Marcus Thigpen exorcised a demon Thursday.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ tailback scored on a 34-yard touchdown run with 1:29 left in regulation time to lift the Roughriders to an 18-13 CFL victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Mosaic Stadium.
The scoring run helped Thigpen erase the memory of a dropped pass on Saskatchewan’s first offensive play in Saturday’s 23-17 loss to the visiting Montreal Alouettes. Instead of opening with what would have been a 76-yard pass-and-run touchdown, the Roughriders had to punt — and they never regained their momentum.
“That was on my mind the whole week,” Thigpen admitted. “They say, ‘Let go of the game,’ but I couldn’t let that go because that’s not me. I wanted to get out there (Thursday) and show what I really can do and offer this team and our fan base. It worked out tonight.”
The win snapped Saskatchewan’s two-game losing streak and improved its record to 2-2-0 entering its first of three bye weeks this season. The Roughriders are idle until July 19, when they visit the Tiger-Cats.
“I really don’t ever like the byes,” admitted Chris Jones, Saskatchewan’s head coach and general manager. “I like the weeks where you pretty much play (every) seven or six days.
“We’ll let them go home, try to get them back and work them out one day prior to our regular week starting … Hopefully they take care of business while they’re gone.”
The Tiger-Cats opened the scoring at 7:29 of the first quarter, as Lirim Hajrullahu kicked an 11-yard field goal. The three-pointer ended a 10-play drive that covered 78 yards, but the march ended with a second-down incompletion from the four-yard line.
Hajrullahu missed a 32-yard field-goal attempt that went for a 40-yard single at 14:41 of the opening quarter.
The Roughriders thought they had found the end zone at 9:38 of the second quarter, but video review overturned Brandon Bridge’s 14-yard TD run — ruling that he fumbled before crossing the goal line. Hamilton recovered in the end zone to end the threat.
The defence got Saskatchewan on the board at 12:58 of the second quarter when Charleston Hughes popped the ball out of the right hand of Hamilton QB Jeremiah Masoli, caught the ball before it hit the ground and rumbled 57 yards with the fumble for a touchdown.
It was the second TD of Hughes’ CFL career. He returned a fumble 71 yards for a major in the Calgary Stampeders’ 40-3 victory over the Roughriders on Oct. 1, 2011.
“When the offence is struggling like that and we need a spark, somebody has got to make a play on defence or something has to happen,” Hughes said. “That was that one play where we really needed that for the team.”
“We knew that either in the kicking game or on defence, we needed to score a touchdown,” Jones added. “It’s our third one for the year (after interception returns for touchdowns by Duron Carter and Nick Marshall) and last week we set up a field goal.
“We’re doing some good things defensively. We need to fix our errors and quit giving up so many big plays, big shots, and come back and go to work.”
On Thursday, Brett Lauther missed the convert, leaving the Roughriders with a 6-4 lead.
The Tiger-Cats got a 30-yard field goal from Hajrullahu on the final play of the first half and led 7-6 at the intermission.
Lauther (52 yards) and Hajrullahu (18 yards) traded field goals in the third quarter, which ended with Hamilton leading 10-9.
Lauther connected from the 41 at 6:06 of the fourth quarter to give the Roughriders a 12-10 lead. The kick came three plays after defensive end/linebacker Tobi Antigha, dropping back in coverage, made his first career interception and returned it to the Hamilton 26-yard line.
Hajrullahu hit again from 39 yards away at 8:49 to put the Tiger-Cats ahead 13-12, but Thigpen gave Saskatchewan the lead at 13:31 with his scoring run — the first TD along the ground for the Roughriders this season.
Saskatchewan rotated its quarterbacks during the game, with Bridge and David Watford each seeing action.
Bridge finished with 11 completions in 13 pass attempts for 101 yards and rushed four times for 30 yards. Watford was 3-for-6 passing for 47 yards and rushed seven times for 50 yards.
Thigpen was Saskatchewan’s leader in receptions (four) and receiving yards (47) and added 48 yards on five carries.
Masoli was 23-for-43 passing for 333 yards — the ninth game in a row in which he has passed for at least 300 yards. That tied the CFL record set by Montreal’s Sam Etcheverry in 1956 and tied by Saskatchewan’s Kent Austin in 1991.
Masoli also rushed five times for 60 yards. Brandon Banks had seven catches for 113 yards for Hamilton (2-2-0).
Asked what one word described the victory, Jones settled on “resilience.” His team trailed for most of the game before pulling out the victory — and the ugliness of that win wasn’t his concern.
“Ten years from now, you probably won’t even remember it,” he said. “You’ll just know we won the game.”
- Before the game, the Roughriders unveiled banners in the north end of the stadium to commemorate the four Grey Cup victories in franchise history.
Two players from each of the 1966, 1989, 2007 and 2013 teams were on hand for the ceremony.
