Roughriders put the boot to Redblacks
The latest Leader-Post-mortem dissects a game in which the Saskatchewan Roughriders were seemingly buried.
On Friday, the Roughriders were trailing the Ottawa Redblacks 17-0 with four minutes left in the third quarter. The prognosis was grim before the visitors handled the rest of the scoring and won 18-17.
A single, as it turned out, produced two points.
ROUGE-RIDERS
Josh Bartel’s 55-yard punt single, which snapped a 17-17 tie late in the fourth quarter, ended up being the winning point.
Bartel didn’t simply hoof the ball out of the end zone or out of bounds for an eye-roller of a single. Instead, his punt was fielded 11 yards deep in the end zone by Quincy McDuffie. He was trapped two yards shy of the goal-line by Jeff Knox Jr. So concluded the scoring. One key play: On the play before Bartel’s punt, Kevin Glenn had found Bakari Grant for a sixyard gain on second-and-10. That completion did not move the chains, but nonetheless proved to be crucial.
Suppose that Glenn had thrown an incompletion on second-and-10, whereupon Bartel punted for 55 yards. McDuffie would then have had enough time and space to run the ball out of the end zone and preserve the tie.
Bartel’s booming boot helped Saskatchewan overcome a deficit of 17-plus points for the first time since Nov. 8, 2015.
That afternoon, Brandon Bridge — now of the Roughriders — started at quarterback for the Montreal Alouettes and helped them assume a 24-6 lead before three TD passes by Brett Smith led Saskatchewan to a 30-24 overtime victory.
Weston Dressler’s final catch as a Roughrider was for a gamewinning touchdown in OT. How fitting.
LUCKY SEVENS
Defensive end Willie Jefferson wears the No. 7 that Dressler popularized in Saskatchewan — with profuse apologies to Joe (747) Adams.
Jefferson lived up to the number’s standard of excellence on Friday, making a massive play when it appeared that the Redblacks were poised to fatten their 17-7 fourth-quarter lead.
After runs of 13 and six yards by William Powell and three consecutive completions by Ryan Lindley, a promising possession crumbled for the Redblacks.
On first-and-10 from Saskatchewan’s 20-yard line, Jefferson trapped Powell — who had just set a Redblacks single-game rushing-yardage record of 190 — for a loss of five.
Lindley proceeded to throw a short pass to Juron Criner, whose fumble was recovered by Saskatchewan’s Jovon Johnson. Six plays and 75 yards later, the Roughriders were in the end zone.
PPPERFECT FINISH
The Roughriders’ defence became impenetrable in the crucial stages, shutting down the Redblacks on their final nine plays from scrimmage.
Jefferson got things rolling by felling Powell for the aforementioned five-yard loss. Then came the fumble by Criner, who did not gain any yardage before coughing up the football.
On the next possession, Lindley threw an incompletion and was then sacked by Jefferson. Punt.
Ottawa’s final five plays: Twoyard run by Powell, incompletion, four-yard completion to Criner, incompletion, interception by Johnson. Ottawa was also penalized for illegal procedure during that stellar stretch.
Until that nine-play run, the Redblacks’ offence had been highly efficient. Ottawa had won 38 of its first 57 offensive plays — a 66.7-per-cent success rate, using the Positive Plays Percentage (PPP) — before going 0-for-9.
The PPP has appeared in this space as a method of evaluating the consistency with which the Roughriders execute on both sides of the ball.
Per this formula, a win is awarded to the offence or defence on each play from scrimmage. A positive outcome for the offence is defined here as a touchdown, a first down, a first-and-10 play that gains at least five yards, or a seconddown play that creates at least a third-and-short opportunity.
On Friday, the Roughriders had a PPP of 50.0 (14-for-28) before winning 11 of their 18 fourth-quarter offensive plays (61.1 per cent).
Saskatchewan’s offence has a PPP of 53.1 after 13 games. The opposition’s offence: 50.9.
5 ALIVE
At several junctures in Friday’s game, it was reasonable to wonder whether Glenn — the Roughriders’ No. 5 — would be pulled in favour of Bridge.
Saskatchewan had only eight first downs after three quarters — and half of those first downs were on the Roughriders’ opening possession, which ended with an interception.
Yet, Roughriders field boss Chris Jones stuck with Glenn, who helped the visitors register eight first downs over the final 15 minutes.
Glenn threw for 160 of his 252 yards during the fourth quarter. The biggest plays were for gains of 43 (by Duron Carter), 36 (Antwane Grant) and 30 (Rob Bagg).
Until the final frame, the Roughriders’ longest completion for a first down was an 11-yarder to Carter.
VIVE LAFRANCE!
Kienan LaFrance enjoyed his finest game as a Roughrider after gaining only four yards on four carries during a 15-9 loss to the visiting Calgary Stampeders on Sept. 24.
LaFrance equalled his Sept. 24 rushing-yardage output on his first carry on Friday. Then he went several steps further.
Late in the fourth quarter, for example, LaFrance had backto-back carries for eight and five yards to move the chains and exhaust valuable time. The five-yard run ensured that time would not be an ally for the Redblacks.
LaFrance also made a significant play on the Roughriders’ only touchdown drive. After LaFrance was stopped for two yards on a first-down run, he moved the chains with a 13-yard reception (including 12 yards after the catch).
DEEP THOUGHTS
Saskatchewan has gone seven games without surrendering a completion on a pass that has travelled 40 or more yards.
On Aug. 5, the host B.C. Lions went 2-for-2 from 40-plus range en route to doubling Saskatchewan 30-15. Since then, the Roughriders’ opposition is 0-for-8 from that range (seven incompletions, one interception).
Saskatchewan has also improved in the range of 20 to 29 yards on both sides of the ball.
The Roughriders had thrown three touchdown passes in 20-29 territory after six games. They have produced eight scoring passes in seven subsequent games.
Defensively, the 20-29 turnaround is pronounced.
After six games, opposing offences had thrown seven TD passes and not a single interception. In seven games since then, the foe has only one TD toss compared to three interceptions.
Not coincidentally, Saskatchewan has won five of those seven games, following a 2-4 start that had left many frustrated fans seeing red ... or rouge.