Gainey interceptions turned Riders’ season
Defensive back’s four picks against Lions provided catalyst the team needed to launch its playoff drive
TORONTO — Saskatchewan Roughriders fans were ticked off until Jonathon Jennings was picked off.
The B.C. Lions quarterback was intercepted four times, in fact, by Ed Gainey as the Roughriders registered a 41-8 home-field victory on Aug. 13.
Gainey’s command performance was the catalyst for a Rider revival that has carried them to Sunday’s CFL East Division final against the host Toronto Argonauts.
Eight days before Gainey seized control of matters, B.C. had defeated Saskatchewan 30-15 in Vancouver.
The score flattered the Roughriders. The Lions flattened the Roughriders, who trailed 30-0 before Saskatchewan scored two decorative touchdowns late in the obligatory fourth quarter.
The loss left the Roughriders with a 2-4 record — and a 12-39 slate since mid-September of 2014.
The prognosis was not promising as the Roughriders prepared for a rematch with a Lions team that had just engineered a rout.
In the finale of a home-and-home set, the Roughriders asserted their dominance by, er, punting to conclude the first offensive series.
Saskatchewan punctuated its second possession by erupting for a rouge — courtesy of an errant 39-yard field-goal attempt by Tyler Crapigna.
At that point, the return engagement hardly had the makings of a transformative game.
Gainey proceeded to change the game — and the Roughriders’ trajectory, as it turned out.
Midway through the first quarter, Jennings released an ill-advised pass in the face of pressure from Saskatchewan defensive end A.C. Leonard. Gainey intercepted the pass and, just like that, the Roughriders had a first down on B.C.’s 31-yard line.
Four plays later, Riders quarterback Kevin Glenn found Bakari Grant for a 35-yard touchdown pass.
To begin the ensuing possession, middle linebacker Henoc Muamba felled Lions running back Jeremiah Johnson for a loss of two.
On second down, Jennings went back to his favourite target — Gainey. He registered his second interception, on the visitors’ 49-yard line, and went the distance for a touchdown.
By game’s end, Gainey’s four interceptions had set a franchise single-game record. And their record for the 2017 season would soon look considerably better.
Saskatchewan is 9-4 (playoffs included) since that season-altering blowout of B.C.
“The turning point is probably the second B.C. game at home, after we went out to B.C. and didn’t play as well as we thought we should have,” Glenn said. “We left there with a bad taste in our mouth, a bad loss.
“I think after that game is when guys got together and said, ‘This isn’t what we want this season to be.’” The message was absorbed. The Roughriders’ defence, so porous at times during the opening third of the season, is now one of the league’s elite. That is a pronounced contrast to the 2015 season (when Saskatchewan was 3-15) and the 5-13 ordeal of 2016.
Saskatchewan’s play across the board has improved. Special teams-wise, the Roughriders have a reliable punter (Josh Bartel) and placekicker (Crapigna), an explosive return specialist (Christion Jones) and solid kick coverage (spearheaded by rookie Denzel Radford).
The offence, for all the questions about when or whether Glenn or Brandon Bridge should play quarterback, produced a league-best 35 touchdown passes during the 2017 regular season. The Roughriders also led the league in total touchdowns, with 55.
And now the Roughriders are one win away from a Grey Cup berth — the rebirth of Aug. 13 being the pivotal point in a season that changed course in a heartbeat.
“That game was a good turning point for us, being that we just wanted to flip the script and move as far away as possible from the 2016 season,” Gainey said.
“That (Aug. 13 game) definitely was a confidence-builder.”
And a season-builder, as it turned out.