The Saskatchewan Roughriders Jovon Johnson (1) celebrates with the teammate Samuel Eguavoen (47) after intercepting a pass during fourth quarter CFL action against the Ottawa Redblacks in Ottawa on Friday, September 29, 2017. (CFL PHOTO - Patrick Doyle)
OTTAWA — Josh Bartel hit the equivalent of a walk-off home run for the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday.
Bartel’s 55-yard punt single at 12:48 of the fourth quarter capped the Roughriders’ rally from a 17-0 deficit as they beat the Ottawa Redblacks 18-17 in CFL action at TD Place.
“That’s a first for me,” Bartel said of booting the game-winning point. “It’s a little bit weird. Punters don’t usually get into a situation to win a game.”
Because he did, the Roughriders improved to 7-6-0 and pulled into a tie for third place in the West Division with the Edmonton Eskimos (7-5-0). Edmonton plays host to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday.
Saskatchewan is now two points ahead of the fifth-place B.C. Lions (6-7-0) in the West — and it has the tiebreaking edge on the Lions based on point differential in their two-game season series.
The victory, the Roughriders’ fifth in their past seven games, was the biggest comeback for Saskatchewan in a victory this season. The Roughriders trailed the Toronto Argonauts 10-0 in the first quarter on July 29 before posting a 38-27 come-from-behind victory.
“It’s never easy to travel, much less travel when you have to go halfway across the country,” said Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones, whose team is to visit the Argos on Oct. 7.
“It’s a deal where we’re on a five-day week. We just played Calgary five days ago (and lost 15-9 at Mosaic Stadium). We were a little bit flat in the first half (Friday), but I couldn’t be more proud of the guys for the way they responded in the second half.”
The spark the Roughriders needed was provided by Christion Jones, whose 97-yard punt return for a touchdown at 11:20 of the third quarter got the Roughriders on the board.
Saskatchewan was down 17-0 and looked listless before Jones’ return. The Roughriders were a different team after his major.
“We did a great job of staying focused with what we wanted to do,” the first-year Roughrider said. “Everybody on the sideline knew we needed a spark and I wanted to be that guy and made a play when it was time to make a play.”
“That’s what we needed,” added quarterback Kevin Glenn. “We were waiting for something. We tried to muster it up on offence and we couldn’t at the time. That’s why you have all three phases.”
The Roughriders put together an impressive 11-play drive to open the game, but it ended when Glenn was intercepted in the Ottawa end zone by Jonathan Rose.
The Redblacks then drove 75 yards in nine plays to set up a 22-yard field goal by Brett Maher at 13:18 of the first quarter.
Ottawa led 3-0 after the opening 15 minutes, marking the second straight game in which the Roughriders had been shut out in the first quarter. Calgary led 3-0 through the first frame on Sunday.
Ottawa built on its lead late in the second frame, as Ryan Lindley found Greg Ellingson with an 18-yard touchdown pass. William Powell added the two-point convert and the Redblacks led 11-0 at 10:56 of the quarter. Those points completed the first-half scoring.
It was the third time this season that the Roughriders were held scoreless in a first half. They also were blanked over the opening 30 minutes by the Stampeders on July 22 and the Lions on Aug. 5.
The Redblacks took the kickoff to open the second half and drove 65 yards in nine plays, the last of which was a one-yard scoring run by Lindley. The two-point convert attempt failed, leaving Ottawa with a 17-0 lead at 4:43 of the third.
Jones got the Roughriders going with his punt-return touchdown and Tyler Crapigna added the convert. It was Saskatchewan’s first punt return for a touchdown since Oct. 15, 2016, when Joe Craig went 71 yards to paydirt in Saskatchewan’s 29-11 victory at Toronto.
The Roughriders cut into the lead again at 5:28 of the fourth when Kienan LaFrance scored on a six-yard run. The major was set up by completions by Glenn of 13 yards to LaFrance and 21 and 43 yards to Duron Carter.
Crapigna kicked the convert to complete the scoring drive, which started after Jovon Johnson forced and recovered a fumble at the Saskatchewan 25-yard line.
The Roughriders tied the contest on a 16-yard field goal by Crapigna at 9:46 of the third. The kick was preceded by a 36-yard completion to Antwane Grant and a 30-yarder to Rob Bagg that got Saskatchewan to the eight-yard line.
The Roughriders then took their first and only lead of the game on Bartel’s single. When returner Quincy MacDuffie finally grabbed the ball, he was 11 yards deep in the end zone and he couldn’t escape to avoid the deciding point.
“(Special-teams co-ordinator Craig Dickenson) said to go for the one-yard line or a single,” Bartel said. “He said, ‘Be super-aggressive.’ I actually didn’t hit it that well. It was a bit of a floater, a bit of a knuckleball. I watched it the whole way and the poor returner was like, ‘Whoa.’ It was moving a fair bit.”
Glenn finished with 20 completions in 32 pass attempts for 252 yards, 179 of which came in the second half. Carter had five catches for 89 yards, Bakari Grant added seven receptions for 42 yards and LaFrance rushed 12 times for 52 yards.
Lindley managed 17 completions in 31 attempts for 164 yards with one TD and one interception for the Redblacks, who got a franchise-record 187 yards rushing from Powell.
“This win is huge,” said Roughriders middle linebacker Henoc Muamba. “It’s a confidence-booster and another step in our progression.
“We just discovered a new thing about ourselves and it was good. I’m glad actually that we had to go through that because now we can always look back to this game and remember what we were able to do.”
