Shaq Evans is on a record-setting pace — much to his chagrin.
According to statistics provided by the CFL to the Regina Leader-Post, Evans is just nine yards and one scoreless game away from setting a league standard for receiving yards in a season without a touchdown.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ wide receiver enters Saturday’s regular-season finale against the visiting B.C. Lions (5 p.m., CKRM, TSN) with 764 yards on 49 catches this season — but nary a touchdown to his credit.
According to the CFL, the league mark for receiving yards in a season without a TD is 772, set by Saskatchewan’s Dan Farthing in 1998.
“That’s definitely a record I don’t want to set,” Evans said with a laugh when informed of the statistical anomaly. “It would be cool, but I don’t know; it’s a weird record. I’m definitely still looking for that first touchdown.”
Evans has had some near-misses in his inaugural CFL season, but his closest call occurred Sept. 30 against the host Montreal Alouettes.
Evans caught a pass from Zach Collaros at the Montreal 14-yard line and headed toward the end zone before being tackled. He appeared to break the plane, but a video review determined he was down by contact just short of the goal line.
On the next play, Nick Marshall scored on a one-yard run.
“It has just been a weird year in terms of me scoring touchdowns,” Evans said. “But I know that once I do get one, they’ll come in bunches.”
Evans scored 14 touchdowns in 46 collegiate games, including nine majors in 13 games during his senior season at UCLA. While he knows what it takes to get into the end zone, he believes that receivers should be judged more on their yardage and yards-after-the-catch totals than TDs.
The first-year CFLer enters Saturday’s game tied with Jordan Williams-Lambert for the team lead in receiving yards and is second with 216 yards after the catch (Williams-Lambert leads the team at 283).
Evans’ lack of touchdowns isn’t unique — Atlanta Falcons star Julio Jones, one of the NFL’s best receivers, doesn’t have any majors yet this season — so the Roughriders’ wideout isn’t getting too bent out of shape about it.
“If we weren’t winning, then maybe I’d be frustrated,” Evans said. “The fact that we have 11 wins is what I’m thinking a lot more about because I’ve never been part of an 11-win team. That definitely makes up for the fact that I don’t have a touchdown.”
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Braden Schram is on the Roughriders’ active roster for a second consecutive week as the sixth offensive lineman.
Before that, the 25-year-old product of Manning, Alta., spent 13 weeks on the practice roster — and those weeks nearly took their toll.
“There were times when I battled with the thought that that’s where I was going to stay, but you’ve got to keep your head up, push away and try to get better every day,” Schram said. “Everyone was really supportive here. It was easier than other places to keep a positive frame of mind (while on the practice roster) and it all worked out.”
Schram began his CFL career in 2017 with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, who selected him in the second round (13th overall) of that year’s draft. He appeared in one regular-season game with Hamilton last season but was cut this June.
The Roughriders signed him July 3 and put him on the practice roster. He was activated for last Saturday’s game against the Stampeders in Calgary — the city where he played his university football.
“That was awesome,” Schram said. “I saw my old equipment manager running on the field and he was excited for me. My parents made it to the game (from Manning, which is a nine-hour drive from Calgary) and I had a couple of old friends who were there cheering for me.
“It was an amazing experience and it was really special to have it happen where it happened.”
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Roughriders defensive back Loucheiz Purifoy spent the 2016 and ’17 seasons with the Lions, so he knows a thing or two about Wally Buono.
B.C.’s head coach has announced he’s going to retire at the end of the 2018 campaign, so Saturday’s game will be his final regular-season visit to Regina.
“Hats off to him; he’s a great coach,” Purifoy said. “He’s going to have his team prepared and they’re going to be physical.
“His resumé says it all. It was great to play under him — but now I’m playing against him, so it’s kind of a different feeling.”
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The game Saturday will be the Roughriders’ last regular-season game; they have a bye in Week 21.
Linebacker Sam Hurl preferred to accentuate the positive when it came to the timing of the week off.
“I come from a time when we only had one bye week every year, so it is what it is,” Hurl said with a grin. “It’s just how it lined up. It’ll be nice having that bye week and heading into the playoffs fresh.”
It’s also Saskatchewan’s last chance to generate momentum heading into the playoffs. The Roughriders can either go into the break on a two-game winning streak or having lost two of their final three regular-season contests.
“You never want to go into a bye with a loss,” head coach-GM Chris Jones said. “We don’t even think that way. We attempt to win every game and we think that we can win every game.”
