HAMILTON — The Saskatchewan Roughriders literally limped out of Tim Hortons Field with a win Friday.
Despite losing 10 players to injury in the contest, the Roughriders posted a 27-19 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“I’ve never been in a game where we had eight injuries that took guys out of the game for extended periods of time or the rest of the game,” Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones said after his CFL team improved its record to 6-5-0. “I’m just proud of the football team. We did a nice job of sealing the win.
“Sometimes defensively you’re asked to go out and win the game when your offence is having trouble and there’s going to come a time when, offensively, they’re going to have to do the same. That’s why they call it a football team.”
After building up a 20-10 halftime lead, the Roughriders’ offence went dormant in the second half. Saskatchewan had eight possessions after the intermission and punted on seven of them. The Roughriders ran 25 plays in the second half — Hamilton ran 47 — and possessed the ball for just 11 minutes 25 seconds of the final 30 minutes.
“The ending wasn’t what we would have liked, but we liked the outcome,” quarterback Brandon Bridge said. “We were up by 17 points at one time (27-10) and we made it harder on ourselves.
“It’s definitely on me. We’ve got to learn how to finish. I’ve got to learn how to play down the stretch and keep playing at a high level when the game is tight or not.”
The defence held the fort, but the Tiger-Cats made things interesting.
With Saskatchewan up by eight points, Hamilton took possession at its 38-yard line with 31 seconds left. The Tiger-Cats drove downfield and, when Kacy Rodgers II was flagged for pass interference in the Saskatchewan end zone with five seconds left, Hamilton had a first down at the one-yard line.
But Jeremiah Masoli’s pass attempt to Jalen Saunders fell incomplete on the game’s final play and the Roughriders had the victory — their first at Tim Hortons Field since it opened in 2014.
“I wanted the defence to relish in the moment,” said defensive back Ed Gainey, who had two interceptions — giving him a CFL-best eight on the season. “When the offence isn’t getting the ball moving, that’s when we’ve got to show up and make sure that the other team doesn’t score.
“We got the lead coming out of halftime, so if the other team doesn’t score, then we win the game. That’s really the mindset in the last few minutes of the game.”
Making his second career start — but his first for Saskatchewan —Bridge completed 21 of 31 pass attempts for 231 yards with three touchdowns. He became the first Canadian-born quarterback to throw three TDs in a game since the Calgary Stampeders’ Greg Vavra in 1984.
Bridge, a 25-year-old product of Mississauga, Ont., ran Saskatchewan’s offence in place of Kevin Glenn, who was scratched with a bruised right (throwing) hand. Glenn, who started the Roughriders’ first 10 games of the regular season, was injured in Saturday’s 48-28 loss to the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The 38-year-old quarterback practised sparingly this week, at times wearing a glove to try to improve his grip on the ball. He tried throwing with and without the glove before Friday’s game, but didn’t have much velocity on his passes.
When the Roughriders filed their official roster one hour before the game, Glenn was one of the two scratches. As a result, Bridge became the first Canadian to start a game for Saskatchewan since Eric Guthrie piloted the offence on Nov. 6, 1977.
“(The decision was made to scratch Glenn) when he came out today and said he couldn’t go,” Jones said. “He said, ‘I don’t think I can be effective,’ so if he says he can’t be effective, you’ve got to go with the young guys.”
Bridge had started one game previously in his CFL career, getting the nod for the Montreal Alouettes on Nov. 8, 2015, in their 30-24 overtime loss to the Roughriders.
Saskatchewan got on the board at 11:54 of Friday’s first quarter when Tyler Crapigna kicked a 15-yard field goal. The three-pointer came three plays after Jeff Hecht forced a fumble and Mike Edem recovered at the Hamilton five-yard line.
The Roughriders built on their lead at 3:03 of the second quarter, when Bridge hit Devon Bailey with an eight-yard touchdown pass. Bailey had just one catch for three yards this season entering the game.
Crapigna added the convert to give Saskatchewan a 10-0 lead.
The defence played a part in the Roughriders’ next major as well. Rodgers stripped Saunders of the ball and Tobi Antigha recovered at the Hamilton 31-yard line.
Four plays later, Bridge connected with Bakari Grant for a nine-yard touchdown at 6:45. Crapigna’s convert made it 17-0.
The Tiger-Cats answered with a 36-yard TD pass from Masoli to Saunders at 9:57. Sergio Castillo converted the touchdown to cut the Roughriders’ lead to 17-7.
Crapigna (42 yards) and Castillo (19 yards) traded field goals to round out the first-half scoring.
Bridge was 16-for-21 for 178 yards in the first half, while Masoli was 14-for-21 for 130 yards.
The Roughriders’ defence pitched in again in the third quarter, with Gainey recording his seventh interception of the season at the Saskatchewan 40.
It took the offence just three plays to capitalize, with Bridge finding Naaman Roosevelt for a 22-yard TD. Crapigna kicked the convert and Saskatchewan led 27-10 at 5:35 of the third quarter.
Castillo hoofed field goals of 51, 37 and 19 yards to cut the Roughriders’ advantage to eight points, but the Tiger-Cats couldn’t get closer.
“A win is a win, whether it looked good or not,” Gainey said. “It was definitely a momentum-builder for us and we’re going to continue to try to build off this, come out next week (Sept. 24 against the visiting Stampeders) and prove to the CFL that we’re a team that can compete with anybody in the league.”
