July 2, 2018

Notebook: Christion Jones provides another spark

Christion Jones keeps showing up at opportune times for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The CFL team’s primary returner had a 53-yard punt return during Saturday’s game against the visiting Montreal Alouettes, setting up Saskatchewan’s first touchdown of the contest.

Jones had similar moments during the 2017 season, such as taking a punt back for a touchdown to spark the Roughriders to a regular-season victory over the Ottawa Redblacks and returning a punt for a major that gave Saskatchewan a late lead in the Eastern Final versus the Toronto Argonauts.

The momentum he generates with those returns, and others like them, is a source of pride for the 25-year-old product of Adamsville, Ala.

“That’s the type of player I define myself as: A playmaker,” Jones said after Monday’s practice at Mosaic Stadium. “When things are a little rocky, I feel like I’m the player to balance things out and give the offence, the defence or the kickoff team who’s running down after I score the motivation to make plays.

“I want to light the fuse and help someone else be the spark of the team.”

The Roughriders trailed the Als 17-6 early in the fourth quarter when Jones took a Boris Bede punt back to the Montreal 17-yard line. Two plays later, quarterback David Watford threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Naaman Roosevelt to cut the deficit to 17-12.

Saskatchewan got a field goal from Brett Lauther on its next possession to pull within two points, but Montreal held on and posted a 23-17 victory.

Two days later, Jones was still a tad disappointed in his effort against the Als.

“In my judgment, the spark I gave wasn’t enough,” said Jones, who returned five punts for 95 yards and three kickoffs for 77 yards. “It’s got to happen to where I can finish with touchdowns.

“It helped get us in the end zone, which is always good, but I put the pressure on myself to do more — and there’s more in the return game and in every aspect of my game to help this team win.”

That brings us to Monday’s practice.

Jones has been taking snaps at receiver since training camp, but he also has been getting work at defensive back. On Monday, he was wearing, for the first time this season, the green practice jersey of a defensive player — and he worked out solely with the D.

“Emergency use, man,” he explained. “They want me to be ready to go in at receiver, at running back and at DB so that’s what I’m preparing to do. I’ve been preparing myself since Week 1.”

Head coach-GM Chris Jones said the Roughriders’ opponent Thursday, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, have some small, quick receivers, so deploying the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Christion Jones at DB — if it happens — will help the Roughriders match up with the Tiger-Cats’ receivers in size.

Jones worked out with receivers and defensive backs during his time at the University of Alabama, but he has never played a game in the secondary. That’s why this week of practice is critical for him.

“The first thing is knowing what you can do, where you’re supposed to be and when you’re supposed to be there,” he said. “If I can know that, I’ll give myself a better chance of playing fast.”

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The Roughriders added defensive back Matt Elam to the practice roster Monday.

The 26-year-old product of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., attended the University of Florida and played 39 games over three seasons with the Gators. He had 176 tackles, 23.5 tackles for losses, six interceptions, five sacks and three forced fumbles.

Elam was selected in the first round (32nd overall) by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2013 NFL draft and he played 41 games for them from 2013 through ’16.

The 5-foot-10, 208-pounder played safety in college and in the NFL, so it’s unclear where he’ll fit in the Roughriders’ secondary.

“He was at one of our workouts earlier in the year and he did a very nice job covering,” Chris Jones said when asked if Elam can play cornerback. “We know he’ll tackle; he was a safety in the (NFL).”

Elam had some legal issues in recent years, but Jones said the CFL looked into Elam’s background and gave the Roughriders the go-ahead to bring him to Canada.

To make room for Elam, quarterback Jeremy Johnson was released from the practice roster.

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The Roughriders enter Thursday’s game with the CFL’s sixth-ranked rushing offence, with an average of 88.3 yards per game. But Saskatchewan is last in the league in average rush (4.0 yards) and rushing touchdowns (zero).

After the Roughriders gained 60 yards on 21 carries against Montreal, Jones said his team “absolutely” needs to get its running game going.

“We’re not establishing a new line of scrimmage as much as we should and it seemed like when we did get them blocked up (Saturday), we had some vertical seams open and the backs kept bouncing to the outside,” he said. “That happened at least four times.

“It’s a combination. It seems like when we do get them blocked, our backs are bouncing and then when we don’t have them blocked, there’s nowhere to go for our backs.”

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Saskatchewan was assessed 12 penalties for 120 yards against Montreal, which didn’t really surprise Jones.

He admitted Monday that his squad had taken 12 penalties during one practice last week, so he didn’t expect things to change much on game day.

The dozen penalties the Roughriders took Saturday were part of a remarkably accurate losing equation that Jones mentioned Monday.

“When you take the penalties, the five offensive explosions that they got versus our defence, the two return explosions that they got against us and the four turnovers, that comes up to 23,” he said. “Twenty-three is the number of points that they got.

“When we’re struggling a little bit offensively, we’ve got to step up defensively and not give up those big plays and we’ll probably win the game.”