Courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders had a chance to take firm control of first place in the West Division on Saturday night in Edmonton.
After their loss to the Montreal Alouettes two weeks ago, the Riders saw the second-place Calgary Stampeders lose not once, but twice. A win would have left the Green and White six points clear of everyone else in the division with four games to go.
Instead, they put forward one of their worst efforts of the season and their most inexcusable loss of the campaign — a 27-25 defeat at the hands of the Edmonton Elks, where the score masks just how bad it was. It also marked the first time all season that the Riders have lost twice in a row.
Saskatchewan still control their own destiny when it comes to hosting the West Final, but they’ve kept the door open for the Stamps, Blue Bombers, and now even the Lions to possibly catch them.
Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ fourth loss of the season.
The Good
This felt like a game where the Riders’ defence was going to be able to pull off the victory. For much of the night, they were at the top of the leaderboard to appear in this space. However, some breakdowns in the fourth quarter took the shine off the unit.
Instead, the best part of the night for the Riders was running back A.J. Ouellette. The Ohio native continued his strong bounce-back season, proving the doubters (like me) wrong.
Ouellette rumbled for 115 yards and one touchdown on 19 carries, and it felt like he should have been used even more to wear down the Elks as the night went on.
As the rest of the offence sputtered, Ouellette managed to keep them on the field enough to ensure the defence got their rest. Thanks mostly to Ouellette’s efforts, the Riders managed to win the time-of-possession battle by nearly 10 minutes.
Weirdly enough, this was only his second time breaking the century mark this year. Considering the big back is second in the league in rushing, the lack of big single-game numbers speaks to his consistency.
The Bad
You could have made the case for just about everyone else to be included in this part of the column at one point or another.
Kicker Brett Lauther’s missed field goals finally caught up to the team on the scoreboard, the offence was silent for much of the night and lost a fumble in the red zone, and the defence held strong for over three quarters of the game but fell apart at the wrong time late. Even the officials had a rough night with a couple of early whistles that took points off the board for the Riders.
Despite all of that, the team found itself in a position to force overtime. In the end, they couldn’t overcome the play of quarterback Trevor Harris. His night was summed up perfectly by the failed two-point conversion that ended the game. Harris’ fade fell incomplete with no one in the area, and it might not have even been catchable if someone was.
Harris’ stat line certainly looks fine, as he finished 33-of-46 for 351 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions — more on those in a bit — but it was not an easy night at the office for the veteran pivot.
As has become the trend, Harris was slow out of the gate following the bye week. His first interception came on just his third pass attempt. We’ve seen a number of interceptions and near-interceptions early in games after the Riders’ weeks off.
The night didn’t get all that much better from there, as Harris struggled to find his touch. An unusually high number of passes either hit the rubber short of receivers or sailed over their heads throughout. Some questionable decision-making saw Harris try to force balls into two or even three-man coverage — all of which is odd to see from one of the league’s most consistently accurate quarterbacks.
Everyone is allowed to have an off-night throughout the season, so I don’t think there’s any reason to be concerned about Harris for the rest of the year. However, should the Riders get one more bye in the postseason, he’ll have to be better to start the West Final because that game won’t be against the Edmonton Elks.
The Dumb
Speaking of Harris’ interceptions, it’s not too often you see a quarterback throw two interceptions on the same drive. The 39-year-old accomplished that on Saturday in Edmonton.
On the third pass attempt of the game, Harris was picked off by Elks’ defensive back Kenneth Logan Jr., who proceeded to return the interception 10 yards before Riders’ receiver Ajou Ajou knocked the ball loose. It was recovered by Riders’ offensive lineman Daniel Johnson, giving the QB a clean slate.
Two plays later, Harris threw another pass into the arms of Elks’ linebacker Brock Mogensen.
I’m sure Harris would have a little more fun with this had the Riders found a way to win. It was still a weird moment and nonetheless sealed its place in this space instantaneously.