The Saskatchewan Roughriders have done a lot of searching for answers over the past few weeks and while the team has shown signs of improvement in their past two games, they still can’t find a way put together a complete game.

The Green and White – in the midst of a three-game losing skid and coming off a 19-10 loss to the Calgary Stampeders at home last week – head into Hamilton on Saturday night to face the 3-4 Tiger-Cats at Tim Hortons Field.

It hasn’t been a great start to the season for the Riders and it isn’t all going to turnaround in one week, but head coach Chris Jones feels that the team needs to realize that and start chipping away.

“We know that we’ve got to play better, (all the players) want to play better,” said Jones. “They press a little bit from time-to-time thinking that if they press that they’re helping the team, but what I’ve got to do is try to make them relax and play fast.”

Last week against the Stampeders, the Riders’ defence would a groove that hasn’t been seen too often this season, but the offence and special teams failed the team in the loss.

Finding a way to have all three phases of the game working at the same time is the big battle for the Riders at the moment.

“We’ve been close in a lot of games and as Jock Clime so eloquently said the other night on TV, it’s one of those deals where you get paid to play winning football and that’s what we’re striving to do,” said Jones.

“Coaches don’t point fingers at players and we don’t say that this is this person’s fault or this is this group’s fault, we haven’t played good enough in all three phases. Certainly our special teams unit needs to play better, but so does our defence and so does our offence.”

The Riders will be faced with another challenge this week when they head into Hamilton and take on former Rider John Chick and the Ti-Cats.

Hamilton put together a strong performance in a loss at BC last week, battling back from a 32-12 halftime deficit to lose 45-38.

“They’re a good football team, they’re very well coached, they’ve been together for a while, they’re a very solid football team,” said Jones on this week’s opponent.

Chick was released by the Riders in the offseason and no doubt had this game circled on his calendar as his first chance to go up against his former teammates.

“He’ll definitely come out fired up given what happened this past offseason,” said quarterback Darian Durant. “Any competitor would want to show their old organization that they still have it. I know he’s going to come out fired up, but it’s a team game and he can’t do it all by himself.”

Durant added that he’s been looking forward to squaring off with his long-time teammate in a real game after years of trash talk between the two during practices.

“I’m excited, he’s a good player and for years we talked about the what ifs and know it’s here, so I’m excited about it and I’m looking to talk a little smack after I get him off me when he tries to sack me,” said Durant.

The Riders and Tiger-Cats will hit the field on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. For more on the game, check out this week’s edition of the Rider Report Podcast.