Craig Dickenson solicited some assist from the CFL head workplace as a way to put together for his group’s street recreation towards the Calgary Stampeders on Saturday.
The pinnacle coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders (5-2) wished to search out out simply how good the Stampeders (2-5) have been during the last 10 years when coming off a bye week, so he requested CFL statistician Steve Daniel to crunch the numbers.
“They’ll be extraordinarily motivated,” mentioned Dickenson of the Stamps. “They’re a proud group.
“Calgary is 14-2 during the last 10 years coming off a bye, so that they’ll be able to play. They’ll have a superb plan. They’ll have their guys motivated and able to play and it’ll be our hardest recreation so far. We’ll must play our greatest recreation to beat them.”
Whereas the Stamps have been on a bye week, the Riders pulled off a come-from-behind 31-24 victory over the B.C. Lions in Vancouver for his or her second straight win.
Calgary hasn’t performed since struggling a disappointing 23-17 setback to the Tiger-Cats in Hamilton on Sept. 17.
Dave Dickenson mentioned he’s assured that his gamers can bounce again with a win over their West Division rivals.
“We like our possibilities after a bye, we do,” mentioned the Calgary coach. “I believe, as a training workers, you ought to be at your finest after a bye.
“I do be ok with our vitality. I do assume we’re refreshed and I’d wish to assume that we’ll come out and play an important recreation and might get the win.”
The youthful of the 2 Dickenson brothers mentioned he and his workers have been in a position to spend two weeks getting ready to face the Riders, whereas the Saskatchewan coaches needed to flip their attentions to the Stamps following a hard-fought win over the Lions.
“When you’re a superb communicator and also you’ve accomplished a superb job, it is best to be capable of have a superb plan,” Dave Dickenson mentioned. “Generally the plan simply will get thrown out and also you get punched within the face. The sport is so bodily which you can have your concepts and you may attempt to just be sure you’ll have this play that may work, however numerous occasions it’s simply that bodily play, the one-on-one battles and who’s on prime of their recreation that week.”
In a scheduling quirk, the Riders will play three straight video games over 21 days in October towards the Stamps.
“Clearly they know that they’ve bought to win video games in a rush and we all know that we’ve bought to proceed to win video games,” mentioned Saskatchewan quarterback Cody Fajardo. “We’ve to have the ability to combat off each final combating effort that they’ve and we play them thrice. It’s going to be powerful.
“I might like to win each recreation, however I don’t know if that’s fairly doable, so we’re going to exit and we’re going to provide it our greatest and hopefully now we have an opportunity to win within the fourth quarter. It’s extraordinarily onerous to win at McMahon Stadium and so I believe our guys are up for the problem and we’re excited in regards to the alternative to maintain our profitable streak going.”
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Fajardo, Roughriders beat Argonauts 30-16
In contrast to previous years, Calgary has struggled at house this season with a 1-3 document. The Stamps must win their remaining three house video games — two of them towards the Riders — to keep away from compiling a dropping document at McMahon for the primary time since 2004.
In his fourth CFL season, Fajardo would love nothing greater than to steer his group to a regular-season victory in Calgary.
“I believe there was one pre-season recreation once I was with the B.C. Lions that we ended up profitable at McMahon Stadium, however aside from that I don’t have very many wins, if any, below my belt (in Calgary),” mentioned Fajardo, who performed his first two seasons with the Toronto Argonauts earlier than signing with the Riders in 2019 after a yr with the Lions.
“We’ve to have the ability to go in there and execute our recreation plan, not flip the ball over and don’t give (Calgary quarterback) Bo (Levi Mitchell) any additional possessions, play a clear soccer recreation and execute within the purple zone.”
Stamps linebacker Jameer Thurman burdened that he and his teammates perceive the gravity of what’s at stake with a home-and-home collection on faucet towards Saskatchewan over the subsequent two weekends, adopted by a street recreation versus the Lions on Oct. 16 and yet one more rematch with the Riders at McMahon every week later.
“Nice alternative for us to start out out quick and robust on Saturday, so set the tone early and allow them to know these subsequent three video games what they’re going to be into,” Thurman mentioned. “It’s positively bizarre, however it’s the place we’re in proper now and we’ve bought to profit from it.”
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