REGINA — It was expected to be an exceptional battle between the best two teams in the Canadian Football League and that’s exactly how things turned out between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Elks on Thursday night.
Vincent Blanchard hit a 57-yard field goal on the final play of the game to give the Elks a 36-34 victory and sole possession of first place in the West Division. Edmonton improves to 6-1 with the victory, Saskatchewan falls to 4-2.
The Roughriders played the game with heavy hearts after the accident that killed linebacker Jayden Dalke and Regina’s Bhishma Rajyaguru, and the team honoured both during a pre-game video tribute and moment of silence.
With neither team able to come up with consistent stops on defence throughout the game, the contest ended up coming down to the latter half of the fourth quarter — and with a break or two things could most certainly have gone the Roughriders' way.
The first opportunity came with 3:17 remaining when Samuel Emilus caught what appeared to be the go-ahead touchdown, only to have the score called back on an offensive pass interference call that could have at best been called marginal. Saskatchewan ended up coming away with no points on that drive after Alex Hale missed a 46-yard field goal attempt.
Then, after the Riders defence got the job done with a third-down stop on the Elks’ next series, Saskatchewan ended up with a second-and-goal with 1:46 to play. Trevor Harris’ pass to a wide-open Johnny Johnson III skipped short in the end zone, though, and Edmonton would get enough yards on the next drive to set up Blanchard’s game winner.
It was a difficult loss to close out a difficult week, and Riders' head coach Corey Mace was happy to see his team respond the way they did.
“What I shared with the guys there is tough week and incredibly proud of the way that they battled all the way down to the last whistle,” Mace said during his post-game interview on the Rider Broadcast Network. “It was unfortunate it couldn't go our way tonight.”
The Roughriders offence did all they could to find a way to get the win, putting up nearly 450 yards total. Harris completed 26-of-36 passes for 386 yards, a season-high four touchdowns and a single interception, and Kian Schaffer-Baker had a monster night, catching eight passes for 185 yards and a touchdown.
“They showed up and I thought they were carrying us tonight, did more than enough to give us an opportunity to win,” Mace said. “Shoot, we'd really like to convert that last one but these guys, they were marching the field all night doing a heck of a job so credit to them. It’s how it goes and we have to show up and do the same thing next week.”
Schaffer-Baker is well on his way to a career year with 656 yards receiving through six games and credits his success to simple and consistent hard work.
“Everything comes together on these game days, but it's all the plan,” he said. “It's all the hard work that goes into every single day, every single early morning, every single late night. It's all the sacrifices made that end up the results out there.”
Thing is, for as well as things were going for the Roughriders, they went even better for the Elks. Even though Saskatchewan was able to largely shut down running back Justin Rankin — holding him to 39 yards on the ground — they apparently forgot about Austin Mack and T.J. Luther. Mack had a pair of long-range touchdowns and finished with 173 yards receiving, while Luther had 10 catches for 157 yards, including a couple of key third down plays on the game-winning drive.
And then there was Cody Fajardo. The former Roughriders quarterback absolutely went off, completing 25-of-32 passes for 510 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
Riders' linebacker Antoine Brooks Jr. finished the game with six tackles and a sack, and even though Saskatchewan ended up giving up 526 yards total offence, he remains confident they’ll bounce back.
“I feel like we played very hard today, we need to get more on our tackling and making sure our corrections are right,” Brooks said. “With the week that we had, I feel like we could have done more for sure, we need to step up and figure it out. We'll be alright.”
Emilus, KeeSean Johnson and Dhel Duncan-Busby had the other touchdowns for the Riders, who found themselves tied 7-7 after the first quarter and trailing 21-17 at halftime. The Elks briefly pulled away by outscoring the Riders 10-0 in the third quarter, but Saskatchewan battled back in the final 15 minutes to set up the thrilling finish.
Brendan O’Leary-Orange and Javon Leake had Edmonton’s other majors.
The two teams have a week and change off before doing it all again on Saturday, August 1 in Edmonton. Kickoff is 5 p.m.
