Always a stickler for accuracy, Trevor Harris suggested a better term for a just-concluded home-and-home set between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Elks.
“More like away-and-away,” Harris remarked to reporters at Commonwealth Stadium after quarterbacking Saskatchewan to a 28-26 CFL victory on Saturday night.
Nine days earlier, the Elks had celebrated on enemy turf, winning 36-34 at Mosaic Stadium in this season’s first clash of the West Division’s top-ranked teams.
In both cases, the visiting team won by two points.
The comparisons end there.
“This one seemed a little bit more old-school,” Head Coach Corey Mace said after Saturday’s slugfest. “The other one looked like a seven-on-seven game.”
In Part 1, Harris and Edmonton’s Cody Fajardo each threw four touchdown passes and combined for 896 aerial yards.
They also collaborated for seven completions of 30-plus yards. There was only one such play, by Edmonton, on Saturday.
Fajardo threw for 510 yards in the opener, averaging 20.4 yards per completion. Those figures were pared to 286 and 13.0 in Saturday’s sequel.
Harris, for his part, registered 239 passing yards in Edmonton after amassing 386 nine days earlier.
“It was kind of a track meet up and down the field,” he said of the July 23 thriller. “Offences were making some big plays.
“Defences make adjustments. This is pro football, man. You’re not going to throw for 500 every week. You’re not going to throw for 400 every week.
“I thought our defence did a great job most of the day. Their defence did a great job making adjustments, seeing what they could do to take away our primary receivers and push the pocket.
“But when push came to shove, I feel like we made the plays when we needed to.”
The offence delivered in timely fashion even though some of its premier playmakers were sidelined.
Receiver Samuel Emilus (foot injury) and running back A.J. Ouellette (knee) both sat out the game. Complicating matters, Kian Schaffer-Baker left the game toward the end of the third quarter after making an 11-yard reception. Daniel Wiebe, who started in place of Emilus, was described by Harris as being “touch and go” as the game progressed.
Yet, the offence produced four touchdowns — to Edmonton’s two — and received integral contributions from players who do not ordinarily bask in the spotlight.
Johnny Johnson III and Dhel Duncan-Busby shared the team lead in receptions, with four. Duncan-Busby led the Roughriders in receiving yards (66).
Johnson III gained 27 and 15 on back-to-back catches to set up a four-yard, fourth-quarter TD pass from Harris to KeeSean Johnson, who added a two-point convert.
To recap: Those passes were caught by Johnson, Johnson, Johnson and Johnson.
Daniel Johnson was playing left guard at the time.
Let’s not forget Stevens, Stevens and Stevens.
Tommy Stevens scored on three one-yard runs for Saskatchewan, tying a team record for rushing TDs by a quarterback in one game.
Stevens’ first score was set up by Johnson III’s 87-yard kickoff return.
Touchdown Tommy scored for the second time shortly after Harris found Duncan-Busby for a 16-yard gain that advanced the football to the two.
The third Stevens TD followed an 18-yard reception in traffic by D’Sean Mimbs, whose clutch catch gave Saskatchewan a first-and-goal situation on the seven.
It was just the fourth career reception for Mimbs — Saskatchewan’s sixth-round selection in the 2024 CFL Canadian Draft — and certainly the biggest to this point, on a night when the Roughriders’ depth was tested yet again.
That was also true in the defensive backfield. Defensive halfback Rolan Milligan Jr. (knee) was already missing after being placed on the six-game injured list. Then Tevaughn Campbell, an all-CFL cornerback last season, was sidelined near halftime. He watched the second half while wearing a sling.
Minus two of the league’s premier defensive backs, Saskatchewan was facing a quarterback who went off for 510 yards in the teams’ previous meeting.
An unenviable situation, to be certain, but one in which the resilient Roughriders responded.
“Shout-out to everybody,” Mace said. “We truly needed every person on this roster to make a play tonight.”
A little good luck — which had been elusive in the teams’ previous meeting — didn’t hurt, either.
A lost fumble by Stevens near the goal line was negated when Edmonton was called for … wait for it … too many men on the field. Saskatchewan soon capitalized on another opportunity.
Saskatchewan’s closing drive, which devoured the final 2½ minutes, was extended by two 15-yard penalties against Edmonton.
The Roughriders would have been punting on third-and-six with a minute and a half left if not for a roughing-the-passer penalty assessed to Tomari Fox.
Three plays later, Stevens was tackled for a loss of two on first-and-10, only for ex-Roughrider Malik Carney to be flagged for roughing.
Also on the final possession, Quali Conley — stepping in for the injred Ouellette — ran for 11 yards on second-and-eight. That was Conley’s final carry during a game in which he spun away from and leaped over would-be tacklers.
Along the way, he helped to prevent the Roughriders from experiencing any kind of tailspin.
The loss at home — albeit in a game that was aesthetically pleasing for fanciers of wide-open football — was neutralized by a gutsy win on the road.
The odds, from a raw-data perspective, were not in the Roughriders’ favour.
Leading up to Saturday’s game, Saskatchewan had lost to the visiting team 34 times to open a home-and-home set, dating back to 1948. On only 10 of those occasions had the Roughriders rebounded with a victory on the road.
Make it 11.
