Nic Marshall<\/a> in the second quarter, but did bounce back later in the frame with a 75-yard touchdown pass to Lucky Whitehead, the quarterback\u2019s first major score in the CFL.<\/p>\nIn the third quarter, with the Lions trailing 32-9, Reilly was the one to head out onto the field and not Rourke.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike, at some point, got some more painkillers or something like that, and was like, \u2018I\u2019m ready to go, I\u2019m gonna go in,’\u201d Rourke recalled. \u201cWe actually started to claw back a little bit and got more into the game, and then at one point he said, \u2018I just don\u2019t have any control over it.\u2019 I had to go back in, and when I came back in, I started playing a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rourke returned to action with under three minutes to play after the Lions had cut Saskatchewan\u2019s lead to 23-33. Rourke moved the chains with some incredible throws, just like the ones we\u2019re accustomed to seeing now from the All-CFLer. He capped the drive with his most memorable play, the touchdown pass to Burnham in the end zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great drive, just kind of chunk, chunk, chunk, and then they went back to all the pressure that they had been giving at the beginning that we couldn\u2019t get over, and I was able to beat it,\u201d said Rourke.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was cool because it was a slow start that I overcame. I kind of proved to myself that I could play in the league with very limited experience and I could make the throws in big moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Nathan_Rourke_2021_2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Nathan Rourke\u2019s first start in the CFL was against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Week 1 of the 2021 CFL season (Matt Smith\/CFL.ca)<\/p>\n
INSIDE THE PLAY<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan went back to sending pressure at Rourke on the drive, trying to force the rookie into making mistakes. This time, however, Rourke knew he had the protection in place he needed to air it out to his receiver in the end zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were going tempo, so we had a one-word call, I believe this one was called blizzard, they were all weather terms. Basically, it was fully protected, so it didn\u2019t really matter what they did, I was gonna have a chance to put it up there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw what they were doing, it looked a lot like the first half, everyone was coming. I knew that I had Burnham one-on-one, I just had to go give him a chance. I put the ball up and he made a great play.\u201d<\/p>\n
THE AFTERMATH<\/p>\n
After Burnham hauled in the touchdown, the TSN feed flips back to Rourke and the emotions he was feeling right after. He celebrated with fist pumps after delivering the biggest throw of his young career.<\/p>\n
While the touchdown wasn\u2019t enough for the Lions to complete the comeback, they lost 33-29, it was still a significant moment for Rourke. Not only did he realize that he could play in the CFL, but he also received approval from a veteran on the sideline.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very hyped, I was very excited,\u201d smiled Rourke. \u201cMike (and I), we had a cool interaction where he was fired up for me. That\u2019s how I kind of knew it was a big time play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been nice to have finished the game (with a win), but it was cool to know that a dude like that, who is a Hall of Famer, to kind of get his seal of approval meant a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
REFLECTION<\/p>\n
Years later, after solidifying himself as one of the CFL\u2019s biggest stars, Rourke still looks back at that touchdown pass as a turning point.<\/p>\n
He was thrust into action unexpectedly, battled through mistakes and a difficult start to the game, and found a way to respond.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think to that point, it felt like it was one of the higher stakes games that I played in, and it was my first real opportunity to be in the CFL. I hadn\u2019t played, obviously, the Canadian game in a while, since high school, and to step up and play in the pros.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was certainly an opportunity where I look back at it (and think) I was able to get confidence knowing that I could play and I could compete and I could make plays, and obviously there was a long way to go, but I think that it\u2019s huge for a player, especially a young player, to know that they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, five seasons after his defining moment, Rourke and his Lions head back to Regina for a Saturday night matchup against the Roughriders in the opening game of their 2026 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nathan Rourke wasn\u2019t supposed to play in Week 1 of the 2021 season. He wasn\u2019t the starting quarterback.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-738187","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\/738187","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=738187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}