June 22, 2018

Notebook: Duron Carter had an up-and-down day

OTTAWA — Chris Jones saw both sides of the Duron Carter coin.

Jones, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach and general manager, gave Carter his second career start at cornerback in Thursday’s CFL game against the host Ottawa Redblacks.

Jones witnessed the converted receiver record his second career interception return for a touchdown, a 28-yarder off a Trevor Harris pass in the second quarter.

But Jones also saw Carter give up a 56-yard TD pass from Harris to Diontae Spencer, miss a tackle on William Powell’s 15-yard scoring run and take two penalties to extend a drive that ended in another Ottawa major.

“It’s a tough game,” Jones said after his team’s 40-17 loss at TD Place. “He’s going against a very good player in Diontae Spencer who made one play against him.

“Playing DB is not always glamorous. You’ve got to take the good with the bad over there.”

The Roughriders used Carter at corner in a few games during the 2017 season. He made one start, against the Calgary Stampeders on Oct. 20, and scored on a 43-yard interception return.

Carter got some work at corner in training camp this year, but rookie Nick Marshall won the starting job. After Marshall suffered a hand injury in Saskatchewan’s 27-19 victory over the Toronto Argonauts on June 15, the Roughriders chose to move Carter from wideout to corner to fill the void.

He was credited with three defensive tackles and his second pick-six Thursday — and he also learned some valuable lessons. After the game, he tweeted “They tricked me on that touchdown… inside release go, I talked about it all week still didn’t stop it!!!” He added that he has to “stop looking at the QB to jump everything.”

“I did not like (chasing Spencer on his TD),” said Carter, who noted that Harris “threw a great ball” on the play. “That’s why I was trying to stay on top of him the whole time. I got a little antsy, he got behind me and, you know, touchdown.”

Carter admitted he should have made the stop on Powell’s TD run in the second quarter, but the tailback’s quickness helped him elude Carter’s attempted tackle.

Carter also was flagged for pass interference and illegal contact on a receiver on the same fourth-quarter drive, which ended in a five-yard TD pass from Harris to Powell.

“I asked the ref, ‘Why don’t I get that call when I’m playing receiver?’ ” Carter said. “I said it in the pre-season: I’m just going to keep on playing hard and if I rack up pass interference penalties, we can look at them and see what they really are.”

Jones suggested that Carter likely will continue to play on the defensive side of the ball while Marshall is on the six-game injured list. That’s fine by Carter, whose team’s next game is June 30 against the visiting Montreal Alouettes.

“With every game, you’re going to get better,” he said. “This is my second game starting at corner, so the next game I play and start will be my third game and then my fourth and my fifth. I’m just going to get better and better.”

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Earlier this week, Carter received an absolute discharge after pleading guilty to a charge of marijuana possession.

Carter was arrested at the Winnipeg airport Nov. 25.

“I just felt like it was the best situation for me and how I’m doing and trying to progress through Canada and my life,” he said Thursday when asked about the plea.

Carter faces a second charge arising out of an arrest in Saskatoon on Feb. 1.

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Jordan Williams-Lambert scored his first touchdown as a CFL player Thursday … by catching a pass aimed at Naaman Roosevelt.

Late in the first quarter, quarterback Zach Collaros threw a pass in the direction of Roosevelt as the slotback reached the Ottawa goal line. But Williams-Lambert caught the pass while crossing in front of Roosevelt and fell into the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown which, when converted, put Saskatchewan ahead 7-6.

“It was in slow motion,” Roosevelt said. “I just saw somebody jump in front of me and catch the ball. It was crazy. But I’m happy for him; he got his first touchdown. I’m just glad we didn’t run into each other.”

The first-year CFLer took the blame for the near-miss.

“It was just a miscommunication on my part,” Williams-Lambert said of his only catch of the game. “It was a blessing that it worked out and we got in the end zone, but we’ll learn from it and come back better.”

The other CFL rookie in the Roughriders’ receiving corps Thursday also fared well. Shaq Evans, who was playing in Carter’s spot, had a team-high four catches for 56 yards.

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Six days after sacking Toronto quarterback Ricky Ray three times, the Roughriders’ defence didn’t get to Harris once.

The CFL stopped keeping track of quarterback pressures between the two games, so there wasn’t numerical proof that a dip had occurred. But Jones certainly saw it, saying the Redblacks “affected our quarterback and we didn’t affect theirs.”

“You have to give their offence credit; they kept us off balance,” he added. “They were able to run the football effectively and they blocked our fronts.”

Neither Charleston Hughes, who had three sacks in the opener, nor Willie Jefferson recorded a tackle Thursday as Ottawa’s offensive line and running backs kept Harris well-protected.

“You’ve got to expect something (to change),” Hughes said. “You can’t go off one week and think you’re going to do the same thing the next week. Teams watch film, too. Their main emphasis was to keep the D-line off the quarterback and that’s what they did.”