\u201cWe\u2019re finding different ways to win,\u201d Harris said. \u201cIt\u2019s the mark of championship-calibre teams. You can always draw on experience as you go through the year.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cYou get to late in the season when you\u2019ve got to have some gritty wins and that\u2019s what that was. Our defence stood on our head for us. We (on offence) could have made it a lot easier for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emilus (six catches for 113 yards) and Johnson (nine for 78) were the Roughriders\u2019 busiest receivers on Friday.<\/p>\n
The Roughriders\u2019 A.J. Ouellette was the game\u2019s leading rusher, with 62 yards on 15 carries. The big run was a 17-yarder late in the fourth quarter that moved the chains and extinguished valuable time.<\/p>\n
Brett Lauther hit field goals of 51 and 46 yards as Saskatchewan moved ahead of the Calgary Stampeders (5-2).<\/p>\n
Fajardo threw for 346 yards and two scores in his first start for the Elks (1-5).<\/p>\n
The Roughriders return to action on Aug. 2 against the host Montreal Alouettes.<\/p>\n
Montreal (5-2) won 23-21 in Calgary on Thursday to create an opportunity for Saskatchewan to sit alone in first place.<\/p>\n
TREVOR TIME<\/p>\n
Harris moved past Tom Burgess (190) and into sole possession of 16th place on the CFL\u2019s all-time touchdown-passes list. With 191, Harris is seven behind 15th-ranked Kent Austin. Austin and Burgess were Roughriders teammates for three seasons (1987 to 1989).<\/p>\n
As well, Harris also moved up two spots, to 14th, on the career passing-yardage list. In Friday\u2019s first half, he leapfrogged Michael Reilly (34,805) and Dieter Brock (34,840). Harris finished Friday\u2019s game with 35,042 yards. Austin (36,030) is 13th on the career list.<\/p>\n
Along the way, Harris extended to 10 his CFL record for consecutive games with a completion percentage of at least 70.<\/p>\n
EXTRA POINTS<\/p>\n
\u2022 Lauther\u2019s 51-yard field goal was his 22nd of 50-plus yards, but his first from that distance. The breakdown by yardage: 57 (2), 56 (2), 55 (1), 54 (2), 53 (4), 52 (4), 51 (1) and 50 (6). Worth noting: Lauther did have a 51-yarder in the 2023 pre-season.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Roughriders held Edmonton to 25 rushing yards. Twenty of those yards were produced by Fajardo. Edmonton gained five yards on five handoffs. The rushing yards allowed was the fewest by Saskatchewan since July 21, 2013, when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats gained 16 yards on eight carries in a 37-0 home-field victory by the Roughriders.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Roughriders had the eighth documented eight-sack game in franchise history. The team record is 10 (accomplished three times). There has also been a nine-sack game. The eight sacks were the most since Hamilton surrendered the same total on June 11, 2022 at Mosaic Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Saskatchewan has allowed only one sack over its past two games.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Following the game, Head Coach Corey Mace did not have an immediate update on a lower-body injury Emilus sustained in the second half.<\/p>\n
SUMMARY<\/p>\n
FIRST QUARTER<\/p>\n
Sask \u2014 Single Lauther 59 4:17<\/p>\n
Lauther was wide on a 47-yard field-goal attempt.<\/p>\n
Edm \u2014 Single Grace 56 7:11<\/p>\n
Grace\u2019s punt landed on the five and bounced into the end zone for a rouge.<\/p>\n
Edm \u2014\u00a0FG Blanchard 15 14:53<\/p>\n
Fajardo hit Mathis for gains of 35 and 16.<\/p>\n
SECOND QUARTER<\/p>\n
Sask \u2014\u00a0TD Emilus 15 pass from Harris (Lauther convert) 13:12<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan scored one play after Edmonton was penalized 25 yards for pass interference.<\/p>\n
Sask \u2014\u00a0FG Lauther 51 14:38<\/p>\n
Completions of 12 and six yards to Johnson put Saskatchewan in field-goal range.<\/p>\n
THIRD QUARTER<\/p>\n
Sask \u2014 TD Johnson 8 pass from Harris (Lauther convert) 6:48<\/p>\n
Harris was 5-for-5 for 80 yards on TD drive.<\/p>\n
Sask \u2014\u00a0FG Lauther 46 15:00<\/p>\n
42-yard punt return by McCray put Roughriders in field-goal range.<\/p>\n
FOURTH QUARTER<\/p>\n
Edm \u2014\u00a0TD Julien-Grant 57 pass from Fajardo (Blanchard convert) 1:19<\/p>\n
Fajardo spun away from pressure and found Julien-Grant down the left sideline.<\/p>\n
Edm \u2014\u00a0TD Dunbar Jr. 13 pass from Fajardo (Blanchard convert) 13:04<\/p>\n
Fajardo found Dunbar Jr. deep in the end zone for six points.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders delivered a gift to their fans \u2014 sole possession of first place in the CFL\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-26195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26195","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=26195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}