Football is a complex game with 24 players having assignments on every play. Most CFL plays have multiple players in motion.
Playbooks are extensive but then there was Ryquell Armstead saying he had a “solid 4-7 base run plays” for the Calgary Stampeders game on Sept. 20, which the Saskatchewan Roughriders won 37-29. How could he gain 207 yards running the same plays all night?
Ryquell, who prefers not to be known as Rock, said in running the plays multiple times the defence started guessing and fitting the wrong looks and he was “able to play chess not checkers.”
Riders coach Corey Mace said “a little bit of continuity” on the line provided a solid base for the running game. Having the same five on the line for consecutive games has been rare for the 2024 Riders.
He went on to praise the receivers for their blocking.
I would add that having three Americans on the line has made the line stronger though limiting the Riders at other positions.
Trevor Harris said if the Calgary defence was only going to put six defenders in the box because they were afraid of the Rider passing game the Riders would keep running the ball.
It was a mystery to me why the Stampeders were so stubborn about staying with their four-man front and rarely bringing more defenders up to the line. The Rider offensive line was driving them back play after play and they kept lining up four on the defensive line.
Harris added that Ryquell is great on the cutback.
Mace said that Q has real good vision on runs up the middle.
I would say he has equally good vision on when to bounce outside if the middle is clogged.
Lastly Ryquell has a pounding drive forward that consistently let him 3-4 more yards while being tackled. Where other Rider running backs would get 4-5 yards Armstead was getting 6-8 yards.
In the second half the Riders threw but four passes. Harris said that has not happened to him since he was in high school.
The pivotal completion of the second half was his 25 yard completion to Kian Schaffer-Baker for a touchdown that restored a two touchdown lead. Harris said he was surprised to see the Stampeders in man coverage. Schaffer-Baker made a double move gaining leverage on the outside move while Harris held the safety with his shoulders. Schaffer-Baker was unaffected by hits from the safety Branden Dozier and defensive back Kobe Williams, at the four yard line and went into the end zone standing up. Harris described Schaffer-Baker as a stud.
The defence had a solid first half but could not stop the Stampeders in the second half. Between losing contain on the pass rush multiple times, leaving gaps too often against the run and a trio of offside penalties the Stampeders scored a touchdown on every drive of the second half until their final drive in the last two minutes (The most unusual stat of the night was there was not a punt in the second half.)
Jameer Thurman’s game clinching interception came on a strange decision by Dave Dickenson, one of the best coaches in the CFL. With 1:22 left in the game and the Stampeders 3rd and 1 at the Calgary 40 he called a passing play. The Riders blitzed and Jake Maier under pressure threw the ball directly to Thurman.
Virtually everyone else expected the Stampeders to use Tommy Stephens to bulldoze for a first down. Todd Saelhof, in the Calgary Herald reported:
“I did think maybe about running the ball there,” Dickenson said. “But I ran a version of a run play earlier on that goal-line play and we weren’t able to execute there.
“Some calls aren’t the best.”
I will agree with Dickenson’s last statement.
You have to enjoy a win. Harris commented after the last Rider home game that he was sick of explaining losses. On Friday night, after a game where he rushed for 17 yards, including a 15-yard run, Harris, with a big smile on his face and tongue in his cheek, said to Jacob Carr of the CBC that obviously Ryquell and him, as a two-headed running monster in the rushing game, are going to be a problem for people to handle.
Bill Selnes, who’s based in Melfort, has written about the Saskatchewan Roughriders since the late 1970s. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Football Reporters of Canada wing on Nov. 24, 2013.
