REGINA - In the end, people were still scratching their heads trying to figure out how the Saskatchewan Roughriders managed to escape Thursday night with a 12-11 win over the Edmonton Elks at Mosaic Stadium.
“This one, shoot… how we won, I don’t know,” quarterback Trevor Harris said after the game.
“We had a couple drives inside the ten and came away with nothing. They (the Elks) missed a couple of field goals. I know both teams are going to look back and say we should’ve done this, we should’ve done this…
“We’re thankful to come out with a win and break the streak of 360 days including the offseason,” Harris added, referring to the oft-mentioned length of time since their last regular season home win at Mosaic.
Down 11-3 late in the game, the Roughriders pulled it out in the final three minutes with a late drive resulting in a touchdown throw to Mitch Picton, a two-point conversion to Kendall Watson, and then -- most inexplicably -- a rouge in the end zone when the Elks’ C.J. Sims mistakenly took the Riders kickoff in his own end zone and failed to get it out, conceding the single point.
It was an implosion by the Elks that left Edmonton fans stunned, with commentators on social media afterwards calling it one of the most brutal losses they had ever seen from the team.
“I’ve seen a lot of games, and coached a lot of games. I don’t think I’ve seen a game end like that, ever,” said Head Coach Craig Dickenson afterwards.
“But credit, our guys kept playing. I mean it was a crazy game. We didn’t play as well as we liked. Give Edmonton credit, they did what they needed to give themselves a chance to win… they called a good game, our guys couldn’t find a rhythm, but we found a way at the end there to score on that last drive, to tie the game, and then to win it on a single on a kickoff is certainly unique and I think an exciting way to do it.”
Harris recalled a game last year when he was with Montreal when his team gave up a point on a missed field goal.
“We lost on them missing a field goal, which is kind of wild. This one was a new one for me. I sat down on the bench following the two-point conversion, and I didn’t celebrate at all. It was just about ‘let’s go get this in overtime.’ I feel like we were finally getting some traction and we made the plays when we needed to. Fortunately we did, because it’s a big win being 3-1, it’s big time for us.”
Before that wild final three minutes unfolded, Thursday's contest seemed to be one of the more boring games that CFL fans had witnessed in a while, with hardly any scoring and no shortage of missed opportunities.
Harris admitted it was a frustrating night because “we left stuff out there on a few plays.” A big story for much of the contest was the Roughriders' failures to score touchdowns in the red zone.
In the first quarter, an early drive down to the three yard line fizzled out when the Roughriders went for it on third and 3, only for the Riders to come away with nothing.
Another deep drive in the first half resulted in a field goal, while a drive in the third quarter ended with Harris picked off in the end zone.
“We just got to make sure that we’re coming away with touchdowns more importantly, but definitely points, not turnovers,” Harris said. “Obviously on our side, I don’t feel like it should’ve been that close. We should’ve had much more points on the board and our defence did a great job, bending not breaking.”
Despite the horrible Elks gaffe on the rouge play to give the Riders the late lead, the Elks still had one last chance in the final minute to mount a final drive to try and get a winning field goal, or perhaps even a tying rouge of their own.
The drive was helped along when CFL officials failed to overturn a play where quarterback Taylor Cornelius apparently stepped over the line of scrimmage for a completion to mid-field. But the Riders sealed the deal with a pick by Nick Marshall to preserve the 12-11 win.
Despite an ugly night for the Roughriders in a lot of ways, the fact that they were able to find a way to win a close game again -- after their dramatic 29-26 double overtime win in Calgary the previous game — was the biggest positive of the night.
“That says a lot about our team and we want to build off of that,” said Dickenson. "Winning a game ugly sometimes -- you know, in hockey, they say you come in and steal a game once in a while. I think if you can do that. it can bode well for you down the road, because it’s a 60 minute game, and we told our guys that in the locker room. It’s a 60 minute game and you never know when the play is going to be that turns the tide and for us it happened way late in the game, and credit to our guys for continuing to just keep believing and keep plugging along.”
Head Coach Craig Dickenson
“I felt like one of the pillars we talked about all year with our team about being together, I think it really showed up big time in this game because it could’ve gone a lot of different ways. There was definitely some frustration on the sideline, but I didn’t hear a single word of negativity. I thought guys were just building each other up and just encouraging each other to keep playing. And we did. We worked hard, and it turned for us there at the very end.”
“A lot of guys stepped up during that last drive. Picton stepped up, a couple of other guys. I thought the offensive line gave Trevor a chance there at the end to make some throws and give us a chance to win it.”
On suggestions the Roughriders should have completely outclassed the winless Elks:
“Well, those people don’t watch as much film as we do. Edmonton is not a bad team, they’re going to win some games. We’re glad it wasn’t on our watch… Lots to learn from, and I think we’ll work hard to do it, but it’s better, it’s nicer to learn from a W than from getting beat.”
Trevor Harris
On his description of the win: “Gutsy, probably. I thought it was a gutty drive at the end, I thought it was a gutty stop…
“To me, that’s the mark of teams that are connected and have good character and good culture, the teams that win the close games. Last year in Montreal we lost a lot of close games early, and then we won one of them, and that was when we just started winning all those close games because we believed we would. You either find a way to win a game or you find a way to lose a game and I feel like we are the team that is going to try and find a way to win those close games and however it’s going to get done, however ugly it is, it’s two points in the win column and we’ll take it.”
Nick Marshall
On the win: “That’s championship material because every team I’ve been on, the championship — They find a way to win the game at the end of the game, so as long as we get a W, that’s all that matters to me.”
Mitch Picton
Before the final drive: “I mean, nobody really lost faith the whole game, right, we didn’t have the defence coming up to us saying ‘what the heck’s going on’ and things like that. So I mean guys kept the faith, and we were able to deliver the win.”
“I mean, it’s a gritty win. A lot of guys in this room believe in each other, love everybody in this room, so you can never count out a bunch of guys who believe in each other and want to play good.”
Kendall Watson
On the two point convert: “I just gave him the move and then got inside and Trevor hit me with the ball and it was perfect, it worked out.”
As for the team’s reaction to the winning rouge: “At first, we were just like ‘oh, he’s like, he doesn’t know the rules.’ It was kind of crazy, but it worked out.”
“We’ve got guys that never give up. We never at any point were at the point where we felt we couldn’t do it. We knew that we were on the verge of making the plays we needed to make to win. We’re a very resilient group, I must say.”
Shawn Bane Jr.
“We all were just on the sideline saying like ‘hey, it’s not over’, ‘hey, we’ve got one more drive,’ ‘Hey…’ you know what I’m saying, we’re just steady looking at the clock. We kept saying one possession, we’re down one possession, so that’s all it took — one possession.”
