Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
A pair of rushing touchdowns by Tommy Stevens will keep the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the west for the CFL playoffs.
In a game where both sides rested a number of starters, the Riders defeated the Edmonton Elks 16-9 at Mosaic Stadium in a windy Saturday afternoon.
Saskatchewan, who rested starting quarterback Trevor Harris, was led by Jack Coan in his first CFL start. The former Notre Dame Fighting Irish pivot completed 15 passes for 178 yards and an interception.
“It felt awesome. It was good to get the speed of the game again. See how I felt, really. Stuff is a little bit faster in a game and you see things maybe a little bit different sometimes. Just great to get that experience, be out there with the guys and battle and get a win so it was a lot of fun,” Coan said.
In the fourth quarter, Brayden Schager entered the game. He had three completions for 27 yards.
Edmonton was led by Taylor Powell as Cody Fajardo was the team’s third quarterback in the game. Powell had 236 yards in the loss. Elks short-yardage quarterback Cole Snyder had the Elks’ lone touchdown.
It’s the second straight week the Riders’ defence has only surrendered one touchdown to the opposing offence, though they faced Dustin Crum with the Montreal Alouettes and Powell with the Elks.
But Riders head coach Corey Mace points out those two quarterbacks aren’t newcomers to the CFL.
“Those guys have won games in this league as well as starters in different places before in their career and are looked at very respectfully around the league. Some of these guys could be starters somewhere else,” Mace said. “For the defence today, I thought the main thing was just getting the pressure. They created the turnovers and probably could have been a couple more.
“There’s always going to be things to clean up. I thought the tackling was an issue … There’s going to be different things for us to clean up but there was a lot of really good stuff out there from everybody who had an opportunity to play.”
Penalties were an issue for both teams as Edmonton had 13 for 136 yards while Saskatchewan committed 10 infractions for 105 yards.
The win means the Riders will face the B.C. Lions in the CFL West Division semifinal on Oct. 31.
It will be the fourth time those two clubs have faced this season and the third time at B.C. Place. The Lions have won both games in Vancouver, winning 30-16 and then 24-31.
“The last two times haven’t gone in our favour. Having an opportunity to go against those guys again when all the chips are down, I know everyone in that room — we are going to take ourselves,” Mace said. “I love that about this team. I love that about everybody in the organization. We are choosing us. We know it’s going to be a tough task from here on out but it is every single year for whoever is going to lift the cup at the end. It’s never an easy road. We’re not afraid of hard work. We just need to start getting to it now.”
More to come…
