The Saskatchewan Roughriders are first in the West Division standings and in the appraisal of Trevor Harris.
“There’s not a team that I’d bet on aside from us,” the CFL team’s starting quarterback said on Tuesday. “I love this team and I’m excited about the last seven games of the regular season and beyond.”
What fosters that perception?
“I just think it’s the makeup — the guys in the room, the people leading us,” Harris responded.
“I think belief is the most powerful thing you have in pro football. It’s important to have all the people on one side of the rope pulling in the same direction.
“A mediocre idea with everybody behind it is better than a great idea with half behind it. I really believe that.
“We have great ideas. We have great leadership. And we’ve got great people who are believing in it.”
Now it is a matter of using all those resources advantageously down the stretch, beginning with Sunday’s Labour Day Classic against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (5 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).
“It’s just about us taking accountability and making sure that we have the team cohesion on the field,” Harris said.
“We’re a close unit off the field, but it’s really about us making sure that we’re doing the right things together.
“I had a great meeting with my mental performance coach yesterday and we talked about task cohesion and us making sure that we’re on our details together on the field.
“It’s great that we love to hang out with each other and play laser tag, mini-golf or whatever. That’s all cool.
“But we need to make sure that we’re on the same page on the field. Those are the great things that we’re going to keep pounding the stone on.
“I think we’re going to like where we’re at toward the end of this year.”
The Roughriders carry a 5-5-1 record into Sunday’s sold-out Labour Day Classic against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (5 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).
The Green and White’s preferred position atop the division has weathered a five-game winless streak (0-4-1).
“As the football gods continue to do, they leave us with the keys in our hands to really drive this thing,” Head Coach Corey Mace said.
The Roughriders have been outscored by a total of four points over their last three games — during which they registered a tie that now separates them from Winnipeg and the B.C. Lions (both 5-6-0).
“In all those games, over the past few weeks, we’ve had an opportunity to come out on top, and we have not,” Mace said. “That’s the toughest thing to stomach.
“We think that we’ve addressed what we need to address. We end up putting ourselves in a jam either by lack of focus or technique or how we execute a play or a lack of focus with the rules, et cetera.
“We’ve just got to keep chopping wood. It’s Labour Day. Things start turning for teams in their seasons right about now.
“We’re still in a position where we control our future.”
