REGINA -- With the way the first series of the game went for the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Thursday night in their season opener against the Ottawa Redblacks, it looked as if they were going to be in for a long night indeed.
Redblacks quarterback Dru Brown marched the ball down the field with ease, completing all seven pass attempts as part of an 11-play drive that gave Ottawa a 7-0 lead in the kick-off to the Canadian Football League campaign.
But the Riders defence would get the job done though the remainder of the opening 15 minutes -- and when the second quarter came around Trevor Harris and crew went to work.
The veteran quarterback would lead Saskatchewan to 17 straight points and a 17-7 lead at half, with the Riders eventually going on to a 31-26 victory at Mosaic Stadium.
The win was naturally heartening for head coach Corey Mace, even if things looked a bit dicey in the early going.
“Obviously, that's not the way that we kind of wanted it to look, but it's hard to win in this league and specifically versus a team I would identify as kind of built similar to us,” Mace said on the Co-Operators Rider Broadcast Network postgame show. “It was a physical game but ultimately the goal is to win and we did that. This is a dark alley and I’ll take those guys in the locker room any day, so I’m happy [with the win]”
Once Harris got things going, he ended up with a pretty solid showing, with 19-for-26 passing for 277 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Samuel Emilus was his favourite target on the night, catching eight passes for 133 yards and a second-half touchdown.
“Trevor's awesome,” Mace said with a tone of awe. “Shout out to the offensive line as well, even with the little bit of rotation on that. Trevor is surgical, man. He's just a pleasure to watch, certainly having the weapons he has.”
Emilus also drew praise for his showing, especially when he wasn’t the target on a play.
“He's going to get tired of me because he makes so many plays and then I'm going to show the team what he was doing blocking for guys,” Mace said. “He's an unbelievable blocker and a selfless player, man.”
The Riders came into the contest banged up on the offensive line and their injury situation didn’t improve whatsoever. Running back A.J. Ouellette, receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker and defensive back Roland Milligan Jr. all went down during the game, with Mace expecting none of the three to miss significant time.
What that led to was ‘next man up’ and Thomas Bertand-Hudon especially took that to heart. He ended up with 14 carries for 57 yards and two touchdowns and was especially efficient when it came to grinding out yards when the Riders most needed it.
“Thomas the Train, man, Thomas the Train,” Mace said gleefully. “I mean, he put together some really good runs and he’s obviously a tough runner. Every time he has an opportunity to do something he has been pretty dang outstanding and today's again proof to that with the two touchdowns. So you know that game ball went to him.”
On the other side of the ball, the Riders didn’t do the greatest of jobs dealing with Brown, who ended up 34-of-41 passing for 413 yards -- the majority in the third and fourth quarter as the Redblacks mounted an abbreviated comeback.
That’s naturally something the team will be looking to clean up in the coming week of practice.
“We were really looking forward to seeing what this D line could do by themselves and I thought they did come up with some crucial sacks and were able to get after it,” Mace said. “But 400 yards, that’s a tough one to swallow. We didn’t end up pressuring a lot to be honest, so we’ve got some stuff to clean up.”
Quarterback Tommy Stevens picked up the Riders' other touchdown in his usual fashion, finishing off the Riders’ first drive for a major on a short yardage play.
Brett Lauther added an 18-yard field goal for Saskatchewan’s other points.
William Stanback and Dustin Crum each had rushing touchdowns for Ottawa, Justin Hardy and Eugene Lewis each hauled in a major through the air.
Saskatchewan had 277 yards through the air and 366 yards offence, while Ottawa had 30 yards rushing and 398 yards of offence.
The Roughriders will now have the next week off before travelling to Hamilton to face the Tigers on Saturday, June 14. Kick off is at 5 p.m.
