REGINA \u2014 While the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Calgary Stampeders were going through the waiting game last Friday evening, defensive back Jaxon Ford had a single goal \u2014 stay ready, no matter how long the wait might be.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, the Regina product not only kept his focus throughout the evening, he managed to take it to another level some 15 hours later when the Canadian Football League contest actually took place at Mosaic Stadium.<\/p>\n
Ford would end up as the CFL\u2019s top special team player for Week 6, grading out at\u00a084.6 on the Pro Football Focus scale, which uses\u00a0metrics to analyze players and\u00a0assign\u00a0a score from\u00a00 to 100.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t even know that,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI\u00a0come in day in, day out and do my job to the best of my ability, but I’m happy with the performance.\u00a0I thought I played well, but\u00a0we didn’t get the W, so lots to work on from everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
With everything that was going on with air quality concerns in the lead-up to Friday\u2019s postponement, Ford said the team did what they could to be ready for when the time came to play \u2014 even when that ended up being over half a day later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were\u00a0staying locked in, being ready for the potential chance to come out and put on a show for the fans and play,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, Ford put together his performance despite wearing a cast on his right hand one final game as he recovers from a bone bruise on his\u00a0knuckle. It\u2019s another piece of bad\u00a0luck on the injury front for the former Regina Rams standout, but one he was happy to be able to play through this time around. That dedication to the cause didn\u2019t go unnoticed by head coach Corey Mace and his teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to champion those efforts,\u201d Mace said. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to execute your job if you\u2019re playing with a club but the value he brings to this team, having him out there, we saw the value.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been playing pretty damn good even with it,\u201d he added. \u201cYou expect when the thing comes off he\u2019s going to be an even better version of himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as things went for Ford on a personal level, the defence as a whole had a rough afternoon, giving up 548 yards of total offence, more than half of that in the opening 30 minutes. As one might except, fixing some of the issues that caused that to happen will be a focus in the lead-up to their contest against the B.C. Lions on Saturday in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to clean up the little things,\u201d Ford said. \u201cWhen it comes down to playing defence, it’s the little things. So we\u00a0got to pay attention to those little details and\u00a0work as a unit\u2026 watch lots of film and clean up those [missed assignments] that we had last game.”<\/p>\n