Arthur Ward/CFL.ca
REGINA — As the sea of green parted and the Riders’ third straight victory became final, one question asked after the game may have matched the decibel level reached moments earlier at Mosaic Stadium — figuratively speaking, of course.
“Is the rebuild complete?”
Bombers fans at Investors Group Field have the chance to be even louder than the 33,350 who watched the Riders take down the Blue and Gold 38-24 in Sunday’s Labour Day Classic, as the two teams meet in the annual Banjo Bowl on Saturday.
In the meantime, the post-game question spoke volumes about how far the 5-4 Roughriders have come. Even if Chris Jones and Kevin Glenn refused to concede anything.
“I don’t use the word rebuild,” answered Glenn, who threw for 386 yards and three touchdowns on 26-of-36 passing. “I just think we’re playing good football. The team we have is gelling together and we’re playing good football.”
“We’ve got an awful good football team,” added Jones. “We’ve got a lot of really good players. For me to sit here and say we’ve got everything we need, I think that’s premature as well because I’ll be honest with you, in Edmonton there were holes too – it’s a matter of the other team trying to find the holes.”
RELATED:
» Ball-hawking Gainey plays hero for Riders
» Offensive outburst leads Riders past Bombers
» QB Index: Age is wisdom for Kevin Glenn
» Riders at Bombers: Get tickets
The Riders fans put on an impressive showing at a packed Mosaic Stadium on Sunday (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
The Riders’ head coach and general manager admitted there was a chance he wouldn’t sleep well on Sunday night, in part thanks to a 400-yard outing against his defence — “It makes me want to go up and watch the film now,” Jones said. “If that number was 307 then it would be a little easier to sleep tonight.”
And it’s true, the cruise control might have kicked in a little early when the Riders let a three-touchdown lead turn into some nervous late-game moments.
At the end of the day, however, the Riders are starting to look like the team Chris Jones envisioned the day he left Edmonton, the team he coached to a Grey Cup Championship, for a team coming off a 3-15 season.
Over their last three games, all against divisional does, the Riders have outscored their opponents 133-63. Their 3-3 record against the West is second-best against the division while their plus-62 point differential is the second-best in the CFL.
Then there’s the home dominance. In six games at Mosaic Stadium, the Riders have registered point totals of 40, 37, 38, 31, 54 and 38 — an average of 41.3 points per game.
Jones says afternoons like Sunday’s Labour Day Classic are the reason he came to Regina.
“It’s always impressive,” he said. “Any time you talk about our fans it’s impressive. Quite honestly, we would have stayed in Edmonton because we had it pretty good. The thing that drew us was the fact that when people get up in the morning here, they want to get up and read the paper or get on the internet and find out something about our football team. That was the intriguing thing about coming here.”
However the Riders take Sunday’s win, their recent run has turned heads across the league. While Kevin Glenn is on pace for a career year and putting up MOP-type numbers, the Green and White moved up to second in the Nissan Titan Power Rankings on Wednesday morning.
But for Chris Jones and Kevin Glenn and co., the West is just too tight for a letdown. With Calgary in the clear right now and four teams fighting for second, statements like Sunday’s are nice but, on their own, simply aren’t enough.
Kevin Glenn is on pace to set career-highs in passing yards and touchdowns (Arthur Ward/CFL.ca)
“They see it developing, and they believe in it. That’s the good thing. When you start believing in it like this, you can start rolling off a lot of wins.”
Kevin Glenn on the Riders’ winning streak
The Riders’ three-game run needs to be more than just lightning in a bottle. The Bombers, after all, won’t be in the best of spirits when the clubs square off again.
“Winnipeg never stops,” said Glenn. “(On Sunday,) they never stopped fighting, no matter what the score was. Teams like that, we have to take advantage of our opportunities.
“They’re going to be upset. Their fans are going to be upset,” he added. “I expect them to be loud but also I think we’ve experienced that road trip win already in Edmonton. We understand what we need to do and how we need to do it. It’s going to be a good thing for us to go over there and play.”
Is the rebuild complete? To be sure, we’ll know more on Saturday. Because what the Riders don’t answer with their words, they can certainly answer with their play.
“It’s an opportunity for us to continue to go where we want to go, and that’s the playoffs, and to continue to try and become a really good football team,” said Jones.
“We’re here to play good football and do what we need to do,” added Glenn. “All that other stuff falls into place. If we don’t worry about the outside noise, and we worry about those guys in the locker-room… we’ll start putting together wins like this.
“It’s been a team effort. It hasn’t just been one side of the ball, it’s been all three phases. I think the guys understand that. They see it developing, and they believe in it. That’s the good thing. When you start believing in it like this, you can start rolling off a lot of wins.”
