‘We’ve got to play better’: Riders look to bounce back from Bomber beatdown

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ wave of momentum came to a crashing halt after they were handily defeated by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

But the Green and White still feels positive because the drubbing didn’t happen in a game that would’ve ended its season.

“You’d like to win them all but it’s hard,” head coach Craig Dickenson said after Tuesday’s practice at Mosaic Stadium. “When you lose, usually guys pay a little more attention the next day.”

Saskatchewan was easily beaten by the Bombers 35-10 in the Banjo Bowl on Saturday. That put an end to the Roughriders’ first six-game winning streak since 2014.

On Saturday, the Roughriders will welcome the Montreal Alouettes — who are on their own three-game winning streak — to Mosaic Stadium. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m.

Dickenson said he thought the players took it upon themselves to find the motivation to practise harder this week.

“(The players) are working hard but now it’s coming a little more from within the locker room and less from the coaches, which is good,” Dickenson said. “We like to see the players take ownership of that.

“It takes a real mature team to handle success and a lot of teams struggle after they’ve been successful. The message is loud and clear — we’ve got to play better and hopefully we will.”

Dickenson said he began to notice bad practice habits starting to form while the team was in the middle of its winning streak.

“You try to evaluate your team by what you see on a day-to-day basis and we haven’t been real good for a couple of weeks,” Dickenson said. “There’s a lot of things that we need to fix up but we’re a good football team still and our guys know that.”

Quarterback Cody Fajardo doesn’t believe the loss to Winnipeg will dampen the team’s spirits, echoing that the clubs will meet again on Oct. 5.

“We’ve got a lot of football left. It’s exciting to know that that wasn’t the last game of the season,” Fajardo said. “We get to show who we are against a really good Montreal team.”

Fajardo struggled against a Blue Bombers defence that pressured him all game, sacking him four times. Fajardo completed 16 of 24 pass attempts for 196 yards and an interception. The offence didn’t score a touchdown until near the end of the third quarter, when Fajardo scored on an eight-yard run.

“I think we let our frustrations show in our play,” Fajardo said. “I’m going to use this and build from it and grow from it.”

After watching the Banjo Bowl film Sunday, Fajardo told the offensive players to get their minds away from football for a day, something he said contributed to positivity on the practice field Tuesday.

“The locker room was buzzing again, guys were smiling again,” he said. “We’re excited for this game coming up. We’ve got a lot to prove and we’re champing at the bit to go back on the field.”

Jordan Williams-Lambert (in grey hoodie) watches practice after rejoining the team on Sept. 10, 2019. (Britton Gray/980 CJME)

Notes: The Roughriders signed receiver Jordan Williams-Lambert to a one-year contract extension Tuesday, keeping him with the team through 2020. Williams-Lambert — the West Division’s most outstanding rookie last season — rejoins the team after trying out for the NFL’s Chicago Bears. Dickenson said Williams-Lambert could push some of their other American receivers … The team re-signed defensive end Chad Geter on Tuesday. Geter recorded 17 defensive tackles, 17 special-teams stops and three sacks last season with the Roughriders. He was one of the team’s final cuts after training camp and signed with Montreal, which released him two days ago … Guard Brendon LaBatte (hip) was on the field with the Roughriders in a limited role Tuesday. Dickenson said when LaBatte is ready to go, the team wouldn’t have a problem finding a spot for him on the offensive line … Receiver Justin McInnis (shoulder) didn’t practise. Fellow Canadian Mitch Picton was practising in his place … Defensive end A.C. Leonard left practice early for an undisclosed reason.