The Saskatchewan Roughriders outlasted the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for a 34-30 win in Regina in Sunday’s Labour Day Classic.
This game certainly lived up to its classic billing, but it also felt like a labour of love watching all the madness. Through all the twists and turns, it was the Riders who were able to make enough big plays to stay above water and leave Mosaic Stadium with a huge win.
Here are the rest of my thoughts on a game that seemed to defy all logic.
A rouge by any other name
When I was getting ready to analyze this game, I didn’t expect to lead with a Trevor Harris punt, but anything can happen on Labour Day. Saskatchewan’s QB caught the Bombers napping on third-and-six with a punt that initially looked like it was the final nail in this game. After review, however, the game-winning safety turned into a drama-extending rouge. While the extra point was obviously crucial in the win, it also seemed like it was the worst of the available options and the one that felt the most difficult to justify.
The explanation that was given was the returner’s momentum took him into the end zone, so the rouge was the right call. With that said, it seemed pretty clear that Deatrick Nichols came out to the one-yard line on the return, then went back into the end zone to try to get around the tackle and was brought down.
To me, that’s a clear-cut safety that should have essentially ended the ball game. At worst, it should have been forward progress at the one-yard line, forcing the Bombers to go the entire length of the field to tie the game.
The rouge was hugely important, but it also felt like it was the worst case scenario for the Green and White on Sunday night. Obviously, it all worked out, and I can’t wait to nominate Trevor Harris as the team’s finalist for Most Outstanding Special Teams Player.
Pick deuce
Tevaughn Campbell saved Rider fans from a living football nightmare when he jumped underneath Zach Collaros’ two-point convert attempt and took it the length of the field for two more points.
Campbell had a difficult start to the season, but since getting burned on opening day, he has become one of the most important pieces of Saskatchewan’s secondary and has fit right in with their ball-hawking style. Now, he has his signature Saskatchewan moment in the Labour Day Classic.
Sack Collaros
Winnipeg’s “Zach Attack” turned into “Zach Attacked” on Labour Day, with the Riders’ defence getting to the Winnipeg pivot five times.
Malik Carney was dominant early, picking up a pair of sacks to pull him even with Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund for the lead in the CFL with eight. The Riders had four players in the top 10 in sacks league-wide heading into the game, so it almost feels unfair that they had another one get in on the fun as Ali Saad, the fourth overall pick in this year’s draft, got to Collaros as well for the first sack of his career.
Winnipeg made their push late, but for a lot of this game, the Riders’ pass rush felt like they were smothering Collaros and the Bombers’ offence.
Sometimes who you are is enough
For the better part of two seasons now, the Riders’ run defence has been elite and, like Omar in The Wire, it seems like their reputation is enough to scare teams away from even trying anything.
The Riders have allowed the fewest rushing yards in the league, but they’ve also faced the fewest rush attempts in the league. Part of that can be credited to the team often playing with a lead, but this weekend it felt like their reputation was all that was needed.
Brady Oliveira carried the ball just five times in the Labour Day Classic, easily his lowest total since an injury-shortened season opener. This was after a game in which the reigning CFL M.O.P. touched the ball 25 times in a win over Montreal. It didn’t seem like the Riders did anything special in the run game to take him away, either. He had one run for 11 yards, another for a five-yard touchdown, and then they just kind of… stopped.
One of the keys to this game was the Riders taking Oliveira out of the game, and it seemed like they did that before the game even started.
Rolling in the deep
For the second week in a row, the Riders’ defence had issues giving up plays deep down the field.
Last week against Calgary, Daylen Baldwin beat the Riders for a 46-yard completion, while Vernon Adams Jr. had a few other 20-yard completions to put that game away.
This week, the Riders allowed three Bombers receivers to have receptions of 30-plus yards, plus some big pass interference calls that felt back-breaking in nature. The defence had a lot of big moments, but a lot of that great work feels cancelled out when those plays happen.
When you look ahead to playoff time, Saskatchewan is going to likely have to deal with Calgary and Winnipeg again — then probably Hamilton, if the Riders make it out of the West Division. All of those teams can light it up downfield, so this feels like an issue that needs to be corrected sooner rather than later.
Lightning and thunder
One criticism from last week was the Riders repeatedly running up the middle on first down. The offence did run a few plays that were similar to the anger-inducing ones from last week, but they also added a couple of unique elements to them that helped.
Instead of a dive up the middle, A.J. Ouellette was stretched to the outside a little more, allowing the Riders to have a bit more success with their strong running back taking on more defensive backs than defensive linemen. They also utilized more motion pre-snap to open things up.
Rider fans aren’t expecting a Statue of Liberty triple-reverse flea-flicker with the band on the field — just a bit of variety in the running game with some added unpredictability. You don’t need to fool the entire defence on the other side, you just need to cause one player to hesitate by a step to create an opening and that’s what they did in this game.
Saskatchewan also added some speed to the equation with Mario Anderson. The rookie out of Memphis only had three carries, but it was certainly more quality than quantity as he found his way into the end zone on a pair of occasions.
Ouellette is certainly the strongest running back on the team and is one of their best offensive players, so it makes sense to include him as often as possible. With that said, he’s 20 carries away from setting a career-high. As the season goes on and the miles start to add up, giving him a couple of breaks and adding a different style for teams to worry about would be beneficial to this team.
Bend a Nield
When you see 34 points on the board, you’d assume that Trevor Harris added another big-yardage game to his M.O.P. case, but that wasn’t the case.
Harris threw for 219 yards, with 69 of them coming on a touchdown strike to Tommy Nield. The big receiver out of McMaster is the latest in the revolving door of pass-catchers to lead the team as, over the last seven games, Saskatchewan has had five different players lead the team in receiving yards.
KeeSean Johnson and Dohnte Meyers have previously stepped into the No. 1 receiver role but they’ve also opened the door for Nield, Joe Robustelli, and Dhel Duncan-Busby to get some valuable experience. Combine that with the return of Ajou Ajou and Trevor Harris now has an embarrassment of riches to spread the ball to in the biggest games of the season down the stretch.
That damn Demski
When Saskatchewan and Winnipeg face off, the discussion of former Riders quickly turns to Zach Collaros, which, to a certain degree, is well-deserved. The two-time M.O.P. has thrived in his time with their rivals to the east, and Rider fans had to sit and watch a game where Saskatchewan’s two most recent QBs played against each other in the Grey Cup.
But, for me, Nic Demski is the player in this game that falls into “the one that got away” territory the most. Demski has seemed to haunt his former team ever since he returned home to Manitoba in 2018. He has played his way into being the Bombers’ most dangerous weapon and came up with multiple big plays in this contest to lead the game in receiving. He was one of the biggest reasons Winnipeg almost pulled off the comeback in another Labour Day Classic.
Final thoughts
This game ended in complete chaos, where it could have gotten away from the Riders several times. They needed a punt from their QB, an interception on a two-point conversion, and the recovery of a fumble on an onside kick that did everything but bounce into Winnipeg’s hands just to seal the win.
It would be easy to explain this away as a game where the Riders got lucky, but I believe that the better team won this game. If you played this game out 10 times, the Riders would win it more often than not, and this was probably the weirdest way it could play out.
There will obviously be adjustments on both sides going into Saturday’s rematch. I feel pretty comfortable in saying Brady Oliveira will touch the ball more than 10 times next week, but the Riders have to feel confident going into the rematch next week.
