REGINA — Call it one of the greatest comebacks in Roughriders history. Call it one of the most incredible victories in the history of Saskatchewan football. Call it the Mosaic Stadium miracle.
By any name, the result is the same. The Saskatchewan Roughriders are going to the 112th Grey Cup.
Trevor Harris found Tommy Nield for a three-yard touchdown catch with 12 seconds remaining in the Western Final against the B.C. Lions, and Saskatchewan would go on to a 24-21 victory in front of a raucous Mosaic Stadium on Saturday night. As a result, the Riders will take on the Montreal Alouettes for the Canadian Football League championship Sunday, November 16 at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.
The win was a combination of an incredible showing on both sides of the ball in the final two minutes and some equally impressive crunch-time coaching decisions, all of which came together perfectly to send Saskatchewan to their first Grey Cup since 2013. For everything that happened prior to the climactic finish, the entire season for both Saskatchewan and B.C. came down to the final three minutes of the game.
First, the defence.
On their previous possession prior to the drive of the season, the Roughriders found themselves at third-and-goal from the five-yard line while trailing 21-14 with 2:44 remaining. Instead of going for it, head coach Corey Mace opted to kick a field goal. The message was clear: we believe our defence will get the job done.
“I thought with the time on the clock and knowing how we operate things [we could do it],” Mace said in explaining his decision. “We practice running long fields and last week we redid the situation B.C. had last weekend with Calgary and we did it in damn near 19 seconds. So put faith in the defence to get the stop, take the points, then know that we can go march down to score again and get out of here with a win.”
Roughriders' running back A.J. Ouellette was in agreement with the play, especially in hindsight.
“Hey, man, that's why he's the boss,” he said. “The decision-making, the trust in the defence and the trust in the offence to be able to get the ball back and go down the field. I want to stay on the field as long as possible, but the field goal was the best scenario right there.”
Now trailing 21-17 and needing to find a way to stop the unstoppable — namely B.C. Lions' quarterback Nathan Rourke, who had an utterly incredible game for his squad — the Roughriders held running back James Butler to a seven-yard gain before coming up with their biggest play of the season. Rourke looked to take off with the ball for a game-clinching first down, but linebacker A.J. Allen would shed his blocker and step up for a huge season-saving tackle.
“tt was a little bit of a team effort there, but certainly it doesn't shock me that he's the guy that comes up and gets that done,” Mace said. “I don't have a crystal ball, I don't know exactly who is going to make the play, have faith in the group. And if A.J. stood up and did that, I’m not shocked at all.”
Needless to say, getting the stop was a proud moment for the defence, especially with what was on the line.
“Man, it was a lot,” said Roughriders' defensive back Marcus Sayles, who had a red-zone interception earlier in the contest. “All I can say is that he trusted us, he trusted us to put the defence back out there. It was a crucial time to get a stop, and shoot, everybody pulled it out. Everybody did their job and we got the ball back.”
Now, the offence.
Saskatchewan got the ball back with 1:03 to play in the game, and Harris would march the team down the field with surgical, clock-saving precision. A 14-yard catch by Sam Emilus and 21-yard snag by Dohnte Meyers got the Riders down to the three with 18 seconds remaining, setting up Nield for his touchdown catch in traffic.
“Great call,” said Ouellette, who finished with 17 carries for 113 yards. “Going down there, I think everyone in the stadium was expecting a run, even myself. So the linebackers sucked in and we had some DBs coming down in the box. I didn't get to see the catch too well, I had a linebacker in my head gap and I was too busy blocking, but it was a great play.”
There’s little question the Roughriders will need many more big plays in the 112th Grey Cup. Until then, it’s all about preparation before kick-off Sunday afternoon.
“It's going to be a tough one, man,” Mace said. “We went against an unbelievable team with potentially the MOP, now we're going against another team that won a Grey Cup not too long ago. They’re built similar to us, they're down for the gritty, they got a good defence, they got a good receiving core and they got a quarterback who has never lost a game. It's going to be a tough one, but I think we're built for that kind of match-up.”
Kick-off for the 112th Grey Cup goes at 5 p.m. from Princess Auto Stadium.
