HAMILTON — It wasn’t a perfect game for the Saskatchewan Roughriders by any stretch of the imagination, but when you can come up with big plays at big times, that can lead to winning football.
And sure enough, that’s what the Green and White pulled off against the Tiger-Cats in Hamilton on Saturday evening, getting a trio of touchdowns at key moments to secure a 28-23 victory in Canadian Football League action.
Running back A.J. Ouellette had the first big play with a 47-yard touchdown run late in the second half, defensive back Roland Milligan Jr. followed with a 64-yard pick-six major in the third quarter and KeeSean Johnson keyed one of the biggest drives of the game in the fourth quarter with four catches for 69 yards culminating in a 15-yard touchdown strike.
That was all enough to secure Saskatchewan’s second win of the 2025 season, even with things looking a little discombobulated at times.
“To be honest, it was similar to last week, there is so much obvious stuff that we have to fix and get better at and I shared that with the team,” head coach Corey Mace exclusively told the Rider Broadcast Network post-game. “We’re certainly not at our best and where we want to be to come into somebody else’s house and still leave with our win."
“I believe there’s a make-up of a really good team in there and they know it. But there were far too many busts [defensively] and there was some trouble kicking the ball there. All that being said, we’re leaving with a win.”
Ouellette’s huge run came with 3:28 left in the first half and kicked into gear what had been a relatively moribund offensive showing to that point. The run was the longest of Ouellette’s career as he had 13 carries for 96 yards on the night.
Mace pointed to the overall performance of the offensive line as a key component in that success and how things went in general, especially giving quarterback Trevor Harris time to work.
“Schematically how I think we blocked it up, the o-line did a good job,” Mace said. “The amount that they pressure, I thought that was a great job from our offensive line, but also from our backs. It was a hell of a run by A.J. and it was awesome to see.”
Johnson’s overall showing was also impressive, as he hauled in eight catches for 124 yards and his crucial major. That included four catches for 69 yards on the aforementioned late-game drive that saw Saskatchewan take a 28-20 lead. The Riders held Hamilton to a field goal on their next series before getting a trio of big stops on the Tiger-Cats final possession to secure the win.
To say the least, it’s safe to say Johnson and Harris had a connection going on what would stand as the game-winning series, and that’s something the duo have spent plenty of time working on.
“We work hard at practice and I try to talk to him as much as I can in meeting rooms and on the field, and if there’s a play that doesn’t go the way we want it to go, it’s: ‘What can we do differently here from quarterback to receiver?’” Johnson explained. “It’s working and we’re going to try and continue to push for greatness.”
As much as communication is key, preparation and repetition in practice is also important, especially when it comes to figuring out what kind of defence Hamilton was planning to use in various situations. Once Harris and Johnson recognized what was going on, it was all systems go.
“You gotta have a feel for it with your quarterback,” Johnson said. “We go through reps and all kinds of looks during the week, we change up the looks and try to get every look that a defence can do and try and run a route versus every defence they can give me so we can be on the same page and same timing.”
Milligan Jr.’s pick-six also came at a crucial time, as it gave Saskatchewan their first lead of the game and swung the momentum in the Riders favour. It was also the fifth-year veteran’s first touchdown of his CFL career.
“It was fun, it felt good finally getting in the end zone after four-and-a-half seasons,” Milligan Jr. said. “It’s something we’ve been talking about, scoring on defence gives us a great chance to win football games.”
As for how his touchdown happened, as per usual, it all started up front.
“They got in Bo [Levi Mitchell’s] face and made him throw a bad ball, and it was waiting up there for me,” Milligan said.
Even with the difficulties the Riders defence had at times with blown coverages that led to big gains and a passing touchdown for the Tiger-Cats, Milligan shared Mace’s opinion that a win is a win and something to build on for the future.
“Just winning the game for team morale, knowing that with all the mistakes we had we can still win games, and on the road, too,” he said. “That says a lot about our team. So we want to continue to build and know what we messed up and make those corrections.”
You can find all the stats and info from the contest at www.cfl.ca and follow along with how the game played out on SportsCage’s live blog.
The Riders are back in action on Friday, June 20 when the Green and White face the reigning Grey Cup champion Argonauts in Toronto. Game time is 5:30 p.m. and you can follow along with all the action on the 620 CKRM Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network.