Murray Wood: Are Saskatchewan Roughrider fans still the best in the CFL?
Murray Wood says attendance at Rider seems to be down, even though the team guards the numbers. But with a strong record...
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are 7-1, but the players aren’t celebrating the accomplishment.
“We’re trending where we need to be, but we still have a ways to go. If we want to sit here and pat ourselves on the back for being 7-1, there’s no seven-win team that’s getting into the playoffs,” said Riders quarterback Trevor Harris. “Nobody is over here exhaling or letting off the accelerator, it’s full blast go because we have boxes we want to check as a team, and starting 7-1 was not one of them.
“It’s to keep the pedal to the metal and finish stronger than we start and so we’ve had a good start so far, but we want to make sure we are trending in the right direction and not going stale and playing our best ball already.”
Defensive back Rolan Milligan Jr. also echoed those sentiments.
“The job’s not finished until it is,” Milligan said. “We still have a ways to go and just have to keep staying focused.”
Saskatchewan will look to improve on that record on Saturday when the Riders host the East Division-leading Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Kickoff for the game is set for 1 p.m. The Green Zone pregame show begins at 11 a.m.
The Riders are coming off the team’s second bye week of the season, which followed its biggest win of the season — a 34-6 win over the Montreal Alouettes.
Head coach Corey Mace said the team is happy, but only because of the play of the team in the last game.
“I thought that to this point was the closest thing we have looked to the version of what we want to be, and still lots of room to grow,” Mace said. “That was just the last game. Everything else is just it is what it is. We’re very conscious that this is not anything we have set out to do is where we are at currently.
“There’s lots of work to do and we will continue to push to find ways to get better.”
So while the game on Saturday can be viewed as a possible Grey Cup preview, Harris said the focus continues to remain on the players inside their own locker room.
“It’s about us becoming the team we want to be,” Harris said. “We’re 7-1 but that doesn’t matter at this point. It’s who we are today as a team and who are we tomorrow as a team and who are we on Saturday as a team and if we are trending in the right direction.
“If the results go well, great. If not, it’s still the same exact goal of focusing on where we need to be as a team.”
