The Saskatchewan Roughriders (2-1) will take on the Edmonton Elks (0-4) Thursday night at Mosaic Stadium and hope to walk away with their first regular season home win since July 8, 2022.
“[You] count the off-season days too huh?,” laughed quarterback Trevor Harris when asked about the losing streak.
Despite Harris having not been at helm last season he is not worried about the stat heading into Thursday’s matchup.
“We’ll go out and play hard tomorrow. It don’t matter. That is something for ya’ll to talk about,” he added.
The Riders already faced the Elks this season in Edmonton where they walked away with a close 17-13 victory.
“It’s just about learning from that game and coming in here tomorrow the new team that we are, the new team that Edmonton is, we’re going to expect them to come out swinging as a team backed into the corner,” said Harris.
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It is a new team indeed as Harris noted. Once again the team has had an overhaul on offence.
The latest Riders’ receiver to be added to the six game injured list is Jake Wieneke. Which means the team has placed Canadian Mitch Picton at slot back in his place.
It will be Picton’s first start of the season.
“We feel like he’s kind of our ace in the hole so to speak,” said head coach, Craig Dickenson.
“Where if we have an injury or if we need an extra guy, he can step in and play. He’s a good enough player to be a starter in this league. So I’m happy to see Mitch get the start and I think he’s going to have a good game.”
“He [Picton] was one of the guys in training camp, I was like ‘why hasn’t this guy been playing?’” Harris said.
“He’s a beast and he had tremendous training camp for us. He knows every position and is super valuable for us.”
However the lineup will see the return of running back Frankie Hickson who went down in week 2 with a shoulder injury.
Despite his return the offensive line is once again taking a hit. Both Jerald Hawkins and Peter Godber sustained injuries in week 3 against Calgary which has lead to some juggling on the front end.
“Logan [Bandy] is going to start first at centre in this game. Collin [Kelly] is going to be at right tackle and Brandon Council is going to be our left tackle. We feel good about the group,” Dickenson explained.
“I think you’re going to see some guys making plays you maybe didn’t think would. I mean every team is ‘next man up’. It’s one of the cliches and I’m like ‘Why does everybody say next man up? Of course you are. What are you going to play one man down?’ But you know we love the guys we have so tomorrow we’re going to play hard and trust the game plan,” Harris said, speaking on the injuries plaguing the offence.
But with the revolving door of receivers there is no double the team will rely on running back Jamal Morrow to establish the run game against Edmonton.
Morrow is currently sitting third amongst the league in rushing yards with 233.
“The passing game you don’t want to lean on too heavily if you don’t have to,” Dickenson said.
“So we’re going to really try hard to establish the run and you know when they [Edmonton] over commit, which we hope they do to the run, we’re going to try to take some shots on them.”
Kickoff for Thursday’s game is 7:00 p.m. at Mosaic Stadium.
