Jaxon Ford is making a habit out of making big plays.<\/p>\n
For the second straight game, the Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive back stopped an opponent on a third-and-one situation to force a turnover on downs.<\/p>\n
The latest snuff came Sunday when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats gambled on their first possession the second half at the Saskatchewan 35-yard line. Ford got to quarterback Jake Dolegala at the line of scrimmage and got the Riders the ball back.<\/p>\n
It was a critical play. The Riders led only 11-7 at that point. They went on to increase their advantage to 11 points thanks to an eight-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with Trevor Harris touchdown pass to Kian Schaffer-Baker.<\/p>\n
The Riders steamrolled the Tiger-Cats following Ford\u2019s pivotal tackle and ultimately won 38-7.<\/p>\n
\u201cI live for these moments. I love these moments,\u201d Ford told Voice of the Roughriders Dave Thomas last week. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t trade it for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford has been a playmaker since replacing Nelson Lokombo starting at safety in Week 3. He\u2019s already up to 17 defensive tackles on the season, which are as many as he had in the first three years of his CFL career as he battled injuries.<\/p>\n
But Ford\u2019s growth is just about his tackling prowess.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting a lot more reps in practice and feeling more comfortable back there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just being the man on the field and doing all the checks and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody understands what he brings as far as physicality. He\u2019s a very physical tackler,\u201d Riders coach Corey Mace told reporters last week. \u201cThe most important thing back there at that position is his making sure that we\u2019re getting everybody on the same page. He\u2019s growing in that role tremendously.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of him taking advantage of his opportunity. I\u2019m expecting things to continuously get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford feels his preparation and film studies being his enhanced roll were a key contributor in being able to step up \u2013 especially at the right times.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just acting like you\u2019re the starter even when you\u2019re a backup and just staying ready,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The other big possession-changing stop on third-and-one from the Regina native and former U of R Cougar came against the Ottawa Redblacks on July 3.<\/p>\n
Redblacks\u2019 Bryson Barnes tried a quarterback sneak deep in Saskatchewan territory, but Ford came off the right side to stop him. The Riders might not have won 27-22 if not for Ford bringing down Barnes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ran short yardage earlier in the game,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to lie; I wasn\u2019t aligned correctly on one of them. I got pushed back. But we made some corrections to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always say, \u2018Be at your best when your best is required.\u2019 \u2026 I just did my job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaxon Ford is making a habit out of making big plays. For the second straight game, the Saskatchewan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[3878,49,48,521,522,520,3290,4398,27684,27683,1893,4401,27682,4400,4399,82],"class_list":["post-802654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-agriculture","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-contests","tag-country-music","tag-gx94","tag-manitoba-news","tag-radio","tag-rider-radio","tag-saskatchewan-news","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802654","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=802654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}