Always a stickler for accuracy, Trevor Harris suggested a better term for a just-concluded home-and-home set between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Elks.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore like away-and-away,\u201d Harris remarked to reporters at Commonwealth Stadium<\/a> after quarterbacking Saskatchewan to a 28-26 CFL victory on Saturday night.<\/a><\/p>\n Nine days earlier, the Elks had celebrated on enemy turf, winning 36-34 at Mosaic Stadium in this season\u2019s first clash of the West Division\u2019s top-ranked teams.<\/p>\n In both cases, the visiting team won by two points.<\/p>\n The comparisons end there.<\/p>\n \u201cThis one seemed a little bit more old-school,\u201d Head Coach Corey Mace said after Saturday\u2019s slugfest. \u201cThe other one looked like a seven-on-seven game.\u201d<\/p>\n In Part 1, Harris and Edmonton\u2019s Cody Fajardo each threw four touchdown passes and combined for 896 aerial yards.<\/p>\n They also collaborated for seven completions of 30-plus yards. There was only one such play, by Edmonton, on Saturday.<\/p>\n Fajardo threw for 510 yards in the opener, averaging 20.4 yards per completion. Those figures were pared to 286 and 13.0 in Saturday\u2019s sequel.<\/p>\n Harris, for his part, registered 239 passing yards in Edmonton after amassing 386 nine days earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was kind of a track meet up and down the field,\u201d he said of the July 23 thriller. \u201cOffences were making some big plays.<\/p>\n \u201cDefences make adjustments. This is pro football, man. You\u2019re not going to throw for 500 every week. You\u2019re not going to throw for 400 every week.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought our defence did a great job most of the day. Their defence did a great job making adjustments, seeing what they could do to take away our primary receivers and push the pocket.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when push came to shove, I feel like we made the plays when we needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n The offence delivered in timely fashion even though some of its premier playmakers were sidelined.<\/p>\n Receiver Samuel Emilus (foot injury) and running back A.J. Ouellette (knee) both sat out the game. Complicating matters, Kian Schaffer-Baker left the game toward the end of the third quarter after making an 11-yard reception. Daniel Wiebe, who started in place of Emilus, was described by Harris as being \u201ctouch and go\u201d as the game progressed.<\/p>\n Yet, the offence produced four touchdowns \u2014 to Edmonton\u2019s two \u2014 and received integral contributions from players who do not ordinarily bask in the spotlight.<\/p>\n Johnny Johnson III and Dhel Duncan-Busby shared the team lead in receptions, with four. Duncan-Busby led the Roughriders in receiving yards (66).<\/p>\n Johnson III gained 27 and 15 on back-to-back catches to set up a four-yard, fourth-quarter TD pass from Harris to KeeSean Johnson, who added a two-point convert.<\/p>\n To recap: Those passes were caught by Johnson, Johnson, Johnson and Johnson.<\/p>\n Daniel Johnson was playing left guard at the time.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not forget Stevens, Stevens and Stevens.<\/p>\n Tommy Stevens scored on three one-yard runs for Saskatchewan, tying a team record for rushing TDs by a quarterback in one game.<\/p>\n Stevens\u2019 first score was set up by Johnson III\u2019s 87-yard kickoff return.<\/p>\n Touchdown Tommy scored for the second time shortly after Harris found Duncan-Busby for a 16-yard gain that advanced the football to the two.<\/p>\n The third Stevens TD followed an 18-yard reception in traffic by D\u2019Sean Mimbs, whose clutch catch gave Saskatchewan a first-and-goal situation on the seven.<\/p>\n It was just the fourth career reception for Mimbs \u2014 Saskatchewan\u2019s sixth-round selection in the 2024 CFL Canadian Draft \u2014 and certainly the biggest to this point, on a night when the Roughriders\u2019 depth was tested yet again.<\/p>\n That was also true in the defensive backfield. Defensive halfback Rolan Milligan Jr. (knee) was already missing after being placed on the six-game injured list. Then Tevaughn Campbell, an all-CFL cornerback last season, was sidelined near halftime. He watched the second half while wearing a sling.<\/p>\n Minus two of the league\u2019s premier defensive backs, Saskatchewan was facing a quarterback who went off for 510 yards in the teams\u2019 previous meeting.<\/p>\n An unenviable situation, to be certain, but one in which the resilient Roughriders responded.<\/p>\n \u201cShout-out to everybody,\u201d Mace said. \u201cWe truly needed every person on this roster to make a play tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n A little good luck \u2014 which had been elusive in the teams\u2019 previous meeting \u2014 didn\u2019t hurt, either.<\/p>\n A lost fumble by Stevens near the goal line was negated when Edmonton was called for \u2026 wait for it \u2026 too many men on the field. Saskatchewan soon capitalized on another opportunity.<\/p>\n Saskatchewan\u2019s closing drive, which devoured the final 2\u00bd minutes, was extended by two 15-yard penalties against Edmonton.<\/p>\n The Roughriders would have been punting on third-and-six with a minute and a half left if not for a roughing-the-passer penalty assessed to Tomari Fox.<\/p>\n Three plays later, Stevens was tackled for a loss of two on first-and-10, only for ex-Roughrider Malik Carney to be flagged for roughing.<\/p>\n Also on the final possession, Quali Conley \u2014 stepping in for the injred Ouellette \u2014 ran for 11 yards on second-and-eight. That was Conley\u2019s final carry during a game in which he spun away from and leaped over would-be tacklers.<\/p>\n Along the way, he helped to prevent the Roughriders from experiencing any kind of tailspin.<\/p>\n The loss at home \u2014 albeit in a game that was aesthetically pleasing for fanciers of wide-open football \u2014 was neutralized by a gutsy win on the road.<\/p>\n The odds, from a raw-data perspective, were not in the Roughriders\u2019 favour.<\/p>\n Leading up to Saturday\u2019s game, Saskatchewan had lost to the visiting team 34 times to open a home-and-home set, dating back to 1948. On only 10 of those occasions had the Roughriders rebounded with a victory on the road.<\/p>\n Make it 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Always a stickler for accuracy, Trevor Harris suggested a better term for a just-concluded home-and-home set between the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-842948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842948","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=842948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}