It took a little bit for the Saskatchewan Roughriders to gain momentum, but once they did, there was no looking back on Sunday night.
Facing the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Week 6 of the CFL season, the Roughriders put together a dominant performance — winning 38-7 to improve to 4-1 on the season.
Here are the top 10 takeaways from the game:
10 Thoughts
That was the most lopsided tie football game for much of the first half as Saskatchewan generated 116 yards of net offence compared to just 17 yards by Hamilton at one point — yet it was still tied. We’ll get to the field goal decisions below, but there really wasn’t much doubt who was going to win that football game after watching the first few drives of the game. Then when Trevor Harris found Samuel Emilus for a touchdown near the end of the first half, it almost left no doubt even though the score was still close. The dominant four quarter by Saskatchewan was just the cherry on top.
While it wasn’t necessarily an offensive masterpiece on Sunday, with Harris throwing for 211 yards and A.J. Ouellette running for 83 yards, Saskatchewan’s defence put together its best performance of the season. Safety Jaxon Ford made another third-down stop, cornerback Marcus Sayles scooped up a loose fumble and nearly scored a touchdown while linebacker Josh Woods did score a touchdown on a 107-yard pick six. The Roughriders defence knew they needed more turnovers after such a low total through the first four games and they made up for the lack of early production on Sunday.
While it was a convincing win, there was a special teams hiccup that needs addressing as rookie kicker Alex Hale missed a 35-yard field goal in the first quarter. Saskatchewan’s next two drives stalled out around the 40-yard line and instead of kicking field goals of around 48 yards, the Roughriders elected to punt it away. Granted, Hamilton’s offence wasn’t doing much with Jake Dolegala, but you need to have the confidence to roll out your kicker for anything under 50 yards. It’s a little early to make a kicking change but if Hale, who is 10 of 13 on the season, doesn’t earn the trust back soon, the Roughriders will be forced to switch it up. He will have a shorter leash than what Brett Lauther had last season.
Just as Mathew Sexton was starting to make the most of his opportunity, a serious leg injury is going to sideline him for the foreseeable future. After a 101-yard punt return touchdown in his CFL debut last week against Ottawa, Sexton added a pair of nice punt returns on Sunday before going down with a right leg injury early on the second half kickoff. Injuries are the worst part of the game.
It’s not unlike what we saw last week as Tiger-Cats quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell went down with a serious ankle injury, which required surgery. That led to former Rider Jake Dolegala getting his first start of the season on Sunday against his former team. It’s not like the moment was too big for Dolegala, nor did he look overwhelmed, but he certainly didn’t look great. Saskatchewan’s defence also came to play and made it tough on him all night. Plus when receivers like Kenny Lawler are fumbling, it doesn’t help a quarterbacks’ cause.
As mentioned Saskatchewan’s defence came to play and some of the credit has to go to the play calling. For the most part, the Roughriders had an effective pass rush by only sending a four-man rush. There weren’t a lot of blitzes on Sunday, which would have done one of two things: make Dolegala’s life even worse or opened things up for him down field. The four-man front, led by James Vaughters with a pair of sacks, were already making it hard on him which allowed Saskatchewan’s linebackers and defensive backs to shut down anything that came their way. Solid play calling and execution. Sometimes you don’t need to try to do more than what’s needed.
There was a lot of talk about Dolegala facing his former team leading into the game and the familiarity Saskatchewan’s defence would have with him. However, looking deeper at the depth chart, this was pre-Corey Mace when the team was coached by Craig Dickenson. The only players remaining from the 2023 defence are Rolan Milligan Jr., Nelson Lokombo, Jaxon Ford, Jayden Dalke, Lake Korte-Moore and Caleb Sanders. Milligan, Lokombo and Korte-Moore are out with injury, while Ford, Dalke and Sanders weren’t full-time starters that season.
Speaking of Ford, he continues to make the most of his opportunity. Starting at safety for the injured Lokombo, Ford made an outstanding tackle early in the third quarter as he stuffed a quarterback sneak attempt by the Tiger-Cats forcing a turnover on downs, which was on the heels of a nearly identical stop last week against Ottawa. No slight to Lokombo but it will be hard to take Ford out of the starting lineup when Lokombo returns.
Tommy Stevens said he isn’t going to choose his own nickname, but I think referring to him as a “short-yardage specialist” is a bit misleading considering what he’s done along the ground recently. It’s a bit of a repeat thought from last week’s 10 Thoughts but in Saskatchewan’s last two victories, Stevens closed out both wins by dominating along the ground, including rushing for 40 yards on two plays — when everyone knew he was going to run. It’s worth another shoutout. He’s football’s version of an elite closer in baseball and unlike Saskatchewan’s kicking situation, the Roughriders have the utmost confidence to roll Stevens out at any given time. Quite a luxury for an offensive coordinator.
After having a bye in Week 1, the Roughriders are now into their second bye week of the season before a first-place showdown against the Edmonton Elks, who are also 4-1, on July 23. I certainly didn’t have the Elks at 4-1 and B.C. Lions at 1-3 at this point in the season. Those two teams will face each other on Thursday while the Roughriders watch on. Including the game against Edmonton, which is the first half of a home-and-home series, Saskatchewan will play eight games in a row before another bye in Week 16. The team will then finish with five games before the playoffs. It’s a bit of a tough schedule but if they can keep stacking up wins, they very well might have a chance to rest some players down the stretch, like they did last year. We all know how that ended.
tshire@postmedia.com