Chris Jones could hardly wait for Charleston Hughes to cross the goal line.
No, seriously: The wait seemed interminable for Jones — the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach and general manager — as Hughes chugged toward the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ end zone Thursday.
“I told him he took a delay of game on that run,” Jones said with a smile after the Roughriders’ 18-13 victory over Hamilton at Mosaic Stadium. “I was thinking he might need to take a break, a timeout, to get in the end zone.
“He makes plays; he always has. That’s the kind of player he is. He’s a Hall of Fame guy for a reason. He makes football plays.”
“It’s a good feeling to score a touchdown,”
The Roughriders were trailing the Tiger-Cats 4-0 in the second quarter of their CFL contest when Hughes poked the ball out of the hands of Hamilton quarterback Jeremiah Masoli. The defensive end caught the ball in mid-air and took off toward the end zone, eventually getting there to complete a 57-yard fumble return for a touchdown.
Told of Jones’ wisecrack, Hughes groaned.
“I thought I was pickin’ ’em up and puttin’ ’em down!” he said. “I don’t think (Jones) knew that was 55 yards. That might have been the fastest 55 yards I ever ran.”
The touchdown was the second of Hughes’ 11-year CFL career. On Oct. 1, 2011, he returned a Darian Durant fumble 71 yards for a major as his previous team, the Calgary Stampeders, beat Saskatchewan 40-3.
“It’s a good feeling to score a touchdown,” Hughes said. “Anytime you score a defensive touchdown, it serves its purpose — especially (Thursday).”
Hamilton accumulated 418 yards of net offence and 25 first downs while controlling the ball for 32 minutes 57 seconds. Saskatchewan’s offence struggled to keep up, generating 12 first downs and 275 yards of net offence.
But the Roughriders’ defence used a variety of blitz packages to keep Masoli off balance, forced three turnovers and kept the Tiger-Cats out of the end zone. As Saskatchewan guard Brendon LaBatte put it: “I don’t think we get that win if it wasn’t for our defence.”
“We’re just doing what we’ve got to do,” linebacker Sam Eguavoen said. “We don’t want to give ourselves extra praise for just doing our jobs because we left a lot of plays out there.
“If Hamilton had clicked a little bit better, they probably would have got to the end zone a lot of those times. We were really fortunate to hold them to a lot of field goals because that’s a very good offence.”
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Like Hughes, Tobi Antigha ended a lengthy drought Thursday.
When the Roughriders’ defensive end/linebacker intercepted a Masoli pass in the fourth quarter, it marked the first time since 2014 that Antigha had caught a pass in a game. On that occasion, he was a receiver for the Presbyterian College Blue Hose.
“It has been a long time,” said Antigha, who recorded the first pick of his two-year CFL career. “It’s fun getting that feeling back. It caught me by surprise, though. I’m just happy I didn’t drop it.”
Antigha has been moving all over the Roughriders’ defence this season, shifting from rush end to defensive tackle to middle linebacker. On the play in question Thursday, he dropped back to safety when the ball was snapped — and was in perfect position to snag an overthrow.
“We put in that play this week to allow me to play deep middle,” said Antigha, whose interception set up a Brett Lauther field goal. “We called it at the right time, the opportunity presented itself and we made a play.”
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Saskatchewan’s defence threw another wrinkle at the Tiger-Cats.
Instead of keeping defensive backs in their normal positions in man-to-man situations, the Roughriders matched up DBs on specific receivers. Duron Carter spent the night covering Terrence Toliver, Ed Gainey covered Brandon Banks and so forth.
Banks had the biggest night among Hamilton’s receivers, catching seven passes for 113 yards against both man and zone coverages. Gainey also was assessed a 33-yard pass-interference penalty in the third quarter while covering Banks.
“I really didn’t get him like I wanted to,” Gainey said. “He got a couple of catches on me, so good on him. One of them, I just had to turn around and make a play on the ball and the other one, I just had bad eyes. It’s something I’ve got to work on.
“But if (the coaches) want to continue to match up and put me on the best receiver, I’m with it.”
Jones confirmed the Roughriders could expand on the tactic in the future if they feel the need.
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In the days leading up to the game, Jones noted that the Roughriders’ running backs didn’t run north-south enough during Saturday’s 23-17 loss to the visiting Montreal Alouettes. The backs, Jones said, kept bouncing runs to the outside instead of hitting the hole hard.
Well, Marcus Thigpen got the message.
Thigpen scored the game-winning touchdown Thursday with a 34-yard run that featured two quick bounces and then a burst straight ahead that got him to the end zone.
“After that (Montreal) game, I couldn’t sleep,” Thigpen said. “I stayed up until 4 a.m., racking my brain trying to figure out what I could do better. I came in and met with (Jones) the next day and he showed me all the clips where I didn’t hit it upfield.
“That was my No. 1 goal (Thursday): Hit it straight up the field, don’t bounce it. But that play, I had no choice. It was clogged up in there, so I just bounced it outside and it worked out.”
Thigpen’s touchdown — Saskatchewan’s first rushing major of the season — produced the seventh lead change of Thursday’s game. According to the CFL, that’s the most lead changes in a game since the Toronto Argonauts and Ottawa Redblacks went back and forth repeatedly in Ottawa’s 18-17 victory on July 18, 2014.
