The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a confident group heading into Calgary to face the Stampeders.
Holders of a number of offensive categories in the CFL, the team is looking to come up big in a first place showdown for the Western Division lead.
Rob Bagg knows they have to approach this game like any other.
The Roughriders will start off the 2010 season with not only three straight wins but three straight sell-outs at Mosaic Stadium.
The tickets for the July 31st game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats is now a sell-out. The Roughriders sold out their first two home games against Montreal and Edmonton. They have also sold out the Labour Day Classic against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on September 5th.
There was a new face at Rider practice.
Kicker Eddie Johnson was brought in on a tryout basis and signed a practice roster deal with the Roughriders afterwards. He was with Toronto last year before a shoulder injury.
You can put two and two together and realize he was brought in after Louie Sakoda's tough game against Edmonton.
Head coach Ken Miller says there's nothing wrong with some healthy competition.
You could say the Riders offence is off to an excellent start in the first 3 weeks.They lead the league in scoring avearging 38.3 points a game, touchdowns scored with 12, passing touchdowns with 7and rushing touchdowns with 5.Darian Durant says new offensive coordinator Doug Berry has been a key piece."Coach Berry has done a great job of utilizing the talent we have. He's always putting guys in the right position to make plays. It's showing up on the board and the score column."
The Saskatchewan Roughriders have played well for the most part in this early CFL season. But a 213 yard performance by Edmonton Eskimos receiver Freddy Stamps has posed some questions.
Lance Frazier takes the performance of himself and the defence personally.
"You know you definitely take those big games against us personally with me being in the backfield. That's something we have to get ironed out sooner rather than later.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders didn't play their best football game, but it was enough.
The Riders came away with a 24-20 win over the Edmonton Eskimos. Wes Cates ran for 112 yards on 12 carries highlighted by an 83 yard run in the 2nd quarter that set up a Hugh Charles 1 yard touchdown.
The loss by the Eskimos drops their record to 0-3, which is their worst start in 45 years.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders know they're in for a test. Even though the Edmonton Eskimos come in with an 0-2 record, they're a hungry team.
Darian Durant says they're not taking the game lightly.
"We know what they're capable of. We know Ricky Ray is a great quarterback, they have a great defence, they have weapons all over the field. We deifinitely can't be complacent. We have to come out and take care of business."
Head coach Ken Miller says his team takes it one game at a time and doesn't worry about what the other teams record is.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders put the final touches on their game plan for week three against the Edmonton Eskimos. A practice Head Coach Ken Miller looked at as extremely positve, "I was amazed at how much fun our players had at practice today. Just the energy, the enthusiasm and the positive feeling that they had as they prepared and worked to get better today."
And after a 2-0 start to the season, Miller doesn't see anybody getting over confident, "I don't think the term swagger really fits with what we're about."
The Saskatchewan Roughriders offence is rolling along just fine. 91 points in 2 games.... Wes Cates and the running game looks good..... Darian Durant has thrown for 6 touchdowns and more importatntly no interceptions. He had 4 at this time last year.
Durant says the familiarity he has with his offence is a big key.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders just about made it through day one of practice this week before the sky opened up and the hail came crashing down.
The players headed for the locker room with about 10 minutes left because of the weather. Head Coach Ken Miller says it wasn't the hail that stopped practice it was a lightning strike he saw in the distance that made him call for the last play of the day.