The Saskatchewan Roughriders are Grey Cup-bound for the first time in 12 years, but the way they punched their ticket was anything but conventional.
Trailing the B.C. Lions 21-14 with less than three minutes remaining in the West Final, head coach Corey Mace charted his own path with two of the most controversial coaching decisions in the franchise’s history. That began by kicking a field goal from his opponent’s five-yard line with 2:44 on the clock, turning a one-touchdown game into, well, a one-touchdown game.
While that choice will now be an inescapable part of his legacy, the second-year bench boss nearly went the other way with it.
“Very close. I feel like last year, I probably just would have said, ‘Eff it, let’s do it,'” Mace laughed when asked how close he came to gambling on third-and-goal.
“Just faith in the guys, that’s all it came down to. Thought about it, for sure, but a pretty easy decision. We went for it on a third-and-short earlier in the game. Man, I don’t know. Sometimes the football gods did me, did us a favour — you never know.”
Brett Lauther connected on the 13-yard chip shot to cut the deficit to four points. Quarterbacks rarely enjoy being taken off the field in the red zone, let alone in potential game-tying situations, but veteran Trevor Harris said he had no reaction to the call.
“I trust Corey Mace. He knows what he’s doing, as you guys all saw,” the 39-year-old insisted. ” I’m sure that there’s people at home going, ‘What are you doing?’ And now they’re like, ‘Mace is the man!'”
The strategy worked to perfection, as the Riders’ defence, which Mace calls himself, secured a two-and-out on the next B.C. series. However, Harris and the Saskatchewan offence failed to generate a yard after getting the ball back, prompting another dilemma.
Facing third-and-10 with 1:48 remaining, Mace elected to punt the ball away and put it back into the hands of the Lions’ M.O.P. finalist quarterback, Nathan Rourke. On this occasion, even Harris admitted that he had some doubts about the decision.
“When we punted on that third-and-10, I was like, ‘Oh, man, Coach, I don’t know.’ But the fact that he was able to do that, and put his money where his mouth is, and say, ‘We’re defensive, we’re gonna get the ball back for you’ — it was awesome,” the quarterback said.
A sold-out crowd of 33,350 at Mosaic Stadium let Mace know how they felt about that conservative decision, booing and jeering as punter Jesse Mirco trotted out. Mace heard them loud and clear, but trusted his gut and refused to reverse course.
“I made the decision. I couldn’t call a timeout and say, ‘Sorry,’ and go back,” he joked. “I’ve made aggressive decisions before for this team, and it hadn’t worked out for us in games prior. While I understand — I totally get it — just have faith, maybe? I think you still love us.”
Yet again, Mace’s defence came up with a critical two-and-out. On second-and-three, linebacker A.J. Allen sniffed out the quarterback draw and took on fullback Zander Horvath with force in the hole, shedding the block to tackle Rourke for no gain. The Lions were forced to punt, putting their lead in jeopardy.
“Incredibly huge. I mean, that was pretty damn close to being it for us. We knew we had to make a play,” Mace said. “I just put the faith in the defence and then, ultimately, faith in the offence. We work those situations every week in practice, so I’ve seen it. I know what we’re capable of on both sides. They went out there and they did that. A hell of a stop there to get those guys off the field and get us the ball back.”
The Riders offence took to the field with 1:03 left in the ball game, needing to go 76 yards for the victory. It took them just seven plays to do so, as Harris connected with Canadian receiver Tommy Nield for a three-yard touchdown pass with 11 seconds on the clock to take the lead.
“It’s crazy how calm everybody was in the huddle going out there, even when we punted. That’s why Coach gets paid the big bucks, right?” remarked running back A.J. Ouellette. “There was no second-guessing. Just trust the process, go out there, and whoever gets a ball, make a play.”
“The fact that we got the ball back, it was our turn to deliver offensively,” Harris said. “I’m just glad that we were able to come through for the rest of the team.”
While neither advanced analytics nor conventional coaching wisdom supports the calls that Mace made, the end result has placed him in the pantheon of Riders legends. For a franchise with just four Grey Cup wins in 115 years of existence, simply reaching the big game is an accomplishment — not that Mace quite knows how to feel about it.
“I guess I really haven’t taken much time to reflect on it yet. Just waiting to see when the Montreal game is going to be ready for us to break down. It’s pretty sad from a coaching perspective,” he grinned. “But for those guys in there — elated. We have an opportunity to go to work next week, come back together for another week. What a time! That’s important to us. We love being around each other, and we have an opportunity to do something that we set out to do since training camp. That’s pretty cool.”
The Saskatchewan Roughriders (13-6) and Montreal Alouettes (12-8) will meet in the 112th Grey Cup at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg on Sunday, November 16, with kickoff scheduled for 6:00 p.m. EST.
The weather forecast in Winnipeg calls for a high of two degrees with a mix of sun and cloud. The game will be broadcast on TSN, CTV, and RDS in Canada, CBS Sports Network in the United States, and CFL+ internationally.
J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league's Global initiative.
