Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
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The Saskatchewan Roughriders couldn’t win in Edmonton as the CFL’s West Division continues to tighten.
After coming off a bye week, the Riders couldn’t keep Edmonton Elks running back Justin Rankin contained all game as the rusher scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, as Saskatchewan was defeated 27-25.
“This one sucks,” Riders quarterback Trevor Harris said. “I can’t sit here and lie to you and give a bunch of great things because this one sucks.”
Rankin finished the game with 82 rushing yards to go along with those two touchdowns.
“We just weren’t able to get it done. We’re going to go back to the drawing board and make sure we get those corrections corrected and we will be better moving forward,” said defensive end Malik Carney.
Saskatchewan is now 10-4 and on its first two-game losing streak of the 2025 season. The team does still control its own destiny but with both the B.C. Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers winning earlier in the weekend, the margins for error are getting slimmer.
“When you’re 10-2 and everything is going great, it’s easy to lead. When you drop two in a row and games you feel like you could have won, especially this one, it’s an important time to make sure you keep everyone in the boat and let everyone know our process is our process and we believe in and other. I wouldn’t trade this team for any team, and I mean that,” Harris said. “I feel like we are going to hit our stride at the right time and I think our best football is on the horizon.”
The Riders battled back and had a chance to tie things up on the final play of the game. After Harris connected with receiver KeeSean Johnson at the one-yard line with a single second left, short-yardage quarterback Tommy Stevens scored a touchdown.
But on the two-point conversion, Harris’ throw was off the mark as the Elks hung on to win.
Saskatchewan was nearly held scoreless in the first half as the club committed two interceptions and a fumble. Kicker Brett Lauther, who had missed a field goal earlier in the game, hit a 44-yarder as time expired to get the Riders on the board but still down 11-3.
“We didn’t start fast. The first drive is on me and from there, they did a good job containing what we were trying to do,” said Harris, who had two early interceptions. “It pains me to keep saying the same thing over and over about the slow start. This team has so much fight, so much resilience, so much character. I’m proud of the guys fighting until the end.”
Slow starts have been an issue for the Riders all season in 2025. Coming into the week, Saskatchewan had only scored 51 points in the first quarter — only the Ottawa Redblacks (31) scored less.
“Whether it hurt us early or not, it stinks we are constantly talking about it or working on it or trying to figure it out,” Riders head coach Corey Mace said. “We talked about it at halftime and we talked about it weeks ago and the start of this week — we can’t afford to find ourselves in a 10-point hole. We can’t continue to spot teams 10 points or 11 points before we score … We can talk about it, which we have done, but clearly that’s not good enough. We have to find other solutions as coaches and see how we can get that fixed because talking about it ad nauseam is not good enough.”
Saskatchewan Roughriders’ AJ Ouellette (45) dives in for the touchdown as Edmonton Elks’ Brock Mogensen (43) tries to stop him during second half CFL action in Edmonton, on Saturday Sept. 27, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)
Lauther missed two of his four field goal attempts in the game. He did hit his one convert try. The Riders failed on two separate two-point conversion attempts, including on the final play.
“They played the run really well on the first one. The second one, I had my eyes on the (defensive backs) and they gave us a man-coverage look. I read the boundary, which we had a man-to-man concept to the boundary. When I let the ball go, I realized they collided with each other … It’s unfortunate but we have to be able to convert that in the end,” Harris said. “That one guts you because I feel like we get that to overtime, we were really rolling.”
Harris finished the day with 351 yards, a touchdown to Tommy Nield late in the game and two interceptions.
Riders rusher AJ Ouellette finished with 115 yards and a touchdown. The game put him over 1,000 yards rushing on the season.
He wasn’t the only Rider to reach the 1,000-yard milestone, with Johnson going over 1,000 yards for the season. He finished the game with 119 yards.
Elks quarterback Cody Fajardo was making his second-career start against the Riders. While the Riders got the better of their former pivot last time out, the veteran defeated his former team for the first time. Fajardo threw for 305 yards in the win. Short-yardage quarterback Cole Snyder also added a touchdown rush in the game.
Edmonton kicker Vincent Blanchard was good on both field goal attempts and two convert kicks.
Despite the loss, Mace said there’s no sense of panic in how things have gone.
“It’s a realization for us who we believe we are and who we want to be. It wasn’t good enough tonight. We know we are going to the playoffs — that is for sure. You want to be playing your best ball (at this time) and we haven’t been doing that these last two weeks,” Mace said. “We’re on a two-game skid right now. Let’s continue to work our (butts) off so that we can come out on the plus side of that so we can start trending in the right direction at the right time.”
