The heat was on the Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n
Really, it was.<\/p>\n
Despite winning three of their first four games, the highly-rated Roughriders hadn\u2019t overpowered anyone and had instead played see-saw and patty-cake with some of the CFL\u2019s middle-of-the-pack teams, until meeting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on a withering Sunday evening at Mosaic Stadium.<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan forced four turnovers and roasted the visitors 38-7<\/a> by outscoring them 27-0 in the second half.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is something we\u2019ve been waiting for as a defence,\u201d said Roughriders head coach Corey Mace during his postgame media scrum.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see obviously how (turnovers) can turn the tides for this team. So I\u2019m happy that it started in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n The Roughriders, who entered the game with a league-low three turnovers, got a 107-yard, fourth-quarter interception return for a touchdown by Josh Woods.<\/p>\n A linebacker, Woods has both of Saskatchewan\u2019s interceptions this season. That\u2019s pretty weird for a team whose zone-heavy defence is designed to give its DBs plenty of opportunities for interceptions.<\/p>\n The Roughriders also recovered a fumble and thwarted two third-down gambles, highlighted by safety Jaxon Ford stopping a ball carrier short of the marker for a second straight game.<\/p>\n With a strong defence anchored by linebacker Wynton McManis and an explosive offence led by veteran quarterack Bo Levi Mitchell, Hamilton had been looking like one of the East\u2019s strongest teams.<\/p>\n But Mitchell\u2019s fractured ankle changed their fortunes, forcing the Tiger-Cats into deciding whether to replace him with journeymen Jake Dolegala, a former Rider, or Tre Ford, a former Rider killer.<\/p>\n Despite passing for only 122 yards, Dolegala inexplicably played almost the entire game.<\/p>\n Dolegala got sacked three times (twice by James Vaughters<\/a>), couldn\u2019t establish a running attack, rarely connected with his receivers and, when he did, likely winced when stars Kenny Lawler and Kiondre Smith dropped his hard-thrown passes.<\/p>\n Speaking afterwards to Ticats.ca, Smith said:<\/p>\n \u201cI want everybody to understand one thing: This game was not on Jake. We have to do a whole lot better as a unit to help that boy out.\u201d<\/p>\n Riders quarterback Trevor Harris, besides being intercepted twice, threw for only 89 yards more than Dolegala, including touchdown passes to Samuel Emilus and Kian Schaffer-Baker.<\/p>\n But the power-running of tailback A.J. Ouellette<\/a> (18 carries, 83 yards in his first game back following an ankle injury) and unstoppable short-yardage QB Tommy Stevens (8-for-55 with two TDs) helped wear down the sun-beaten Tabbies.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s part of who we kind of wanna be anyway,\u201d said Mace, when asked if the Riders game plan revolved around wearing down their opponents.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly it\u2019s something you look at cuz we\u2019ve got big guys out there, too, who gotta do the dirty work as well.\u201d<\/p>\n With a game-time temperature of 35C and an on-field thermometer showing an unbearable reading of 48C on the sun-baked artificial turf, the Roughriders announced 25,476 tickets had been distributed for the game.<\/p>\n The stadium\u2019s shaded western and northern grandstands were full of fans, but fewer seats were occupied behind the Ticats\u2019 bench on the sunny, stifling east side.<\/p>\n The southside, beer-drinking section known as \u201cPil Country\u201d was unusually barren of patrons, likely because of a scheduling conflict with Country Thunder\u2019s closing night 40 kilometres away at Craven.<\/p>\n Strange things typically happen at that unenclosed end of the stadium, particularly when the Prairie wind blows onto the field.<\/p>\n Roughriders rookie Alex Hale missed a 32-yard convert and 35-yard field goal kicking in that direction Sunday. Hale has made 10 of 13 field goals this season, but his team is the only one without a successful kick from 40 yards or longer.<\/a><\/p>\n There could have been opportunities for 47- and 48-yard field goals during the first quarter. But after Hale missed his 35-yarder Mace, mindful of his kicker\u2019s struggles and knowing his team has allowed two special-teams touchdowns this season, chose to punt both times.<\/p>\n \u201cKicking towards Pil is always a challenge,\u201d said Mace, who said he may have tried those field goals heading in the other direction.<\/p>\n Remember, this is the Canadian Field Goal League, where 50-yard field goals are becoming the norm. Indeed, they\u2019re a necessity.<\/p>\n