EDMONTON -- The Saskatchewan Roughriders are back in the Canadian Football League playoffs,
The Roughriders clinched a spot in the postseason for the first time since the 2021 campaign on Saturday night, thanks to a 28-24 victory over the Edmonton Elks in Edmonton.
Both teams passed for more than 300 yards in the contest, which saw the Riders improve to 8-7-1 and move into second place in the East Division. Edmonton fell to 5-11-0 and have been eliminated from the playoffs.
The Reaction
Needless to say, Saskatchewan head coach Corey Mace was more than happy with the win, even if things were a little chaotic at times.
“First and foremost, I’m just so proud of this team,” Mace told Luc Mullinder on the CKRM Rider Radio post-game show . “We really focus on trying to go 1-0 each week and we found a way to get that done today. Was it pretty? No, it wasn’t as pretty as we’d like it to be in totality but we finished 1-0 so I’m extremely pleased with that and I’m elated for the guys.”
Both teams came into the contest with a ton on the line -- the Riders clinching their spot, the Elks hoping to stay alive -- and that made for a high-pressure situation that Saskatchewan was able to get the better of.
“We knew it was going to be a challenge for ourselves, coming into their building with their backs against the wall,” Mace said. “I can’t say enough how proud I am, and I know how proud the staff is of this team, too.”
While the passing game was going well for both teams, it was the Roughriders who came up with the big plays on defence -- including a huge forced fumble and recovery in the game’s final minutes as Edmonton attempted to drive the field for the winning points,
Creating those big plays on defence through simple hard work was all part of the plan.
“We preach that, STB, sprint to ball, because good things happen around the ball,” Mace explained. “You saw toward the end there with Amari Henderson punching the ball out, if you’re not running to the ball as a unit there’s no way to recover that.
“Schematically, I’m sure there’s going to be a ton of stuff to fix as there as there is every game. But the basics and nuances of who we are, turning over the ball and sprinting to the ball, I thought we did a great job of that tonight.”
Despite what they went through in their mid-season doldrums, Saskatchewan has now won three straight and have even put themselves into a position where back-to-back wins in the coming weeks could give them home-field advantage in the first round.
The Riders host the B.C. Lions on Saturday, Oct. 12 at Mosaic Stadium before closing out their regular season the following weekend on Saturday, Oct. 26 when the Calgary Stampeders are in Regina.
“We spoke about it already in the locker room, you want to enjoy this, but we still want to focus on going 1-0 next game because there’s still a lot to play for for us,” Mace said. “There are a lot of areas we want to improve as a team and we have an opportunity to do that. So we’ll focus on those and going 1-0 next week.”
The Game
Both teams put together abbreviated drives on their first possessions of the game, and Edmonton hit the scoreboard first when punter Jake Julien sent a boot 75 yards into the end zone for a single point.
The Elks got things rolling as the second quarter began, and the drive resulted in the first major of the game. Javon Leake finished off a 10-play, 93-yard drive that took nearly seven minutes off the clock with a nine-yard run for the touchdown and an 8-0 lead.
Geno Lewis had the big catch on the drive, with his 22-yard tip-toe snag along the sideline getting Edmonton to the nine-yard line.
It took absolutely no time for the Roughriders to respond.
On the first play of the next possession, Trevor Harris hit Samuel Emilus with a 33-yard bomb down the right side, and Emilus would do the rest, outrunning a defender and going 88 yards for the major. Dhel Duncan-Busby hauled in the two-point conversion, and just like that the game was tied 8-8.
Edmonton regained the lead with a long ball of their own just after the three-minute warning. McLeod Bethel-Thompson aired out a 38-yard pass to Dillon Mitchell into the Riders endzone, and he’d outduel his defender one-on-one for the major and a 15-8 edge.
Saskatchewan once again found a way to respond quickly, with Harris running seven plays to cover 75 yards in only 1:42 seconds, ending when Shea Patterson ran in from a yard out. A Brett Lauther convert later, and things were tied once again.
The Riders would end up taking the lead late in the half, thanks to an interception by Adam Auclair on Edmonton’s next drive. Harris got the ball back at the Saskatchewan 48 and down to the Elks’ 42 in 25 seconds, followed by Lauther hitting a 50-yard field goal for an 18-15 Roughriders lead at the half.
Rolan Milligan saw to it the Riders would get off to a good start after the break, hauling in his league-leading eighth interception of the season and setting Saskatchewan up at the Edmonton 35. Six plays later, Lauther hit a 13-yard field goal to extend the Riders’ lead to six.
The Elks drove the field their next possession, taking six plays before Lewis caught a 10-yard pass in the corner of the end zone. The extra point would go off the upright, though, leaving the contest tied 21-21 with 6:24 to play in the third quarter.
The Roughriders responded in kind on their next drive, with Harris getting a diving 34-yard catch from Kian Schaffer-Baker to the Edmonton 34 before finding KeeSean Johnson for a 28-yard touchdown two plays later.
Edmonton looked to have tied the game with 6:07 to play when Leake appeared to have hauled in a 29-yard touchdown pass, but the CFL command centre would overturn the call. The Elks settled for a field goal to make it a 28-24 game.
The Elks got the ball back with just over two minutes to play and had a drive going, but Henderson punched the ball loose after a Kurleigh Gittens catch, leading to C.J. Reavis gathering up the fumble and giving the Riders the ball back with 1:51 to play.
Saskatchewan would successfully run down the clock and the victory was in the books.
The Stats
Harris completed 23 of 28 passes for 358 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Emilus was his favourite target with four catches for 126 yards, while Johnson had five catches for 103.
Frankie Hickson led the ground game with 15 carries for 46 yards.
Bethel-Thompson capped his night 33-for-41 for 379 yards, also with two majors and two picks. Gittens had 10 catches for 122 yards, Lewis five for 87,
Saskatchewan finished the game with 387 yards of offence while Edmonton racked up 409 yards.
