Saskatchewan Roughriders’ quarterback Trevor Harris is on track to return as the team’s starter after missing one game due to a head injury sustained from when Toronto Argonauts’ defensive lineman Jordan Williams hit him.
"During the game, when the other defence tells you they're about to do something and they do it, maybe you should believe them that they did it on purpose," Harris said.
"It was an unfortunate situation that their linebacker got hurt and I know their guys were wanting to do something about it. Who knows if it was on purpose — I'm not saying that. I'm not accusing him, I didn't really feel like it was a clean one, but it is what it is. I don't think he's a dirty player. He's a good football player and just an unfortunate situation."
Before the hit happened to Harris, Riders’ receiver Dhel Duncan-Busby delivered an illegal block on Argos’ strong-side linebacker Kenneth George Jr., which resulted in an injury. Both Williams and Duncan-Busby were fined by the CFL for those illegal hits.
The Green and White won that game against the Argonauts 39-32, Harris completed 13-of-17 passes for 243 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
"I wasn't really sure what the virus was, but I knew after the game and during the game I was a little bit fuzzy. But I felt good enough to execute and I don't condone what I did in terms of staying there, but no fault of the team, no fault of the docs," Harris said.
"I didn't report anything, I wanted to stay through, grind it out and was able to get a win. So thankful to Mario [Alford] and the special teams that had one of those historic-type plays, but glad we were able to get the win."
The Riders would face the B.C. Lions the following week where the team rested Harris for backup Jake Maier. Saskatchewan was victorious against the Lions 37-18 and Maier completed 13-of-23 passes for 170 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions.
"We've got a great team here," Harris said.
"Jake came in and did what he was supposed to do, made some great throws, stayed on the same page as Marc [Mueller]. Hopefully we can start kicking it up a notch and really get this team into gear because I think we've only started to scratch the surface of who we're going to be.”
Saskatchewan's next game will be hosting the Calgary Stampeders at home in the Queen City on Friday.
"The best defence is they don't do 65 different coverages. They play what they play and they get really good at it. They make things difficult for you," Harris explained.
“We also know that they're going to give us looks that we haven't seen before. They're going to keep us guessing and show us a few things that they haven't shown yet this year. This is pro football, so we're going to do the same thing, but we're excited about the challenge. They bring a great challenge to us, but we think we bring great challenges to them as well."
The six-foot-three, 212-pound quarterback has played three games for the Riders this season, he’s completed 73 percent of his passes for 806 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions.
Catch the Green and White pre-game show against the Stampeders with Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk and Wes Cates at 4 p.m. Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder have the game call at 7 p.m. You can hear and watch all the coverage on the 620 CKRM Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network.
