Taylor Shire, Regina Leader-Post
The Saskatchewan Roughriders held the CFL’s highest-scoring offence in check on Saturday.
Hosting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 33,350 at Mosaic Stadium in Week 11 of the CFL season, the Roughriders came away with a 29-9 win for their fourth straight victory to improve to 8-1 for just the second time in franchise history, with the other coming in 2013.
Hamilton, who averaged a league-high 32.3 points per game heading into the contest, fell to 6-4.
Despite a slow start to the game which saw Roughriders quarterback Trevor Harris get intercepted on his third pass of the game, the veteran pivot settled into the game and ended up completing 21 of 27 passes for 307 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.
“A lot of times we’ve talked about playing a full four quarters, and today was the first quarter that we didn’t play too well,” said Harris. “Early in the game, they made a couple good plays. The interception was a really, really good play by the DB. And I could have put the ball a little bit more outside.
“Early in the game, they were jumping stuff and reading routes and they were doing a great job. And so it kind of made us have to be a little bit more on high alert in terms of how to how to hurt their defence and attack them.
“But it was one of those quick chess matches. We were able to kind of get our traction quick.”
On the other side, Saskatchewan’s defence allowed just three field goals and twice intercepted Hamilton’s Bo Levi Mitchell, who had a league-high 21 passing touchdowns coming in. Mitchell finished the night with just 201 passing yards and no touchdowns.
“It’s no secret what Bo is able to do with the ball in his hands,” said Roughriders head coach Corey Mace, who also saw his group register six sacks. “It’s no secret about that receiving corps that they have; weapons everywhere and even their (running) back out of the backfield, he caught a couple.
“We had to do our job defensively at the back end, and linebackers obviously, to make sure that we had the zones all accounted for and allow (the defensive line) to put the pressure on.
“Ultimately for us, the goal was just to, as we always talk about, disrupt. The sacks are awesome; we love those. But the disruption of having the quarterback worrying about what’s happening in front of them as opposed to what’s happening down the field, that is a beautiful place to live in.”
Saskatchewan’s defence also limited Hamilton’s leading receiver Kenny Lawler to just three catches for 62 yards after the two-time divisional all-star went for 162 yards in the first meeting of the season between the two teams, which was a 28-23 win by the Riders in Week 2.
“You know Bo’s aiming for him, so I mean, if that’s your main threat, we’re going to cover you like you’re the main threat,” said Roughriders cornerback Tevaughn Campbell. “We’re going to let the low guys be the low guys, and we’re going to put a top on the defence.
“We were just limiting his real explosion plays and trying to just keep that under control.”
While Campbell had an interception early in the third quarter, the biggest interception of the game came minutes later.
With the Riders up 20-6, returner Drae McCray fumbled a punt and the Tiger-Cats took over on the 12-yard line down by 14.
With Mitchell looking for the end zone, Roughriders’ halfback Rolan Milligan Jr. came up with his third interception of the season on the one-yard line.
“They were in good position to score, and then they end up not getting any points which was big to take back that momentum,” said Milligan, who celebrated his 31st birthday on Saturday.
Saskatchewan’s offence then put together an 11-play, 89-yard drive which ate up 7:32 of the third quarter into the wind, capped off by a touchdown pass to Joe Robustelli to put Saskatchewan up 26-6.
“Right there if they score a touchdown, it’s a brand-new game,” said Harris. “For our defence to generate a holding call and then get an interception, and then us be able to take, going into the wind, most of the quarter off the board and convert second downs, have Tommy (Stevens) convert a third down and score and finish with a touchdown, I thought that was a big statement drive and it was probably the biggest drive of the year for us in terms of statement-wise and situationally.
“But again, it just shows that we have growth. It doesn’t show that we’ve arrived. We have not arrived. We have plenty to clean up. We can be plenty better, and that’s what we plan on doing.”
With the wind in their face to start the game, it was a tough start for Harris as he was nearly picked off on his first pass of the game.
On Hamilton’s first possession, Mitchell threw a deep ball to Lawler, but Campbell took a 24-yard pass interference penalty on the play.
After a 16-yard run by Hamilton’s Greg Bell, Saskatchewan was able limit the Tiger-Cats to a field goal as Marc Legghio connected from 11 yards to make it 3-0.
On Saskatchewan’s second drive, Harris was intercepted this time as Destin Talbert cut in front of receiver KeeSean Johnson to secure the turnover on the Tiger-Cats 41-yard line.
After the Tiger-Cats picked up three first downs to get to Saskatchewan’s 13-yard line, the Roughriders defence was able to limit Hamilton to a 21-yard field goal which made it 6-0.
Harris was more effective on Saskatchewan’s third drive of the game as he threw first-down passes to running back A.J. Ouellette, Johnson and Dohnte Meyers. However, the Roughriders came away with just a single point on the drive as Brett Lauther missed a 28-yard field goal wide right before the ball went through the back of the end zone.
In the second quarter, Saskatchewan’s fifth drive of the game lasted just one play as Harris found a wide-open Meyers for a 58-yard touchdown. Ouellette rumbled in a two-point convert as the Roughriders went up 9-6.
Two drives later, the Roughriders added to their lead. After Mace successfully challenged for pass interference which moved the ball 29 yards down field, Harris hit Tommy Nield for a 26-yard touchdown to make it 16-6 with the convert.
With time winding down in the first half, Mitchell fumbled the ball near midfield after being hit by Riders defensive end Shane Ray and the Green and White turned that into three points as Lauther connected on a 59-yard field goal as Saskatchewan took a 19-6 lead into the half.
Hamilton started with the ball in the third quarter however the Roughriders offence quickly got onto the field as Campbell intercepted Mitchell on a deep throw.
Harris connected with Ouellette and Johnson for first downs before Lauther missed a 42-yard field goal into the wind, which resulted in a single point to make it 20-6.
After the fumble by McCray, interception by Milligan and touchdown catch by Robustelli, Hamilton was pressing once again on their next drive but Mitchell was sacked on Saskatchewan’s 26-yard line by linebacker A.J. Allen on second down. From there, Legghio kicked his third field goal of the day to make it 26-9 early in the fourth quarter.
On Saskatchewan’s next drive, Lauther rang a 46-yard field-goal attempt off the left upright, which was his third miss of the day.
With the Tiger-Cats trying to make a game out of it with under six minutes left, Mitchell was sacked for a fifth time in the game with Micah Johnson getting his second of the night on third down which resulted in Saskatchewan’s fourth forced turnover of the game.
On the ensuing drive, the Roughriders ate up two minutes of playing time before Lauther made a 14-yard field goal to make it 29-9 with 58 seconds left which concluded the scoring.
Saskatchewan, which hasn’t allowed a touchdown in two games after beating Montreal 34-6 prior to the recent bye week, will now get set for a Week 12 contest against the Calgary Stampeders (6-3) on Aug. 23 as the Roughriders will look to get some revenge on the only team that’s beaten them so far this season.
“Obviously keeping their offence off the board was something that’s not easy to do and so really thankful our defence played that well,” said Harris. “And we just got to keep our head down and keep working, because we’ve got a great Calgary team that beat us earlier this year, and we go to their house next week, and so it should be a fun test for us.”
tshire@postmedia.com
