Day Classic, Saskatchewan led 34-16 at halftime but didn’t bury the Bombers in the second half. A late-game pick by Gainey in the Roughriders’ end zone finally dashed Winnipeg’s hopes.

The Roughriders’ goals this week are to develop a killer instinct and to avoid the fate of the Lions, who handled Saskatchewan 30-15 in Vancouver on Aug. 5 before being trounced in the rematch eight days later in Regina.

“We understand that we’ve had three pretty good games, but we also understand that there’s a ways to go,” Antigha said. “We can be so much better in all three facets of the game.”