{"id":842886,"date":"2026-08-02T18:13:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T18:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/842886\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T18:13:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T18:13:38","slug":"riders-beat-elks-stevens-3-tds-harris-finishes-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/842886\/","title":{"rendered":"Riders Beat Elks: Stevens’ 3 TDs, Harris Finishes Strong"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week after getting torched in a shootout, the Saskatchewan Roughriders<\/a> found a completely different way to win. This one was ugly, physical, and interrupted by a lightning delay \u2014 and Saskatchewan still walked out of Edmonton with a split in the home-and-home, thanks to three short-yardage touchdowns from Tommy Stevens and a Trevor Harris-led offense that saved its best for winning time.<\/p>\n

Head coach Corey Mace summed up the contrast in styles perfectly. “This seemed a little bit more, you know, old school, where the other one looked like a 7-on-7 game,” Mace said. “It just goes to show, I think, that both teams \u2014 certainly I can only speak for ours \u2014 we can find different ways to get out there and put ourselves in a position to win games.”<\/p>\n

Stevens Does It Again Near the Goal Line<\/p>\n

Tommy Stevens punched in three short touchdowns, the kind of goal-line work that’s become his signature this season. It wasn’t the first time, and Mace made clear it won’t be the last time teams have to account for him. “You know, you look at the touchdowns, obviously those are huge for us,” Mace said. “But it’s what he can do to close the game out. He’s versatile, man. People are going to keep looking at and they’re going to load the box up. But Tommy may have the strongest arm of our quarterbacks too. So we’ll see.”<\/p>\n

Stevens himself downplayed the individual spotlight, framing it as just doing his job whenever his number gets called. “Anytime I can have any kind of positive influence on the game, that’s what I’m striving for, right?” Stevens said. “I want to be one of the guys. It doesn’t really matter if it’s 1, if it’s 10, whatever. I want to influence the game in a positive way.”<\/p>\n

He wasn’t perfect, though \u2014 a fumble near the goal line rattled him more than any interception would have. “I would rather throw a pick than fumble, truthfully,” Stevens said. “My heart sank farther than you know what… scarred from my running back days as a child, probably.” He then told the story of fumbling on his very first football carry back in second grade after begging his mom for a long-sleeve shirt his coach father wouldn’t allow \u2014 and said he hasn’t worn sleeves since.<\/p>\n

Harris and the Offense Find Their Footing Late<\/p>\n

It wasn’t a clean night for Trevor Harris<\/a> and the Saskatchewan offense, especially early. “We just couldn’t get an offensive flow throughout the first half and even midway through the third quarter,” Harris said. “First drive of the second half, the interception was basically like a punt at that point.” Injuries didn’t help \u2014 Harris said the Riders were “scraping the barrel” at receiver with players banged up or out, but credited the young guys who stepped in. “Mims made a great catch, Johnny Dell, those guys stepped up. And then usual suspect Ke’Shawn makes some plays for the touchdown and 2-point conversion.”<\/p>\n

Where Saskatchewan separated itself was down the stretch. “The last like 20 minutes of the game or so, I was proud of the way we played,” Harris said. “A little more aggressive offensively. And so whenever we’re aggressive, we’re tough to stop.” He pointed to the closing drive as the calling card of a team that knows how to finish. “Being able to bleed out all of, you know, 2 minutes 30 seconds \u2014 that’s what championship offenses do. So total team effort there.”<\/p>\n

“It’s pro football, man. Like you’re not gonna throw for 500 every week. You’re not gonna throw for 400 every week.” \u2014 Trevor Harris<\/p>\n

Defense Cleans Up the Communication Issues<\/p>\n

Both Harris and Mace pointed to the same fix on defense compared to last week’s shootout loss: better communication, not scheme changes. “It’s simple stuff. It’s just communication,” Harris said. “Whenever you have guys wide open, it’s typically communication in pro football. It’s rarely ever schematics. And I thought our defense did a great job.” He also praised the finishing sack on Edmonton’s last drive that sealed it.<\/p>\n

Mace echoed that, especially given the shorthanded situation Saskatchewan dealt with. “We had a couple mental busts for us last week,” Mace said. “These guys \u2014 shout out to their coaches \u2014 we just had to fine-tune our communication and they did that tonight for the majority of the game. That was the number one thing we were looking for to allow us to play football.” Mace added that Tavon Campbell went out early and a rookie had to step into extended action alongside James Burgess, making the communication fix even more important. On Campbell, Mace said, “I don’t think it’s going to be great news, but we’ll see once they talk to the doctors.”<\/p>\n

A Break on the Penalty, and a Strategy Behind the Two-Point Tries<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan caught a fortunate break late when Edmonton was flagged for having too many men on the field on what would’ve been a Stevens fumble recovery. Stevens admitted it: “I think they had too many men on the field. I think that was a penalty, so dodged a bullet there.” Mace didn’t dodge the question either. “Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I caught a break there. Caught a break on the roughing the passer too. But that’s football. There’s some bad breaks, man. We’ve been a part of a lot on our side as well. I’m happy it wasn’t us tonight, though.”<\/p>\n

Mace also explained the thinking behind going for two-point conversions rather than kicking extra points late in the game. “The last one would be able to put us up two scores. The other one would have been able to put us up six in that situation. And then the retaliation of how they go and attack us offensively would still put us in a position to win the game \u2014 that was strictly just our strategy.”<\/p>\n

What It Means Going Forward<\/p>\n

With the season series now split, both Harris and Mace made clear this rivalry isn’t finished. “It could be a situation where it could be for the West,” Harris said, referencing the possibility of a Week 21 rematch mattering for playoff seeding. “The fact that we were able to come in here and win, in a tough environment which has been a long time since we were able to say that in Edmonton \u2014 that was great. Put us on the right path.”<\/p>\n

Mace wasn’t ready to overreact to the win, or the ugly stretches inside it, but he was clear about what it said about his roster’s depth. “I’m just extremely proud of our team, man. We had a lot of guys have to get pushed into playing tonight, and we found a way to beat a really good team on their home turf.” Check the standings<\/a> to see how this split factors into the West race, and the schedule<\/a> for when these two teams could meet again with the division on the line.<\/p>\n

Watch the Full Videos<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan Roughriders: Tommy Stevens | August 1st Post-Game<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan Roughriders: Trevor Harris | August 1st Post-Game<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan Roughriders: Corey Mace | August 1st Post-Game<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week after getting torched in a shootout, the Saskatchewan Roughriders found a completely different way to win.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-842886","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\/842886","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=842886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}