By Mitchell Blair
For Riderville.com
The Saskatchewan Roughriders have played great football since Ken Miller returned to the sidelines to re-assume his role as head coach. No Rider has perhaps played better than local product Chris Getzlaf and that was evident Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium as the Riders won their fourth of the season and third in a row with a hard-fought 30-20 win over a pesky Toronto Argonauts squad.
Getzlaf had a huge game, catching seven balls for 170 yards and a touchdown, giving him five TD’s over this three game winning streak. The 4th year Rider says it’s just a continuation of the relationship that he and quarterback Darian Durant started since he arrived in 2007.
“We’ve really stepped it up in practice over the past couple of weeks and its showing on the field,” the normally quiet Getzlaf said in a happy dressing room. “We’re both seeing the same coverages and the same holes that are opening up. When you can both see those things, it means you will be able to make some plays and we’ve done that over the last few weeks.”
Durant, who threw for 279 yards on the afternoon, admits that perhaps Getzlaf is his favourite guy to throw to even though he has the talented Andy Fantuz and Weston Dressler to throw to just because of the familiarity he has.
“We’ve been working together since we are on the scout team back in 2007,” Durant stated. “Getz and I worked on our chemistry there and we practiced together every day. We said when we got our opportunity, we would do it on when the lights came on and we have done that over the years. I know where he is going to be on every play and he makes my job a lot easier.”
Something that didn’t make Durant’s job easy on this day was the play of a Toronto defence that made the Riders work for every yard they got on this day. He tipped his hat to that group for their effort.
“They are a great defensive team,” Durant insisted, “They took away a lot of things that we wanted to do early, but we improvised and made some plays when we had to. It wasn’t pretty, but not all wins are pretty so we have to take them how we can.”
As for Miller, he is just glad that the improved play is continuing.
“I’m pretty pleased that we got the victory here,” Miller said. “It puts us in the best position we can be in as we go forward.’’
If there was any bad news in this game, it was the fact Andy Fantuz suffered an ankle injury after that was severe enough to send him to the sidelines early. As to how severe that injury is, Fantuz can’t say.
“I’m sure it looked bad, but it’s not as bad as you might think.” Fantuz said. “It’s tough to say whether or not I’ll be able to go next week. There is a little pain when I walk and I can’t run full-speed, but we have a couple of days off. I don’t think it’s too bad and I hope I’ll be ready for that game.”
Despite the victory, the Riders do remain last in the West Division basement at 4-7 thanks to a Lions upset victory in Calgary Saturday night. It means the Lions, who have won four in a row, will take on a Saskatchewan team looking to make it four wins in a row next Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium.
