REGINA — During every Rider Broadcast Network pregame show, former Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive lineman and current live game analyst Luc Mullinder offers his Three Keys to the Game. In a recurring segment this season, we’ll take a look at how the Riders met or missed when it came to those metrics and how big of an effect they had on the outcome.
After struggling to meet any of the Three Keys in their previous match-up with the Edmonton Elks, the Riders went three-for-three with a bullet this time around, and they were a key factor in their 28-26 win at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
1 – Can’t give up explosive plays. An obvious one. Communicate in the secondary and do everything possible to avoid giving up the monster gains and touchdowns that hurt Saskatchewan so bad last week.
How did the Riders do? – Almost a complete success.
Big plays were the name of the game in the first meeting between the teams last week, with the Elks’ Austin Mack hauling in a couple of balls and going 57 and 81 yards for touchdowns, while Kaion Julien-Grant had a 68-yarder that led to another Edmonton major.
This time around? Justin Rankin got loose for a 51-yard catch in the fourth quarter, and that was it. In fact, no other ball thrown by Cody Fajardo went for more than 26 yards.
One of the biggest topics of conversation leading into the game was how necessary it was for Saskatchewan to prevent big gains, and despite being banged up, the Riders defensive secondary was absolutely on point when it came to their duties.
As it turns out, that ended up being a crucial factor in the victory.
2- Offence has to finish drives today. If you want to win a game like this, you have to score touchdowns and not kick field goals. This doesn’t involve the kicking controversy, either, just simple fact — points are going to be important when two high-impact offences are on the field, and six is much better than three in that situation.
How did the Riders do? – Pretty darn well on the chances they had.
Thank you, Tommy Stevens. With both teams turning in a much better defensive performance compared to their previous outing, points were coming at a premium, and wouldn’t you know it, Luc was bang on in his assessment that touchdowns were going to decide the thing.
Stevens’ ability to blast through almost anything on short yardage proved invaluable, as he had three majors from inside the Elks’ five on the night. Saskatchewan’s ability to move the ball in the red zone when they had their chances led to each of their four majors, while Edmonton was forced to kick four field goals.
Finish your drives and good things will happen, and that was certainly the case on Saturday night.
3 – Keep Edmonton in second-and-seven or more. They were able to hold Justin Rankin down last week, so do it again and get the Elks into second-and-long as often as possible. That enables the Rider defence to get a bit more creative and could force Fajardo into more mistakes
How did the Riders do? – An impressive job, all night.
The numbers alone tell the tale: after putting up 526 yards of offence in the first meeting, Edmonton was held to 318 this time around — and if not for Rankin’s big catch, that number would have been far worse.
A huge part of that was Saskatchewan’s success at stopping the run and forcing second and long. Rankin was once again completely limited with eight carries for 28 yards and would have had less than 30 yards from scrimmage if not for his big play.
There were more than a few times that Fajardo was forced out of the pocket to scramble, and Saskatchewan was able to get to him for three sacks while also racking up three tackles for losses.
As solid a showing as you could want from your d-linemen and linebackers, and now they have a big win to show for it.
