{"id":189570,"date":"2025-10-04T13:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/189570\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T13:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T13:42:10","slug":"riders-back-in-the-win-column-knock-off-the-redblacks-20-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/189570\/","title":{"rendered":"Riders back in the win column, knock off the Redblacks 20-13"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Saskatchewan Roughriders used an uncharacteristic fast start<\/a> to propel them to victory in Ottawa over the Redblacks.<\/p>\n

But it was far from the complete performance the CFL club had been looking for in the 20-13 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it catapults us into making us play better,\u201d Riders quarterback Trevor Harris<\/a> said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s any secret it\u2019s not what our standard is. I thought we started out well but it was a lot of self-inflicted wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win ends a two-game slide<\/a> for the Riders, the first time the team had lost back-to-back games<\/a>. The Riders now have an 11-4 record \u2014 the best in the CFL.<\/p>\n

But Harris said the team isn\u2019t breathing a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to have times when it\u2019s not going smooth.<\/a> I thought we played good football but we hurt ourselves,\u201d Harris said. \u201cWe moved the football and were getting first downs, we just took some big plays off the field. It\u2019s on us to be better. That\u2019s not something I\u2019m worried about, but something we address. Make no mistake, I have full confidence this team will be right where we need to be. We have three weeks to get it right and I will turn over every stone possible to make it right because this group has a chance to get it done and we\u2019re not going to waste this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan scored on the opening drive as running back AJ Ouellette<\/a>, who was running the short-yardage team with quarterback Tommy Stevens out with a knee injury, plunged in from one yard out.<\/p>\n

Antoine Brooks Jr.,<\/a> who was starting at the SAM linebacker spot, extended the lead with a pick-six on the first play of the second quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dream come true,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cIt takes a lot of weeks of preparation just to get here and be where I am at. I did a lot of film preparation and talking to my teammates and making sure we are communicating to get the right play.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the only points the Riders mustered for a long stretch, the next coming when Harris connected with Dohnte Meyers<\/a> on a slant that turned into a 66-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan\u2019s offence mustered 84 yards on its opening drive and then just 87 the next seven drives.<\/p>\n

Head coach Corey Mace<\/a> said they were missing some of the small details.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a little uncharacteristic of us. I\u2019m not taking anything from those guys. They were disappointed but I know these guys and I know the core of the guys and what it looks like,\u201d Mace said. \u201cI\u2019m not overly concerned. I thought we moved the ball efficiently at times but we keep stumbling on ourselves, especially in the scoring zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris also believed the group caused their own headaches out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelf-inflicted wounds for sure,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThere was a couple little ones that were just frustrating to some degree. There was one where I was getting ready to throw the ball over the middle to Dohnte and Sam (Emilus) thought it was for him and he tipped it up and that would have been a great gash.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn second down, they played an intricate and good coverage that they hadn\u2019t shown too much of and did a good job of forcing my read to go to the opposite way and then we are off the field \u2026 Those are the things where I have played on great offences before and there\u2019s always a time right before you were going to explode and become who you want to be, little things like this can happen. I\u2019m not going to apologize for the win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris said this is the kind of game where you have hard conversations and take accountability for your job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a group that takes accountability on their own. I can assure you the mark of great teams are the ones that don\u2019t make the same mistake twice. I can assure you there won\u2019t be another game like this where we shoot ourselves in the foot,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

Overall, Harris had an efficient game for the Riders despite the team only scoring two touchdowns on offence. The veteran completed 27 of 33 pass attempts (81.8 per cent) for 341 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n

The defence came up big for the Green and White, forcing Ottawa quarterback Dru Brown<\/a> to throw three interceptions before he was replaced by Dustin Crum. Brown only threw for 141 yards while Crum added 99 yards and a touchdown to Justin Hardy.<\/p>\n

It was a linebacker hat trick for the picks with Brooks, A.J. Allen and Jameer Thurman with the interceptions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Saskatchewan Roughriders linebacker Jameer Thurman (6) celebrates an interception against the Ottawa Redblacks with teammate defensive back DaMarcus Fields (22) during second half CFL action in Ottawa, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Adrian Wyld)<\/p>\n

\u201cOur communication was very big this week,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cWe made sure we were doing a lot of talking and coverages and certain things to make sure we can execute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defensive back Rolan Milligan Jr.<\/a> left the game with an apparent leg injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw him in the hallway and he was laughing and stuff like that. I think he will be fine but you never know,\u201d Mace said.<\/p>\n

Meyers had 158 yards in the game, putting him over 1,000 yards for the season.<\/p>\n

Ouellette not only had 53 yards and a touchdown in the game, but made a key tackle after defensive lineman Bryce Carter recovered a fumble by Harris and went 81 yards before the rusher tackled him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s AJ Ouellette in a nutshell \u2014 that play right there,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThat\u2019s our team mindset and mantra in a nutshell \u2014 we\u2019re getting ready to put the game away and then have an unfortunate situation happen. No one stops giving effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kicker Campbell Fair made his CFL debut<\/a> with veteran starter Brett Lauther out with a back injury. He didn\u2019t attempt a field goal but missed both of his convert attempts. The Riders converted on their only two-point attempt in the game \u2014 a pass from Harris to Ajou Ajou.<\/p>\n

Redblacks kicker Lewis Ward missed one of his three field goal attempts but did make his only convert kick attempt.<\/p>\n

If the B.C. Lions lose to the Calgary Stampeders on Saturday, the Riders would clinch a home playoff game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders used an uncharacteristic fast start to propel them to victory in Ottawa over the Redblacks.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-189570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}