It was close until it wasn’t Friday night.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders showed why they’re the defending Grey Cup champions and a contender again as they pulled away from the winless Ottawa Redblacks in the second half, paving the way for 42-20 victory.
A touchdown by receiver Dylan Djete and the first of three on the ground (again) from sure-thing backup quarterback Tommy Stevens broke the game open for the home team. This one was all but over by the first play of the fourth quarter when Stevens found the end zone for the first time.
A slew of injury heading into Friday’s game didn’t impact the Riders. Some early controversy didn’t, either, as they improved to 6-2. They’re now level with the Edmonton Elks, who are in Montreal on Saturday, for top spot in the West Division.
How they got the job done is the focus of Riders Morning After.
Why they won
It didn’t look like a matchup of one of the CFL’s best teams against the worst for the first 36 minutes. The Redblacks scored the first two touchdowns of the game and took a 14-13 lead 2:40 into the third quarter on a Justin Hardy score.
But the Riders never looked panicked. They eventually started wearing down Ottawa.
Djete capped off a seven-play, 69-yard drive by scoring from 18 yards out for his first CFL touchdown in his first CFL start.
Stevens’ first TD of the night came from a yard out on the 12th play of the next possession.
An interception by Jonathan Edouard the next time Ottawa got the ball wound up in Stevens’ next trip to the house.
The Roughriders appeared to pick up steam as the game wore on, whereas the Redblacks seemed to run out of gas.
Game ball
There were plenty of candidates here.
The defence made plays when it had to, highlighted by Edouard’s big interception – only the third for the Riders this season. (Linebacker Josh Woods had the previous two.)
The receiving corps stepped up in the absence of Kian Schaffer-Baker and Sam Emilus. KeeSean Johnson and Johnny Johnson III lead the way. The former caught 11 passes for 133 yards and scored a touchdown. The latter pulled in all seven throws that came his way for 117 yards.
But given the honour has to go to Trevor Harris given how well he managed the game with two of his top receivers out of commission. He surpassed 40,000 career yards through the air to boot.
Harris had 401 yards passing, connecting on 30 of his 38 throws, and had two touchdowns. His only real miscue was an interception in the first quarter.
“We didn’t know what to expect from this defence,” Harris told reporters in Regina postgame. “Once we had a firm grasp of what they were doing, we able to really start cooking and moving the football.”
Couldn’t have done it without
Stevens and his second straight game with three touchdowns were instrumental.
A week after he scored each time from one yard out, the backup pivot added a little variety in how he crossed the goal line.Though the first touchdown was from one yard again, the next two came from six and seven yards. Overall, he rushed for 45 yards on nine carries.
Stevens is up to 41 touchdowns in his CFL career thanks to his 11th of the season in just eight games.
At this point, the 29-year-old might want to consider opening a Tim Hortons franchise to feed his offensive line. It might be the more prudent way to go than weekly trips for multiple boxes of doughnuts.
Play of the game
This wasn’t a spectacular play or anything, but it was the talking point of the first half. It could have been a much bigger deal if Saskatchewan didn’t emerge victorious.
The Riders had a first-quarter special-teams touchdown negated because of a questionable penalty call. Devin Adams was called for unnecessary roughness against Redblacks long snapper Peter Adjey, despite him having released the ball and being in a position to block.
The Adams flagrant foul, which resulted in Adjey staying down on the field and leaving the game with an injury, wiped out Nick Wiebe’s blocked punt deep in Ottawa territory that resulted in a David Glenda touchdown seconds later.
Instead, Ottawa’s drive continued. The Redblacks got their first touchdown – and first of two leads – 10 plays later when Bryson Barnes scored from a yard out.
Corey Mace didn’t appear to be too pleased with the call in the moment but seemed to soften his stance after the game when asked by Voice of the Roughriders Dave Thomas.
He got support from the members of TSN’s halftime panel, too.
The stat that matters
Saskatchewan turnovers: one. Ottawa turnovers: four.
That factored heavily in a second straight win for the Roughriders and an eighth consecutive loss to start the season for the Redblacks.
