{"id":780248,"date":"2026-07-04T18:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T18:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/780248\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T18:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T18:05:08","slug":"10-thoughts-roughriders-play-complementary-football-in-win-over-redblacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/780248\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Thoughts: Roughriders play complementary football in win over Redblacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Saskatchewan Roughriders dug themselves out of a 10-point hole before going on to record a\u00a027-22 win over the Ottawa Redblacks<\/a>\u00a0on Friday night.<\/p>\n

And with the win, the Green and White improved to 3-1 in the bounceback effort after falling to Toronto last week, while the Redblacks remain winless at 0-4.<\/p>\n

Here are the top takeaways from the Week 5 contest:<\/p>\n

10 Thoughts<\/p>\n

1. That was about as complementary as it gets in football. Saskatchewan got a pair of touchdowns from the offence, a return touchdown and a turnover on special teams, and a pair of crucial stops from the defence in the win over the Redblacks. I wouldn\u2019t necessarily call it an ugly win but I would instead say the team did enough to win and Ottawa did enough to lose. And that\u2019s all that really matters.<\/p>\n

2. While the Redblacks made some key mistakes in the game, Ottawa got off to a strong start with some complementary football of its own with an interception from the defence by former Rider A.J. Allen and a punt block by Brian Cole. The Redblacks turned that into 10 points, the first time they\u2019ve led in a game all season, before Trevor Harris and the Roughriders woke up on Saskatchewan\u2019s fourth offensive series as the quarterback capped off an efficient drive with a touchdown pass to Dhel Duncan-Busby, who missed last week due to injury. In the third quarter, Harris then engineered another touchdown drive by connecting in the end zone with KeeSean Johnson, Saskatchewan\u2019s best offensive player on Friday with 137 yards on nine catches.<\/p>\n

3. On the topic of receivers, should the Roughriders have sat Samuel Emilus and Kian Schaffer-Baker, who both weren\u2019t at 100 per cent this week? Maybe. Schaffer-Baker had a pair of drops early and ended with an uncharacteristic five-target, one-catch performance, but he must have told head coach Corey Mace he was good to go, as Mace said this week, sometimes that is the determining factor. Emilus caught three passes on six targets for 46 yards as he battled through an ankle injury suffered last week. The Roughriders maybe aren\u2019t deep enough to rest both but I think you may have to look at the \u201ctotality of the season\u201d, as Mace has alluded to in the past, when it comes to putting together your best, and healthiest lineup, on a weekly basis.<\/p>\n

4. Duncan-Busby and Johnson had key plays in the win but the biggest play of the game happened in the third quarter when rookie receiver Mathew Sexton returned a punt 101 yards for the touchdown. Sexton, who is filling in for the injured James Letcher as Saskatchewan\u2019s primary returner, looked good after arriving to camp and just needed an opportunity \u2014 which he got on Friday night. The 28-year-old has had quite the journey to get to the CFL, spending time with seven teams in the span of five years, before being cut by Ottawa after attending rookie camp with the team this season. The Roughriders scooped him up shortly after and are now benefiting from his speed and elusiveness. Last week at practice, he shrugged it off when I asked him if he wanted to \u201cstick it to the Redblacks\u201d for cutting him, but I\u2019m sure that felt good on a personal note.<\/p>\n

5. And yes, it was a great punt return by Sexton but the tackle attempt by Ottawa\u2019s punter, Noah Gettman, was rough. I get that you\u2019re a punter, and your job isn\u2019t to tackle, but you are wearing pads and you signed up to play a contact sport. Plus, Sexton is 5-foot-10 and Gettman is 6-foot-4, yet the punter tried to just push the speedy returner out of bounds when he ran by him instead of attempting to make a tackle or get in front of him. It wasn\u2019t quite Junior Mertile, circa 2015, but it was close.<\/p>\n

6. More from special teams as linebacker Nick Wiebe made another game-changing play as he popped the ball loose from Ottawa\u2019s Kalil Pimpleton on a punt return, before landing on the loose ball to secure the fumble. After giving up return touchdowns in back-to-back games, Saskatchewan\u2019s coverage unit played much better Friday even though they also allowed a blocked punt, with Antoine Brooks clearly missing his assignment on the play.<\/p>\n

7. Tommy Stevens deserves some credit for not only his short-yardage sneaks but his closing ability. He\u2019s not necessarily Mariano Rivera but Stevens did an outstanding job finishing off Saskatchewan\u2019s win, with runs of five, six, seven, 10 and one yard to essentially run out the clock and end the game. Harris\u2019 27-yard pass to Emilus on the drive also helped but what a way for a team to secure the win and not leave the outcome in the hands of the defence.<\/p>\n

8. Speaking of the defence, the offence and special teams did their part, and then late in the game, it was the defence stepping up. First, it was a key stop on Ottawa\u2019s two-point convert attempt before safety Jaxon Ford made an outstanding play to force a turnover on downs on third-and-short late in the fourth quarter. Had Saskatchewan not stopped Ottawa on the two-point attempt, it would have been 27-24 and the Redblacks would have likely kicked a field goal to tie instead of going for it on third down. Instead, it was 27-22 and Ottawa needed a touchdown to win and the Roughriders defence rose to the occasion, just when it looked like former Rider quarterback Jake Maier was going to lead Ottawa on a scoring drive against his former team.<\/p>\n

9. At 0-4, you have to wonder if Ottawa will be making any changes. I don\u2019t think Maier played himself out of the starting job, although the Redblacks did bring in McLeod Bethel-Thompson after trading Dru Brown. There were several mistakes made by rookies and a few injuries Ottawa had to deal with, so it might be tough to put on head coach Ryan Dinwiddie, but something\u2019s got to give. I don\u2019t see the Redblacks making drastic changes this week though as they are set to face Edmonton on Thursday.<\/p>\n

10. As for the Roughriders, the Green and White will return home next Sunday to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. And with the Friday-Sunday game schedule, Saskatchewan will get a few days off before returning to practice on Wednesday, which should bode well for several of the injured players. The Roughriders also have a bye the following week, which is something often considered when it comes to putting someone not necessarily at 100 per cent into the lineup. Hamilton has already beat B.C. and Winnipeg this year and the Tiger-Cats will certainly give the Roughriders another tough test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders dug themselves out of a 10-point hole before going on to record a\u00a027-22 win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[276266,49,48,521,522,276177,276178,158032,520,276176,82],"class_list":["post-780248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-276266","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-category-cfl","tag-category-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-category-sports","tag-cfl","tag-leader-post","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780248","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=780248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}