\u00a0Watch the Roughriders battle the Alouettes LIVE on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET\/4 p.m. PT on TSN1\/3\/4, the TSN App, and TSN.ca.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cRegardless of record, you shouldn\u2019t be able to tell, coming into our locker room,\u201d he said of his team\u2019s early season success. \u201cIt should look the same every time, honestly, because we\u2019re just trying to get better, period.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just look at ways to get better, no matter what the results are, and that keeps everybody focused on the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Roughriders got off to a 5-1 start last season in their first year under Mace before cooling off with a 0-6-1 record over their next seven contests.<\/p>\n
A strong end to the regular season helped the Riders secure a playoff berth for the first time since 2021, but their season ended in the West Final with a 38-22 rout against Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the West Final.<\/p>\n
Mace and the Riders are hoping to avoid another mid-season lull this time around with matchups against the Alouettes (5-2), Hamilton Tiger-Cats (5-2), Stampeders (5-2), and Blue Bombers (3-3) all on tap over the next four weeks.<\/p>\n
Star running back A.J. Oulette, who helped the Toronto Argonauts to a 6-1 start in 2023, echoed his head coach\u2019s sentiments on staying grounded amid the team\u2019s CFL-best start.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve still got a long season ahead of us,\u201d the six-year veteran said, \u201cso hopefully we can keep stacking wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ouelette and the Riders will be in tough against a staunch Alouettes defence that has surrendered the fewest yards per game (322.4) and second-fewest points (158) this season.<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan has also been hit with a rash of injuries coming over recent weeks with nine players, including star pass-catcher Samuel Emilus and reigning top defensive player of the week Malik Carney, missing practice on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Riders got some positive news on the injury front however, as Shawn Bane Jr. participated fully in Tuesday\u2019s workout as he inches closer towards his season debut after sustaining a knee injury in Week 17 of last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders roll into Sunday\u2019s Week 9 matchup against the Montreal Alouettes in the midst of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-34735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}