C.J. Reavis would not be outplayed despite being outweighed.
Navigating his way through a mass of humanity — the behemoths who lined up for both teams in short-yardage situations — the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 198-pound strong-side linebacker made immense contributions to repeated goal-line stands last Thursday against the host Toronto Argonauts.
“Respectfully, I just think I’m a dog,” the 6-foot-0 Reavis said. “I don’t really care (about size disparities).
“I always wanted to fight the bigger guys growing up. I think it’s just a little bit of my little-man syndrome.”
The “little man,” in this case, kept coming up big.
For starters, Reavis stopped Cameron Dukes on a quarterback sneak after Toronto had gambled on third-and-goal from the one-yard line shortly before halftime.
Toronto had been in a seemingly advantageous first-and-goal situation from the five-yard line before Malik Carney, Bryan Cox Jr. and Reavis slammed the door on back-to-back-to-back plays.
Late in the third quarter, the Argonauts advanced to the two-yard line before Cox Jr. shut down a second-down running play and Deontai Williams broke up a pass on third down.
Just over three minutes into the fourth frame, the Argonauts were first-and-goal from the one-yard line, only to run into Reavis and Cox Jr. yet again.
Cox Jr. registered the tackle on a first-down quarterback sneak by Chad Kelly. Reavis took it from there, stuffing Kelly on second down and running back Ka’Deem Carey on third down.
It was all part of a command performance by Reavis, who finished with 10 defensive tackles, one sack and a pass knockdown.
What more could he possibly have done in one game?
“I was very vocal in telling C.J. that,” Head Coach Corey Mace said. “I thought he had a really good game.
“I know that certainly from the film he has watched, he feels like he can do even more for the team.
“That’s the kind of guy he is — super competitive and team-first. He wants to win for his team. He wants to win for his brothers. He wants to win for this province.
“You want as many of those guys in the building as possible.”
The over-riding sentiment for Reavis is that the most productive game of his CFL career — at least from a statistical standpoint — took place in a 20-19 Toronto victory.
“I’d rather have a win than a great game any day,” he said.
Reavis registered the 83rd documented game of 10-plus defensive tackles by a Roughrider.
The CFL began counting tackles as an official statistical category in 1985.
Rewinding a little further, the Roughriders’ defensive totals can be extracted from game-by-game stats sheets that date back to 1979.
There are also instances of individual tackle totals appearing in newspaper accounts of Roughriders games from the 1960s and 1970s.
Based on the available information, Reavis is the 49th Roughrider to reach 10 tackles in a game.
Linebacker Eddie Lowe, a 1995 inductee into the SaskTel Plaza of Honour, tops the list with 13 games of 10 or more tackles.
The entire list appears below:
MOST 10-TACKLE GAMES BY A ROUGHRIDER
13 — Eddie Lowe
5 — Dave Albright
4 — Billy Jackson
3 — Reggie Hunt
3 — Darnell Sankey
3 — George White
3 — Rey Williams
2 — Ray Bernard
2 — Larry Dean
2 — Keith Miller
2 — Jackie Mitchell
2 — Omarr Morgan
2 — Frank Robinson
2 — Cleveland Vann
1 — Stevie Baggs
1 — Yudonn Biassou
1 — Brian Bonner
1 — Tyron Brackenridge
1 — Greg Clark
1 — Telvion Clark
1 — Eddie Davis
1 — Steve Dennis
1 — Henry Dorsch
1 — Ron Goetz
1 — Richie Hall
1 — Santino Hall
1 — Tom Higgins
1 — Charleston Hughes
1 — Andre Jones
1 — Greg Jones
1 — James King
1 — Jeff Knox Jr.
1 — Deon Lacey
1 — Maurice Lloyd
1 — Sean Lucas
1 — Bill Manchuk
1 — Melvin Martin
1 — L.J. McCray
1 — Fran McDermott
1 — Ken McEachern
1 — Anton McKenzie
1 — Ed McQuarters
1 — Henoc Muamba
1 — Brian Peters
1 — C.J. Reavis
1 — Mike Samples
1 — Barrin Simpson
1 — Mario Smith
1 — T.J. Stancil
