The Saskatchewan Roughriders have now lost back-to-back games for the first time this season after a 27-25 loss against the Edmonton Elks.
As they have for most of the year, the Riders got off to a slow start in this one. But, unlike previous times, the comeback attempt fell just short — ironically, on a pass that went too long — and Saskatchewan has now lost two in a row while the back of the West Division is suddenly making a surge.
Here are the rest of my thoughts on a frustrating evening in the Alberta capital.
Two turnovers, one drive
Trevor Harris has developed a strong reputation in his time in the CFL as someone who can manage the ball extremely well and doesn’t turn the ball over. So, imagine Rider Nation’s surprise when the QB known for his accuracy managed to pull off the rare two-for-one special on interceptions on the same drive. Neither of the interceptions felt like there was much of a disguise to anything; the defenders unleashed the wild strategy of “just standing there,” leading to a pair of uncharacteristic picks.
This is starting to become a slightly concerning trend for the Riders’ pivot. Harris has thrown four interceptions in the last three games, compared to just two TDs. Not surprisingly, the Riders have gone 1-2 in that stretch. I do wonder if the grind of the season is wearing on the 39-year-old a little bit now. I understand the irony of a man who is currently nursing a back problem because he “sat wrong” bringing this up, but with Harris playing this 13th game of the season this weekend, this is now the most games he has played for the Riders in a season. It is just the second time he has reached the 13-game mark since 2018.
Harris did get the offence rolling as the game went on, putting up his highest passing yards total since Week 7. But the Elks’ defence is bottom of the league in passing defence and had forced the fewest turnovers coming into this game. This was not the performance I was expecting against that defence. I don’t think it is anything that is going to derail the season, but I do believe it highlights the importance of the Riders locking in that first-round bye to give their QB, and the rest of a beat-up roster, some extra R&R before the biggest games of the year.
Hard work doesn’t pay off
Oddly enough, the two interceptions on one drive weren’t even the most debilitating turnovers of the first quarter. With Saskatchewan already well within Brett Lauther’s rouge range, KeeSean Johnson caught a pass in the red zone. As he was fighting for extra yards and a first down, the ball was punched out. Edmonton recovered, reminding everyone that hard work never pays off.
It was a frustrating end to what felt like a get-right drive for the Green-and-White after a tough start to the game. And it seemed to keep Saskatchewan stalled out for a lot of the game. The Riders wouldn’t get that deep into Edmonton territory again until there were less than four minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The Riders have been so good at protecting the football all season long. To have turnovers feel so costly early in this game was incredibly frustrating.
Feed Thor more
For the majority of the season, I have typed my frustration with the Riders just running the ball up the middle on first down and trying to pass for the rest. Well, if you were frustrated with my frustration, you’ll be happy to know that I felt the exact opposite this week.
The Riders seemed to have their most success when the rock was in the incredibly jacked arms of A.J. Ouellette, who ran the ball 19 times for 115 yards and a touchdown. At some point, it becomes detrimental to a player’s health to just keep going to him over and over again. But, it would have been very tempting to do that this week, as the Riders’ offensive line was pushing Edmonton around in the run game all evening.
This marks the first time in Ouellette’s CFL career that he had a 100-yard rushing game in a losing effort. Even with the receiving room getting filled back up with healthy pass catchers, Ouellette is still one of the most talented players this offence has. I am all for featuring him as much as possible, even if I have a frustration with some of those first-and-10 dives up the middle.
Emilus for Life
One of the big stories coming into this game was the return of a couple of key members of the receiving group, with Sam Emilus and Shawn Bane Jr. checking back in.
Bane’s production in his 2025 debut was exclusively kept to the special teams department. Meanwhile, Emilus, who had been absent for two months and a day, fit right back in with Harris targeting him 10 times, completing seven for 63 yards. He certainly didn’t seem like he missed a beat and looked very comfortable back in the lineup. This gives Harris an embarrassment of riches and will be a nightmare for opposing defensive units as we head down the stretch.
Baldon’t lie
The biggest bright spot of the night for the guys in green and white had to be on the defensive line, specifically the play of Habakkuk Baldonado. The Italian saw more reps this week with Shane Ray on the shelf, and he delivered with three tackles and a sack with constant pressure in Cody Fajardo’s face.
It is difficult for a player on a team that is covered as closely as the Riders are to fly under the radar, but Baldonado has done that. There are some big names and big performers on the defensive line, so it is easy to lose someone in the shuffle. But Baldonado has been solid all season long, so it is great to see him elevate his play when given a larger opportunity.
That type of high-quality depth will serve Saskatchewan well as the weather gets colder and the games get tougher. Having a player like Baldonado that you can rely on to keep everything moving is a great luxury for a defence to have.
Same old song and dance
Alright, enough of the sunshine and rainbows, back to the frustrating stuff.
For the second week in a row, the Riders were burned by some busts in the secondary. Now, it wasn’t nearly as atrocious as the Montreal game before the bye, but they still popped up at bad times for Saskatchewan.
In the fourth quarter, with Saskatchewan trying to give their offence a chance to win the game, the Elks were able to get four plays of 25 yards or more. Three of them were big passing plays, and the other was a 37-yard TD run by Justin Rankin. The Riders have given up the fewest big plays in the CFL this season, but this is back-to-back weeks of massive problems downfield costing this team games. I understand that a lot of this is injury-related, but regardless of who is in there, it shouldn’t be happening this time of year, especially coming off a late-season bye.
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the teams they are going to be playing in the West playoffs are all more than capable of putting up a big play or two down the field. This needs to be corrected ASAP.
Missed opportunity
So much of the frustration and annoyance I’ve brought up so far could have largely been erased with one successful two-point conversion. The one early in the game was frustrating, but they had been running it well, so I understood them trying to run it one more time. But the last one, with the game on the line, was very disappointing.
It was a clear miscommunication between Ajou Ajou and Trevor Harris. On those types of plays, it is difficult for us to lay blame because we don’t know what the call was, what each man saw, and so on. But what I do know is how frustrating it is to have this team put together a fantastic drive to end the game and have it end with a non-competitive play on a two-point conversion.
To bookend the game with uncharacteristic plays from Trevor Harris is disappointing, especially with how good they looked leading up to that play. But the missed opportunity wasn’t just contained to this one game. Bigger picture, this was a massive chance to all but wrap up the division.
Early in the season, the Riders had trouble putting games away for good and letting teams hang around. Now, they are doing that with the top spot in the West Division. Saskatchewan had a chance to take a six-point lead in the division with Calgary having four games remaining. All they had to do was beat the last-place team. I don’t know why this team insists on making things just a little bit more difficult for themselves than they need to.
Final thoughts
At the end of the day, the Riders are still a first-place team, and odds are it will stay that way for the rest of the year. I still don’t love that this is the second game in a row that the Riders weren’t able to match the urgency of their opponent.
I understand it is human nature. Montreal had Toronto suddenly nipping at their heels, and Edmonton felt like this was a must-win for a number of different reasons. Saskatchewan simply doesn’t have that sort of pressure at the moment. But the Riders played much of this game like they knew they had room to fail, before finally manufacturing some desperation late in the game.
They are still in the driver’s seat in the West and have two very winnable games coming up, so this all could be null and void by the next time you hear from me. But after those winnable games, they close the season with Winnipeg and B.C., who could have everything to play for. So, Saskatchewan can’t afford any more banana peels on this Mario Kart track towards the West Final.
I know that there are some of you — possibly most of you — who feel like this is way too much negativity about a team that already has its best record of the last four years and still has a shot at their most wins since 1970. But we have seen this for the last two years in the CFL. Two years ago, Toronto crushed everything on its path to hosting the East Final and barely had a meaningful game post-Labour Day. Then, in the East Final, that urgency just couldn’t magically turn on, and 800 interceptions later, they were watching Cody Fajardo and the Alouettes head to a Grey Cup win. The Alouettes clearly learned no lessons from that, and they were the ones who couldn’t turn it back on after a dominant season, and they had to watch while the Argos rode Nick Arbuckle to a surprise championship.
Maybe the Riders are just crazy like a fox and are actually just making sure the games down the stretch matter, so they keep their focus through a 21-week regular season. I’m just worried that we have too many examples of “oh, they’re still first place, they’ll turn it back on” ending with “oh, we’ll get them next year.”
I ended my thoughts last game saying the Riders could come out of the bye and start this game in a tie for first in the West. Obviously, that didn’t happen, and that is a huge break for Saskatchewan. This felt like giving some of that break right back to Calgary and giving a very talented football team some hope when you didn’t have to.
We’ll see if any lessons are learned from this before their Friday night tilt with Ottawa next week in our nation’s capital. Hopefully they are, if for no other reason than you don’t want to sit through another “DON’T SCREW THIS UP” rant.
