{"id":272377,"date":"2025-11-09T16:08:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T16:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/272377\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T16:08:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T16:08:44","slug":"the-play-you-dream-about-tommy-nields-late-touchdown-sends-riders-to-grey-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/272377\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The play you dream about\u2019: Tommy Nield\u2019s late touchdown sends Riders to Grey Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tommy Nield<\/a> has written his name into the history books of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n

With just 11 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the 26-year-old caught a pass from quarterback Trevor Harris<\/a> to claim a 24-21 win in the CFL West Final, which sent the Riders to the 112th Grey Cup.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time the Riders will be back in the CFL championship since 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t really put it into words. It\u2019s just a super exciting moment. I\u2019m thankful to be put in that position. That\u2019s a play you dream about making. I\u2019m just grateful to make a play for my team,\u201d Nield said.<\/p>\n

Despite it bringing 33,350 fans to their feet and cheering, Nield admitted he couldn\u2019t tell how loud it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of just blanked out. I know it was loud but I didn\u2019t take it in,\u201d Nield said. \u201cI\u2019ll have to see the audio of it after and take that one in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris said the seven-play, 76-yard drive the team will remember for a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone did their part in it, whether it was protection or the receivers making plays or us responding as a unit and as a group,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThe moment is not going to get to big for this group \u2026 We never flinch and that\u2019s kind of what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris said it was a fun way to end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we have gotten the short end of the stick in terms of I don\u2019t know if people were rooting for us or they wanted the other team or whatever it was. We found a way to take it personal,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThis group is capable of more \u2014 our best football game we haven\u2019t played it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully that can be in Winnipeg next week against Montreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris finished with 305 yards and two touchdowns \u2014 the game-winner to Nield and a crucial third-and-goal pass to Kian Schaffer-Baker.<\/a><\/p>\n

On the other sideline, possible CFL Most Outstanding Player winner Nathan Rourke had a solid day for the Lions, throwing for 290 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He also rushed in two scores and on the second one in the fourth quarter, the 27-year-old screamed, \u201cIt\u2019s our time,\u201d to the fans.<\/p>\n

The day before the game<\/a>, Harris had said it was the Riders\u2019 time and he wasn\u2019t there to talk about Rourke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know my comments yesterday were a little bit more brash than what they normally are but I saw what Nathan said on that sneak, \u2018It\u2019s our time.\u2019 I think it\u2019s our time,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

A moment in the game that could have become an infamous moment in team history was when head coach Corey Mace<\/a> elected to kick a 13-yard field goal with just 2:40 left to only reduce the Lions\u2019 lead to four.<\/p>\n

Mace admitted he was close to going for the touchdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo take the points, just knowing what we are capable of doing to make sure we are taking points,\u201d Mace said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust faith in the guys. That\u2019s all it came down to. I thought about it but pretty easy decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Saskatchewan Roughriders running back AJ Ouellette had over 100 yards in the game against the Lions. (Saskatchewan Roughriders\/Submitted)<\/p>\n

AJ Ouellette had a big game<\/a> on the ground for the Riders. The running back finished with 113 yards on the ground.<\/p>\n

Defensive back Marcus Sayles also had a big play in the game after he intercepted a Rourke pass that bounced off a couple of players, including the back of safety C.J. Reavis as the Lions were threatening to score.<\/p>\n

Coming into the game, one of the questions fans had was it kicker Brett Lauther would be playing in the game due to his struggles throughout the season.<\/a> He rewarded the club for their faith, hitting all three field goal attempts and two convert kicks.<\/p>\n

\u201cKind of about time to go out and do that for the guys. I\u2019ve always tried to pride myself a little bit more, being better come playoffs,\u201d Lauther said.<\/p>\n

Lauther admits it feels like it\u2019s been a long time coming to get to the Grey Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to process everything and stuff is going to move quickly but at the end of the day, just preaching the job is not done. We didn\u2019t come this far to just come this far. One more (game) but it definitely feels great,\u201d Lauther said.<\/p>\n

Riders punter Jesse Mirco added a rouge in the game.<\/p>\n

Lions kicker Sean Whyte missed his only field goal attempt but did hit all three of his convert tries.<\/p>\n

The Riders will take on the Montreal Alouettes in the 2025 Grey Cup in Winnipeg on Nov. 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tommy Nield has written his name into the history books of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. With just 11 seconds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-272377","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\/272377","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=272377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}