Set for tonight at 7:30 PM, the Saskatchewan Roughriders will be facing the Montreal Alouettes, and despite some pretty impressive stats for the Riders going in, many are worried about their chances because of the bad mojo that has accompanied the team all week long since their win against the Elks last weekend.
But despite all of this adversity, the Riders are looking forward and onward, getting their heads in the right place just ahead of tonight’s game.
To nab that third victory in a row in the face of all this adversity would definitely send the message to the entirety of the league…a message the team and their coach seem intent on sending.
Dan Clark was injured in that aforementioned game against the Elks, and has since had surgery and even provided an update on social media stating: “I broke my fibula and shifted my ankle bone…went very well.”
Left guard, Logan Ferland had some sentiments on the game and what happened with Clark, stating: “It’s heartbreaking…It didn’t even feel like a win. That’s all you’re thinking about at the end.”
As it would turn out though, the team was able to get only a single practice in before tonight’s game!
QB, Cody Fajardo, as humble as he always is, also managed to sound confident enough in his statements regarding the adversity the team faces:
“It’s going to be extremely difficult…This will be a test to see where we’re at as a team — a good measuring stick to see where we are mentally…
Not only do you have to be physically strong to play a game on Saturday and then turn around and play on Thursday, but you also have to be strong mentally to be able to put in new plays that you’ll never get to rep…
In practice (on Tuesday), I think we had 32 or 36 live reps. When you carry 150 to 200 plays into a game, you don’t get reps on everything, so there might be a little bit of trying to figure it out…
But the thing is, in the first week and the second week, we’ve had to do a lot of adjustment on the sideline. I think we’ve been a really good second-half team and we’re going to have to do that in this game as well.”
via Regina Leader-Post (above quotes from same link)
Despite all this adversity (a word I’ve used often enough in this piece I’m afraid), the stats going in as per CFL.ca are showing a massive spike in favor of the Riders statistically, as the charts below will suggest…both offensively and especially defensively the Riders seem to have the upper hand going into tonight’s game. Take a look:
In the end, it was head coach, Craig Dickenson, that said it best…and he will probably have the last word before they go out tonight. He said:
“We’re not going to go where we want to if we can’t control ourselves…Mentally, we’ve got to be a lot tougher.”
It’s crunch time, boys!
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