The Saskatchewan Roughriders made a statement with a 29-9 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Regina.
It was a lopsided score, and even still, the 20-point gap almost feels like it doesn’t do justice to the Riders’ dominance in this game. Once Saskatchewan got rolling, they didn’t stop, and a battle of division leaders turned one-sided pretty quickly.
Here are the rest of my thoughts on the Riders’ victory in a potential Grey Cup preview.
Bend (a lot) but don’t break
The 20-point win makes you think this was a dominant win for Saskatchewan, but it didn’t look like it to start the game. Hamilton’s first two possessions took them into the red zone, but the Riders were able to limit the damage to a field goal each time.
They absolutely caught a break with Hamilton going ultra-conservative after marching the ball down the field with minimal resistance on each possession. I have come to the realization that kickers would HATE playing on my team if I were a coach because I’d go for it a lot. And to me, those were both situations that felt like Hamilton bailed out the Riders by kicking it and allowing them to hang around.
Ball in the family
Trevor Harris’ family was front and centre for the Family Day festivities, and he did not disappoint. Again, it started a little shaky with Harris throwing an interception and a couple of other close calls, but one play seemed to get him back into a rhythm.
Jonathan Moxey nearly picked one off, jumping an underneath route and dropping the interception. On the next possession, Saskatchewan put him on roller skates with a double move, and Dohnte Meyers was wide open for a 58-yard major. From that point on, Harris was fantastic. He picked Hamilton apart for three TDs and 307 yards, which was 106 more than his veteran counterpart on the opposite sideline.
Too legit to quit (scoring points)
One thing I loved about this game was the Riders’ aggression after they scored. The CFL field is huge, making it difficult to defend even down by the goal line. I don’t understand why teams don’t go for two more often.
The Riders went for two on two separate occasions, and I loved both of them, especially the early one. After the Green and White took a 7-6 lead on the aforementioned Meyers TD, I turned into the heart-eyes emoji as Saskatchewan attempted to give themselves a three-point lead. That is the type of thing that a lot of teams wouldn’t worry about early in the game, but I really appreciate that the Riders were looking to maximize their points while things were going well.
Even though they didn’t get it later in the game, I love to see this Riders group showing more aggression whenever they can.
AJ all day
In the early part of the season, A.J. Ouellette was a major part of the game plan, but that has started to slow a bit as teams have bottled up the Riders’ run game. They were back riding the lightning bolt with Thor on Saturday, giving Ouellette his most yards and carries since he picked up 139 yards on 23 carries against B.C. in Week 4.
Instead of just plowing into the middle, he seemed to have a lot of success running behind Jermarcus Hardrick on the right side. That slight adjustment helped him pick up 84 yards on 18 carries. What I really liked about this game for him, though, was how they used him in the passing attack. It was only three receptions for 33 yards, but it felt like more than that. A couple of those catches came when the Riders were still looking to get the offence into a flow, and he helped keep drives alive.
Ouellette is one of the team’s best playmakers regardless of position, and with the injuries Saskatchewan has had to deal with in its receiving room this year, it makes sense to involve him in as many ways as you can going into a crucial stretch of games.
Never waste a good crisis
Speaking of those receiving injuries, the Riders were once again without Samuel Emilus, Shawn Bane Jr., and Kian Schaffer-Baker for this game, and once again, other players stepped up.
Earlier in the season, we joked that it felt like this team took turns with the number one receiver role. Well, apparently, this week the rock-paper-scissors game ended in a draw because both KeeSean Johnson and Dohnte Meyers played the role of top dog. Johnson certainly did so with more volume, catching eight of his 11 targets for 117 yards, while Meyers needed just three receptions to rack up 76 yards and a score.
No team enters the season saying, “Hopefully our top three receivers all miss significant time this year,” but the Riders have to be thrilled with the development of Johnson and Meyers.
Bo-No
We have given love to the guys who put up the points, but the fellows in Green and White on the defensive side of the ball deserve a lot of flowers as well.
The big boys up front came to play, getting Bo Levi Mitchell to the turf six times on the afternoon. The Ticats QB threw for a season-low 201 yards on 31 pass attempts, and it felt like he had a Rider in his face on all 31 of those. The Riders lined up with five on the line quite a few times as the game went on. I don’t have the stats in front of me, but I believe the success rate of that look for Saskatchewan was about 100 percent.
I’m sure the former MOP has heard the “Bo Knows” jokes hundreds of times in his career. But the one thing he didn’t know in this game was what it was like to pass from a clean pocket. It was a relentless attack on the league’s leading passer and a statement from this Riders’ defence against one of the most celebrated offences in the league.
Gone with the wind
The Riders won this game by 20, so the small details seem like they were just that: small. But Hamilton didn’t do themselves any favours in this game either.
We mentioned above that Hamilton bailed out Saskatchewan early in the game with a couple of field goals from inside the red zone. Who knows how it plays out if the Tabbies go for it on either or both of those, but even a sold-out Mosaic Stadium on a Saturday afternoon can get pretty quiet when you’re down 14-0 before most fans have had a chance for their second beer run of the game.
Then, to start the second half, Hamilton decided to take the ball with the wind at their back for the third quarter and allow Saskatchewan to have that edge in the fourth. I assume the thought was that Saskatchewan had the momentum, so try to take it back and hopefully pull ahead. Instead, the Riders had the ball for roughly 12 minutes of the quarter while Hamilton was able to run just nine plays. One of those was a punt that the Riders fumbled away, two others were interceptions, with all of it adding up to a nightmare for Hamilton.
This might be playing the results a bit, but the move by Hamilton to slow the Riders’ momentum did the exact opposite, and by the time Saskatchewan had the wind at their back, all the air was taken out of Hamilton’s sails, turning the fourth into a party in Regina.
Rolan the credits
The play that felt like the dagger in this game came when Hamilton had the ball with the wind at their back. Drae McCray had just fumbled the punt, and the Ti-Cats were set up with amazing field position, looking to get back into the game. If Hamilton had scored, the lead would be back down to one possession, and the pressure would be back on. Instead, Rolan Milligan Jr. came up huge with the interception by the goal line, and the Riders were able to take away any wind advantage Hamilton may have had.
The one criticism I hear from Rider fans the most about the defence is that sometimes they can be a little soft on underneath stuff. And while I believe that is true for the most part, on this play, it actually helped out. Jameer Thurman backed off quite a bit, and as he got more and more depth, the passing window got tighter and tighter for Mitchell to try to throw into. It forced a bit of an overthrow that hit Milligan right in the middle of the “0” on his jersey, which is also where Hamilton’s win probability was at that point.
This was another case of the Riders’ defence not letting the Tiger-Cats get any sort of momentum in this game.
Lauther lags again
Not everyone in green and white had a good day. Brett Lauther went two-for-five on field goals, missing from 28, 42, and 46 yards out. Yes, the wind played a huge factor in his tough day, but one of those came with the wind at his back.
I have given him the benefit of the doubt for most of this season, but this now puts Lauther at four-of-10 against Hamilton on the year. It is the third game this season where he has missed multiple kicks, and his average is now down to 66 percent on the year.
Blame the weather if you want, but if the Riders have their way, the two biggest games of the season will be in Regina and Winnipeg in November — not exactly peak kicking season in either location. This weather thing is going to come up again; hopefully, he is ready for it when it does, or the Riders may be forced to find an alternative.
Final thoughts
This is now back-to-back completely dominant performances from the Riders, outscoring the top two teams in the East 63-15. They have a ton of momentum and now a four-point cushion heading into their biggest stretch of the season, starting with a trip to Calgary next week before the Winnipeg back-to-back.
When these two played earlier this season, Calgary stole the Riders’ lunch money. If the Riders can exorcise that demon and even just get a split with Winnipeg, life gets a little comfortable heading towards November.
This game was billed as a potential Grey Cup preview, but I don’t think there is a question that next week’s game is between the two best teams in the CFL right now. The Riders passed this first test with flying colours. I am very interested to see what they do on the road in Southern Alberta next weekend.
Peter Klein is a Saskatchewan-born, Calgary-based CFL analyst. He is a lifelong fan who has been covering the league across multiple platforms for the last 17 years.
