It’s a quick turnaround for the Saskatchewan Roughriders this week.
On Sunday, the Roughriders picked up their biggest win of the season with a 32-30 overtime decision over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The Roughriders will travel to Winnipeg on Saturday for the Labour Day rematch against the Blue Bombers.
Saskatchewan Head Coach Craig Dickenson made his weekly appearance on SportsCage on Monday, fresh off his team’s win.
The big news on Labour Day was the league’s suspending defensive end Pete Robertson for one game for headbutting Blue Bombers QB Zach Collaros during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game.
Dickenson said the team accepted the decision from the league.
“After seeing the tape, it’s certainly something we don’t condone here with the Roughriders and I think Pete feels bad about his actions, he was overly emotional and you know he made a bad decision, we’re glad that Zach (Collaros) is not hurt.”
The Roughriders head coach noted that he didn’t get a chance to see Robertson’s penalty until the following morning when he was reviewing the game tape. Dickenson said if he had witnessed the incident live, he would’ve sat Robertson down.
“It just happened so late, I was honestly getting the field goal defend team ready to go and I saw Zach on the ground, and then I saw people pushing and shoving.” Dickenson continued, “if I would’ve saw that, I would’ve removed him (Robertson) from the game because at that point, you know, is a fight waiting to happen.”
Even with the green and white picking up a big win against the top team in the CFL’s Western Division, Dickenson wasn’t happy with the penalties Saskatchewan took on Sunday.
The Roughriders ended up with ten infractions for 115 yards, while the Blue Bombers had five penalties that cost them 60 yards.
Dickenson said it’s one area his team has to be better at this week.
“The reality is we earned most of the penalties that we got.”
The Roughriders head coach believes at the end of the day, the responsibility of controlling the player’s discipline falls under him and the rest of the coaches.
“They’re not going to police themselves without leadership from us. I think to say it’s up to the players is a cop out and we’re going to make sure as coaches, we’re going to continue bringing the hammer down, when we need to. “
Dickenson added, “We’re not going to pass off the responsibility to the players, that’s the coaching responsibility to make sure that the standards of what is acceptable and what is not, is communicated to the players.”
Injury Update
There were a couple of significant injuries for the green and white during the Labour Day Classic.
Dickenson said the team fears that OT Colin Kelly has torn some ligaments in his knee, meaning he will be out indefinitely. The Roughriders head coach has already ruled out any chance that Kelly will play this week.
Safety Jayden Dalke will be getting an MRI today (Tuesday). Dickenson said Dalke is questionable for this week’s game until the results of the MRI.