ultimately prevailing 21-18<\/a>.<\/p>\nA 6-1 record underlines the legitimacy of the Roughriders\u2019 Grey Cup aspirations \u2014\u00a0which are accompanied by elevated expectations inside and outside the organization.<\/p>\n
Even when a game is won and the bottom-line goal is achieved, contentment or complacency will not enter the equation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s obviously some positive things to take away, but I\u2019m sure you guys could probably guess that I\u2019m not happy with the way we finished the game offensively,\u201d quarterback Trevor Harris told reporters to begin his post-game media availability on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to be a championship-calibre team, you\u2019ve got to put the nail in the coffin, and we didn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not until the final play, when Micah Johnson\u2019s second sack of the evening \u2014\u00a0and the eighth sack of the game for Saskatchewan \u2014\u00a0squelched even the slightest possibility of an Elks comeback.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to finish,\u201d Johnson said after his first multi-sack game as a Roughrider. \u201cThat\u2019s probably the word for us for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe come out hot but for some reason, individually or together, we kind of take our foot off the gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve all got to look in the mirror and we\u2019ve really got to fix that, because later on the season when you\u2019re playing against the best teams, that could definitely come back to haunt you.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to find a way to keep that same energy throughout the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
What a luxury it is, though, to be able to dissect a victory while occupying first place in the West Division and boasting the league\u2019s best record.<\/p>\n
Edmonton, at the other end of the spectrum, is 1-5. Hence the post-game refrain: Why did it take so long to cement a victory against a struggling opponent?<\/p>\n
Well, for starters, that is professional football.<\/p>\n
The outcome is never assured. Every point, every yard, must be earned.<\/p>\n
Roughriders fans should know that as well as anyone. The Green and White has been an underdog at some point in the playoffs during each of its four championship seasons. Conversely, a 14-2 Saskatchewan team \u2014\u00a0the 1970 edition \u2014\u00a0didn\u2019t even make it to the Grey Cup.<\/p>\n
However, one mark of a championship team is, to borrow a baseball analogy, an ability to win when the fastball isn\u2019t crackling or the breaking pitches are, in a word, broken.<\/p>\n
There has been many a year, many a game, in which a game such as Friday\u2019s would have resulted in defeat and despair.<\/p>\n
Rider resourcefulness and resilience prevented that from happening on Friday, when some of the biggest plays were not reflected on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n
Just 1:40 remained in the fourth quarter when A.J. Ouellette took off on a 17-yard run that moved the chains and extinguished valuable time.<\/p>\n
The run game had been held in check for most of the game, only to come through massively in the clutch.<\/p>\n
Centre Logan Ferland and left guard Noah Zerr made massive blocks near the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n
Receiver KeeSean Johnson, who scored a touchdown on one of his career-high nine receptions, impeded a would-be tackler downfield and helped Ouellette access first-down territory.<\/p>\n
When the possession ended on the Elks\u2019 51-yard line, punter Joe Couch launched a picture-perfect punt. Elks returner Javon Leake could only slump his shoulders in disappointment after catching the 46-yard punt on his team\u2019s five-yard line, with one foot out of bounds and 24 seconds left.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuge,\u201d Head Coach Corey Mace said when asked about Ouellette\u2019s run and Couch\u2019s coffin-corner punt.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hadn\u2019t broken a huge run until then. It was a great job by A.J. to do that. We\u2019d like to finish and get another first down and just kneel out the clock. We couldn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe Couch goes and has a hellacious punt when we needed it the most. The previous punt, we ended up getting a penalty on for kicking it out of bounds a little bit too early.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow these guys respond when we need them to at the very end is good. When we needed their best, they showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
That also applies to the defensive line. Elks quarterback Cody Fajardo, who performed admirably amid adversity in his return to Regina, was sacked on each of the final two plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the pressure was just phenomenal all night from the front seven,\u201d Mace said, \u201cso credit to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Credit should also be dispensed to \u2026<\/p>\n
\u2022 Samuel Emilus, for barging into the end zone to complete a 15-yard major after catching a basketball-style chest pass from Harris behind the line of scrimmage. Emilus fought off two would-be tacklers over the final five yards, with the help of key blocks from KeeSean Johnson and Joe Robustelli. \u201cThat\u2019s toughness \u2026 that\u2019s grit,\u201d Paul LaPolice said during the TSN telecast. \u201cThis team is built on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Malik Carney, for registering two sacks \u2014 as did Johnson and Shane Ray \u2014\u00a0and forcing a punt by limiting Fajardo to a three-yard gain on a second-and-five scramble. Carney\u2019s second sack pushed Edmonton out of field-goal range.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Roughriders\u2019 offensive line, which allowed only one sack (on the team\u2019s final offensive play). Harris has been sacked only once over the past two games with a rookie, Darius Washington, starting at the all-important left tackle position.<\/p>\n
\u2022 C.J. Reavis, whose blitzes produced his second sack of the season and a pass knockdown on second-and-four. On the sack, Reavis applied the finishing touch after Fajardo was pressured by defensive end Habakkuk Baldonado.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Brett Lauther, for shaking off a 47-yard miss early in the game and responding with field goals from 51 and 46. He now has 22 field goals of 50-plus yards since joining the Roughriders in 2018. Also on Saturday, Lauther registered nine points to move into 23rd on the CFL\u2019s career list, with 1,056. He passed Boris Bede (1,054) and Luca Congi (1,050) on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Drae McCray, who returned eight punts for 106 yards in the absence of Mario Alford (hip injury). McCray\u2019s 42-yard punt return, to the Elks\u2019 46, set up a Lauther field goal that gave Saskatchewan a 21-4 lead at three-quarter time. That three-pointer, which concluded the Roughriders\u2019 scoring, did not seem to be crucial at the time. As it turned out, though, Lauther\u2019s 46-yarder provided the margin of victory.<\/p>\n
Ever the perfectionist, Harris accentuated a fourth quarter in which the Roughriders did not pad the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you may guess, I\u2019m just not too thrilled with the way we finished the game offensively,\u201d he said. \u201cThat being said, I think this is a team that can take a look in the mirror and get better.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like we don\u2019t have the games or we\u2019re screwed or we don\u2019t have enough to get it done. It\u2019s just one of those things where we have to take a look in the mirror and be better toward the end of the game \u2014\u00a0and we will. You can mark my words.\u201d<\/p>\n
The following words are also worth noting.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s not get spoiled here,\u201d Harris cautioned. \u201cWe\u2019re 6-and-1 at this point in the season. If you would have said, \u20186-and-1 after seven games \u2026 would you take it?\u2019, you\u2019re darned right. We\u2019re 6-and-1 and finding ways to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cToward the end of the year is when it matters who you are. It\u2019s about who we\u2019re becoming in this process and I like what this team is becoming every week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders, owners of the CFL\u2019s best record, have reached the largely enviable point where the aftermath…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-29970","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\/29970","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=29970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}