The Riders' Tyron Brackenridge celebrates following his blocked punt in the second quarter of Sunday's 52-0 win. (photo courtesy of Riderville.com)

The Saskatchewan Roughriders took advantage of a deflated Winnipeg Blue Bombers team and handed them a 52-0 beating in Sunday's Labour Day Classic at a sold-out Mosaic Stadium.  The win ends a five-game losing streak for the Riders and moves them within a game of .500 at 4-5, while dropping Winnipeg down to 2-7 on the year.

Two early touchdown catches by slotback Weston Dressler set the tone for the Green & White and linebacker Tyron Brackenridge had a career day with a blocked punt returned for a touchdown and an interception to push the Riders to the big win.

"When you look at the way our guys are right now, they're hungry and they needed this to continue to go forward," said head coach Corey Chamblin after the win.  "We always said that we were a good football team and it manifested itself today and I think the guys know that's what we have to do going forward."

Quarterback Darian Durant says they were finally able to put together a full game and that's what led them to the win, "We wanted to come out of the locker room and start fast and we knew that if we did that then playing at home with the electricity of Labour Day, we knew we gave ourselves a pretty good chance."

Starting fast is exactly what the Riders did on Sunday as it was an all around domination of the Blue Bombers from start to finish.  They opened the game with three straight scoring drives to roll to a 21-0 lead just 34 seconds into the second quarter.

The Riders went eight plays on the opening two drives.  The first one ended with a 50-yard field goal by kicker Sandro DeAngelis and the next one was capped off by a 25-yard TD strike from Darian Durant to a wide open Dressler.  Durant and Dressler hooked up again on the next drive for a 21-yard TD and the Riders were rolling from there.

"Coming off of five straight losses, we wanted to really prove to ourselves what we're capable of and show that we can execute what we want to on game day, not just practice it well all week," said Dressler.  "To be able to put together, defence, offence and special teams, at one time it was good for us."

Dressler finished with four catches for 52 yards and the two first half touchdowns in the win.  He says it was nice to see the offence finishing drives, "We were finally able to finish some drives and get some touchdowns on the board, rather than punt or settle for field goals."

The Blue Bombers went two-and-out on their first possession of the second quarter and on the punt attempt, Brackenridge went in untouched for the block and 15-yard return to essentially put the game out of reach for Winnipeg.  A 29-yard FG by DeAngelis late in the second quarter sent the Riders into the halftime break leading 28-0.

Brackenridge says he wasn't expecting to be able to run in so free on the punt block, "I've never seen anything so open, I've never seen 7-11 that open.

"I was surprised that the ball rolled my way, but that was a big play for us on special teams, it was huge.

"It's good to have a win, but this is the beginning of it.  We've got to keep going, we didn't win the Grey Cup, we've just got to continue to go.  This is just momentum heading our way."

Durant was locked in from the start of the game, completing 13-of-19 passing for 168 yards and two touchdowns, but he had to leave the game on the first drive of the second half after taking a knee to the head during a first down scramble.  Back-up Drew Willy came in and went 8-of-10 for 98 yards in relief, including a 43-yard TD pass to Terence Jeffers-Harris at the end of the third.  Willy also had a one-yard rushing TD.

Lots of the focus after the game, obviously, was on the health of the Riders starting QB, but Durant says he just didn't want to risk further injury, "I think I was being more cautious than anything.  We pretty much had the game at hand and it was an opportunity to get Drew some quality reps against a pretty good defence, so it worked out for the best."

According to Durant it was a shoulder and neck injury and he said it was a wait and see mentality on whether he would be playing next week.  Chamblin, however, was more certain about Durant being in the line-up next week, "Darian should be ready to go, unless the medical team sees something that they didn't see on the field.  As of right now they said he could return and I just said no."

Chamblin says he was happy to see the team get back in the win column, but now they need to build off this game, "This is the one that we needed and I told them that each player would get a game ball, and lets move forward because you've heard me preaching that this team was a good football team and we've been close, but we just have to prepare for the next game."

The Riders dominated in all facets of the game.  The defence matched the big day by the offence, holding Winnipeg to just 102 total yards and forcing five turnovers.

Saskatchewan's ground game was working well in the win as well, and allowed them to milk the clock late in the game.  Running back Kory Sheets went over 100 yards for the first time in his CFL career, picking up 106 yards on 19 carries -- also a career-high.

Sheets says finally breaking that 100 barrier was special for him, "It's something that I've been chasing as long as I've been playing football.  This was the first time that I went over 100 yards professionally, so this is a big day for me."

The Riders will now head back to the drawing board and hope for the same results in seven days when they head to Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg for the Banjo Bowl on Sunday, September 9th.