The heat was on the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Really, it was.

Despite winning three of their first four games, the highly-rated Roughriders hadn’t overpowered anyone and had instead played see-saw and patty-cake with some of the CFL’s middle-of-the-pack teams, until meeting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on a withering Sunday evening at Mosaic Stadium.

Saskatchewan forced four turnovers and roasted the visitors 38-7 by outscoring them 27-0 in the second half.

“This is something we’ve been waiting for as a defence,” said Roughriders head coach Corey Mace during his postgame media scrum.

“You see obviously how (turnovers) can turn the tides for this team. So I’m happy that it started in the second half.”

The Roughriders, who entered the game with a league-low three turnovers, got a 107-yard, fourth-quarter interception return for a touchdown by Josh Woods.

A linebacker, Woods has both of Saskatchewan’s interceptions this season. That’s pretty weird for a team whose zone-heavy defence is designed to give its DBs plenty of opportunities for interceptions.

The Roughriders also recovered a fumble and thwarted two third-down gambles, highlighted by safety Jaxon Ford stopping a ball carrier short of the marker for a second straight game.

With a strong defence anchored by linebacker Wynton McManis and an explosive offence led by veteran quarterack Bo Levi Mitchell, Hamilton had been looking like one of the East’s strongest teams.

But Mitchell’s fractured ankle changed their fortunes, forcing the Tiger-Cats into deciding whether to replace him with journeymen Jake Dolegala, a former Rider, or Tre Ford, a former Rider killer.

Despite passing for only 122 yards, Dolegala inexplicably played almost the entire game.

Dolegala got sacked three times (twice by James Vaughters), couldn’t establish a running attack, rarely connected with his receivers and, when he did, likely winced when stars Kenny Lawler and Kiondre Smith dropped his hard-thrown passes.

Speaking afterwards to Ticats.ca, Smith said:

“I want everybody to understand one thing: This game was not on Jake. We have to do a whole lot better as a unit to help that boy out.”

Riders quarterback Trevor Harris, besides being intercepted twice, threw for only 89 yards more than Dolegala, including touchdown passes to Samuel Emilus and Kian Schaffer-Baker.

But the power-running of tailback A.J. Ouellette (18 carries, 83 yards in his first game back following an ankle injury) and unstoppable short-yardage QB Tommy Stevens (8-for-55 with two TDs) helped wear down the sun-beaten Tabbies.

“That’s part of who we kind of wanna be anyway,” said Mace, when asked if the Riders game plan revolved around wearing down their opponents.

“Certainly it’s something you look at cuz we’ve got big guys out there, too, who gotta do the dirty work as well.”

With a game-time temperature of 35C and an on-field thermometer showing an unbearable reading of 48C on the sun-baked artificial turf, the Roughriders announced 25,476 tickets had been distributed for the game.

The stadium’s shaded western and northern grandstands were full of fans, but fewer seats were occupied behind the Ticats’ bench on the sunny, stifling east side.

The southside, beer-drinking section known as “Pil Country” was unusually barren of patrons, likely because of a scheduling conflict with Country Thunder’s closing night 40 kilometres away at Craven.

Strange things typically happen at that unenclosed end of the stadium, particularly when the Prairie wind blows onto the field.

Roughriders rookie Alex Hale missed a 32-yard convert and 35-yard field goal kicking in that direction Sunday. Hale has made 10 of 13 field goals this season, but his team is the only one without a successful kick from 40 yards or longer.

There could have been opportunities for 47- and 48-yard field goals during the first quarter. But after Hale missed his 35-yarder Mace, mindful of his kicker’s struggles and knowing his team has allowed two special-teams touchdowns this season, chose to punt both times.

“Kicking towards Pil is always a challenge,” said Mace, who said he may have tried those field goals heading in the other direction.

Remember, this is the Canadian Field Goal League, where 50-yard field goals are becoming the norm. Indeed, they’re a necessity.

When a football team is forced to change strategies because it can’t rely on a player, something needs to be done before the Roughriders resume their schedule July 23 with the first of a home-and-home set against the unexpectedly strong Edmonton Elks.

Or they can keep changing strategies.