The Saskatchewan Roughriders are officially 4-0 after a nice and easy rocking chair win over the B.C. Lions.
I wrote basically that same intro a couple of weeks ago, except that was dripping with sarcasm. This time, it is actually true.
Unlike the first three games of the year, once the Riders got control of this game, they didn’t let it go. It was the exact type of performance this team needed going into the bye week.
Here are my thoughts on the Green and White staying perfect.
Wait…they’re allowed to score first?
Over the past three weeks, the Riders have struggled out of the starting gates. Well, not this week! Not only did they NOT give up a frustratingly easy TD on their first defensive possession, but they forced a two-and-out.
The magic continued as the Riders followed it up with ACTUAL POINTS! The bar wasn’t particularly high, but this was easily the best start of the year for Saskatchewan.
Campbell’s soup for the soul
Remember when Tevaughn Campbell got burned on a couple of plays in Week 1 against Ottawa? Yeah, me neither.
Campbell worked back into the good graces of Riders fans last week with a pick. This week, the sequel was better than the original. Campbell came up with the biggest play of the first half with an interception on a wide side throw from Jeremiah Masoli and took it 89 yards to the house with zeroes on the clock.
Whatever adjustments he needed to make coming in from the NFL have clearly been made.
Following the trend
Campbell’s pick-six was the start of a very beneficial trend for the Riders, who ended up with three interceptions to go along with an early fumble recovery. Rolan Milligan Jr. and Antoine Brooks Jr. got in on the fun as well, with Brooks ending up on the highlight reel after a fantastic diving play.
It took them a couple of weeks, but this defence is back to being the threatening unit that led them to the West Final a year ago. Masoli didn’t exactly provide the most resistance for them, but the Riders were in his face and making him pay for his mistakes.
Thurman did everything, everywhere, all at once.
At the front of that charge on the defensive side was Jameer Thurman. It is strange for a player to have a five-tackle game and still feel like the stats don’t do their performance justice. But that is how it feels with Thurman.
The star linebacker was at the centre of several impactful plays and was a disruptive force all evening. It got to the point where I started to wonder if they just put a few players in Thurman jerseys, because he just seemed to be everywhere. Masoli likely felt the same way as he couldn’t avoid the Green andWhite’s defensive leader all evening.
Thor’s lightning strikes again
You know it was a good game when the offence scores 37 points, and the first time they get mentioned is the fifth thought.
While running back A.J. Ouellette may be thought five here, he had to be front of mind for the B.C. Lions. With Trevor Harris on the sidelines for this game, Ouellette was called upon to carry the offence and was the dominant part of the game plan. By the time Ouellette passed the century mark on the ground, there were still 20 minutes left in the game.
There is an extra jump to Ouellette’s game this year that, when you combine it with his usual bowling ball running style, makes him a very dangerous part of the Riders’ offence.
Offensive line…Assemble!
If Ouellette is Thor — and given how he’s playing this year, he might actually be — then the offensive linemen are the Avengers.
Ouellette should take a great deal of credit for his big start to the year, but the offensive line should as well. This group was tremendous again this week in creating running lanes. On a few plays, “lanes” seems like an understatement; freeways might be more appropriate. I was concerned about the health of the unit at the beginning of the year, but now they feel like a real strength of this team.
They are getting some help, too. I take notes on every game I watch, and I don’t recall ever writing “good blitz pickup” about a receiver, but that’s what I did with KeeSean Johnson as he created some time for Jake Maier to give career receiving touchdown no. 1 to Dhel Duncan-Busby. The WRs have been helping out with the blocking all season long, and that was on display again this week.
Maier of Midville
I’ve never been a member of the Jake Maier fan club. I thought people rushed too quickly to the “his receivers drop a lot of passes” defence when he faced criticism, while no thought was given to why so many of his passes were droppable. That thought doesn’t change just because his jersey colour did.
I don’t think Maier was very good on Saturday. Joe Robustelli had to make a fantastic, toe-tapping catch on the sideline on a play where I, on my couch, was closer to him than the nearest Lions defender. There were a couple of other instances where the ball hit the turf because it wasn’t placed where it was supposed to be.
But, then Maier puts an absolute dime on Duncan-Busby for a 42-yard TD, and you see why he got the benefit of the doubt for as long as he did in Calgary. This all may have been a bit much for a game where they doubled up on the Lions. The real lesson here is that I have become spoiled by Trevor Harris’ high-level ball placement, and it obviously would be good for the Riders if he could come back soon.
A rare rough night for the Run D
One last negative note before we get back to the good feelings: the Riders’ run defence looked surprisingly vulnerable tonight.
Saskatchewan had allowed 136 yards on the ground in their first three games combined. James Butler almost matched that himself with 123 yards and a TD. The 30-year-old averaged 7.2 yards per carry and constantly felt like a home-run threat.
Butler had 17 carries, so it is not like he was criminally underutilized, but the Riders should be happy that the Lions were committed to getting Masoli going and that Masoli was equally committed to getting the ball back to the Riders as quickly as possible.
Lauther is the best medicine
Alright, back to the good vibes. I’ve mentioned poor kicking performances from Brett Lauther the last two weeks. So, it is only fair to give him some love when he has a good night.
Lauther entered the game having hit just 50 percent of his kicks. Five makes later, and that number is at a much nicer 69.2 percent. I never pushed the panic button on Lauther, but this performance makes it easier to put that button back in its case.
Final Thoughts
This was the first West Division test of the year for the Riders, and they passed with flying colours. Was this the Lions at their peak form? No, but Saskatchewan made games against lesser opposition way too close for three weeks in a row. To see them face a team dealing with injury issues and put them away instead of letting them hang around was very promising and an excellent way to head into the bye.
Now Saskatchewan gets a REALLY long Canada Day weekend with their next game coming on July 11 when they host Maier’s former team, the Calgary Stampeders. That will be another interesting test, but we have now seen a full 60-minute effort from this team, and that should bring a lot of optimism for fans of the Green and White.
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