As expected, Duron Carter has contributed on offence for the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders this season.
On Sunday, he pitched in on defence.
The 26-year-old receiver went in at cornerback late in the third quarter of Saskatchewan’s 41-8 victory over the B.C. Lions at Mosaic Stadium, replacing an injured Kacy Rodgers II.
On Carter’s first play, Lions speedster Chris Williams ran a go route on Carter — but the ball went elsewhere.
“I was like, ‘I hope they throw it,’ ’’ Carter said after the game. “I wanted them to try me out there.”
Carter had never played defensive back before at any level, but he took some snaps at the position in practices during the week and held his own. When Rodgers suffered an injury in the game, Carter got his shot.
It was the result of daily chats he has had in recent weeks with Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones.
“I tell him my expectations and I listen to his expectations,” Jones said when describing the contents of the five- to 10-minute conversations. “He said that he could play DB.
“There’s a lot of people who say they can, but when he came over this week and he actually (took repetitions) there, he’s covering Caleb Holley, he’s covering Naaman Roosevelt and he’s running stride for stride with them … When Kacy got hurt, he was the best option.”
Carter replaced Rodgers again in the fourth quarter and nearly recorded his first career interception. But halfback Ed Gainey got to the ball before Carter to make his fourth pick of the game.
The Roughriders are on a bye week, so Rodgers has a few extra days to mend before Saskatchewan visits the Edmonton Eskimos on Aug. 25. That means Carter likely won’t be playing both ways in that contest — unless the need arises.
“That’s where I’m at; I’m behind Kacy (on the depth chart),” said Carter, who caught five passes for 45 yards Sunday and recorded his team-leading fifth touchdown reception of the season. “Anytime Kacy goes down, I’m in there and I’m not going to miss a beat.”
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Christion Jones had many happy returns Sunday.
In just his second game with the Roughriders, Jones had seven punt returns for 139 yards and two kickoff returns for 47 yards.
His punt-return yardage was the most for a Saskatchewan player in a regular-season game since Sept. 15, 2002, when Corey Holmes had 181 yards on six returns against the Toronto Argonauts.
Jones’ 40-yard punt return in the third quarter Sunday was the Roughriders’ longest since Joe Craig went 71 yards for a touchdown against Toronto on Oct. 15, 2016.
“I let one slip on my second return, so I’m on myself about that one,” said Jones, who dropped a punt late in the first quarter — but the fumble was recovered by Rodgers.
“Overall, I think we did a good job. The scheme we had in this week was perfect to get an edge on these guys from the last game and I think we executed it very well.”
Jones had one punt return for 26 yards in his debut — a 30-15 loss in Vancouver on Aug. 5 — so he’s now got 165 yards on eight returns for an average of 20.6 yards.
He’s also averaging 23.5 yards on four kickoff returns as he tries to make himself known in Saskatchewan and in the CFL.
“I hope I did that (Sunday),” Jones said. “I want to let people know in this league that I’m here to stay. I’ve opened the door with returns and hopefully that will open some more doors with my role on (offence with) this team.”
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Bruce Campbell got back in the game Sunday.
The Roughriders offensive tackle played his first game since the East Division semifinal on Nov. 15, 2015, when he was a member of the Argos.
Campbell was traded to the Roughriders in February of 2016, but he retired in May of that year. He had a change of heart this past off-season and reported to Saskatchewan in late June, but he was inactive until Sunday.
“There was all types of excitement,” said Campbell, who played left tackle. “I was anxious, I was nervous — I had every emotion running through my body. It took until the second quarter for me to calm myself down.”
Campbell said he had a rough start to the contest, but got into the swing of things as the game progressed. As he did, he realized he had missed football more than he thought during his year off.
“It felt like I was at home again,” he said. “After playing this game, I honestly can’t believe I retired. That’s the feeling I got and I’m still like, ‘Wow.’ ’’
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Campbell got to play because centre Dan Clark hurt an elbow in Vancouver, an injury that forced shuffling along Saskatchewan’s offensive line.
One of those shuffled was guard Brendon LaBatte, who moved to centre.
“It went pretty well for the most part,” said LaBatte, who last played centre in a game during the 2011 season. “I was able to snap the ball on the right count and get it into (quarterback Kevin Glenn’s) hands, so that was a good place to start.
“I thought the communication we had up front was pretty good. Rather than just having one guy do it, I kind of pawned it off (to the other O-linemen) and said, ‘We’re going to do this by committee.’ We were talking breaking the huddle and I thought everybody was on the same page.
“For the first game in there, I thought it went all right.”
Clark is on the six-game injured list, so LaBatte is expected to stay at centre for the foreseeable future.
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The 33-point victory Sunday gave the Roughriders an edge on the Lions in the teams’ two-game season series.
Each side won one game, but the Roughriders outscored B.C. 56-38 in the contests — and points for and against is the first tiebreaking criteria.
“I think everybody understands and they know this was the last time that we play (the Lions), so we wanted to score as many points as possible,” Glenn said. “That’s one of the reasons why, late in the game, we were still trying to get downfield and score because when it comes down to a tiebreaker, it goes to the points.
“We know that in the West, it’s going to be a struggle. There are a lot of good teams in the West, so it could have come down to that.”
