Labour Day Classic first matchup between Riders and Bombers since 2019 West final

It’s a rivalry renewed during the annual Labour Day Classic.

With the cancellation of the 2020 CFL season due to COVID-19, it’s been 659 days since the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers last locked horns.

And with how the CFL West Division final ended — a 20-13 win for the Bombers after Saskatchewan quarterback Cody Fajardo’s pass hit the crossbar of the north-end goalpost — the Riders have been waiting for their chance for redemption.

“It was motivation all off-season for 18 months. It’s been my driving force and getting the scrutiny on social media and people always talking about it and seeing the play over and over. That’s just one of the fires that burns inside of me,” Fajardo said. “We’re off to a great start and I can’t think about 2019. I’ve got to think about the opportunity here in 2021.”

With a slight chill in the air, Riders head coach Craig Dickenson said it feels like it’s shaping up for another classic showdown. Kickoff for the game is 4 p.m. Sunday.

“When you get up early and you come into the office, there’s a bit of a bite in the air. Some of the guys even said it was cold and I said it’s not cold, it’s brisk – there’s a difference,” Dickenson said. “The wasps are starting to fly around like they usually do in the fall so it just feels like fall and whenever fall’s here, it always means the Labour Day Classic.”

It seems that Blue Bombers running back Andrew Harris is adding even more fuel to the fire ahead of the rivalry game.

In a media availability earlier in the week, Harris said, “There’s nothing better than shutting up 30,000 fans in their building and that’s what we’re aiming to do.”

Dickenson said if that comment is what is needed to get people motivated, they will use it.

“He is right. I’m sure that’s Winnipeg’s motivation coming in. They want to turn this place into a quiet little place – and our motivation is the opposite. We want to get people excited and cheering for good things,” Dickenson said.

The Riders enter the Labour Day Classic first in the CFL with an unblemished 3-0 record. But the Bombers are hot on their tail with a 3-1 record.

This is only the second time since 1954 that the two teams enter the game in first and second place in the West. The other time was 2019, when the Bombers came in at 8-2 while the Riders sported a 6-3 record.

“We’re just trying to get after it,” Saskatchewan defensive back Ed Gainey said. “Three-and-oh is a good start but we’ve still got a long season ahead of us. Usually in a league, a team that starts hot needs to keep that trend going all throughout the rest of the season. It’s going to be a learning experience for us and a test for us as a team to see where we really are because it starts right now – the road to the Grey Cup. We are going to have to go through Winnipeg to get there so if we win these next two games, we’re that much closer to our goal.”

The matchup will also once again pit Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros against the team he started the 2019 campaign with.

Collaros was injured in the Roughriders’ first game of that season, opening the door for Fajardo to lead the team and eventually be named the starter. Collaros was then traded to the Toronto Argonauts on July 31 before being flipped to Winnipeg in October. Collaros led the Bombers to their Grey Cup victory.

This season, Collaros has completed 84 of 126 pass attempts for 956 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions. Meanwhile for the Riders, Fajardo has completed 75 of 95 attempts for 773 yards, four touchdowns and one interception while providing 139 yards on the ground and two rushing touchdowns.

“Zach is a really good quarterback in this league, he’s a guy that I’ve learned a lot from in our short time together,” Fajardo said. “I’m happy for him and his great start to the year. Obviously it’s going to be challenging – they’ve got a really good defence and a really good offence and that’s a good football team. They’re the defending Grey Cup champs.”

The Riders come into the Labour Day Classic as the highest-scoring offence in the league with an average of 25.7 points per game. But they face a huge challenge against a Winnipeg defence that has allowed a CFL low of 14.8 points per game.

One area the Riders have been excelling in has been the play along the defensive line. First-year CFLers Jonathan Woodard – a defensive end who is the league’s current sack leader with five – and defensive tackle Garrett Marino (three sacks) have combined for more sacks than six of the CFL teams, including the Bombers (six).

“It feels great (to have five sacks). It’s definitely a testament to the hard work that I put in and also a testament to the guys I play with. I play with an amazing D-line group, have amazing linebackers backing me up and guys in the back end help force some of those coverage sacks,” Woodard said. “It’s really a team effort.”

The Riders lead the league with 14 sacks as a whole, including three from defensive end A.C. Leonard.

Getting after the quarterback has been important this year across the league. No team that has allowed a sack on a drive has scored a touchdown on it.

“It goes to show the importance of pass rush and the effect we can have on a game as D-linemen,” Woodard said.

The defence has also been taking the ball away from opposing offences, with five interceptions and two fumble recoveries.

Harris will be playing in his second straight game for the Bombers after missing the first three due to a calf injury. He contributed 81 rushing yards and a touchdown in Winnipeg’s 18-16 win over the Calgary Stampeders.

“He’s been a really good player for a long time in the CFL and I’ve been watching him since I was in high school,” said Riders linebacker Micah Teitz. “He’s a big back, has good vision and we just really need to wrap up and bring our legs when we hit them this week.”

With only 14 regular-season games this season, Fajardo admits this game has more importance than usual.

“Labour Day is already as big as it can possibly be. It doesn’t matter how many games we’re playing, it’s always a big game because it’s a rivalry game. When you have both teams at the top of the standings, it has a lot of implications later on in the season,” Fajardo said. “This is our last home game of the four home-game stretch and hopefully we can go out there and give ourselves a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter before we go on the road for the first time.”