REGINA — Anyone who took in the opening game of the Canadian Football League season between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Ottawa Redblacks on Thursday, June 5 might have noticed the Green and White playing with consistently short fields.
As it turns out, not only did the Riders give quarterback Trevor Harris and the offence great field position, that special teams unit was actually the best in the league in that aspect in Week 1.
And returner Mario Alford was a huge part. The seven-year veteran found space all game on punts and kickoffs, often getting the ball close to midfield. That made things far easier for the Roughriders' offence to put up points, and ultimately played a large role in Saskatchewan’s 31-26 victory at Mosaic Stadium.
Now the key will be to repeat that effort against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday and if Alford has anything to say about it, it’ll be a lot more of the same.
“I take much pride in it, that's my job and I'm gonna do that the best I can, especially since that's my only job,” Alford told voice of the Riders Dave Thomas. “So why not master it, help the offence get in field position and a great drive start?”
The numbers don’t lie when it comes to what Alford put together against Ottawa, five punt returns for 45 yards and a long of 13 to go with five kick-off returns for 139 yards — 27.8 average — and a long of 34 yards. He also added a missed field goal return for 60 yards.
While so much of the professional game is based on precision and running plays as perfectly as possible, Alford’s job is often making the most out of controlled chaos — playing in the moment, finding seams and opportunity as it presents itself.
“It's one of those things you can't coach, you can't teach, the feel of a return, how to return and run the ball,” Alford said. “If you got it in you, you got it in you. You can't teach that stuff.”
As fans have seen the past couple seasons, Alford most certainly has ‘it’ in him. The West Virginia University Mountaineers product was third in the CFL in both punt return and kick off yards last season, racking up 801 yards total running back punts and 1,077 yards on kickoffs.
Of course, Alford and his fellow returners would find their jobs exceptionally difficult if not for the other 11 players on the field doing their jobs on special teams, as head coach Corey Mace points out.
“He’s a savvy vet, sometimes you’ll see players get into a certain kind of zone and he’s certainly in that. But he’ll be the first to tell you there’s 11 other guys out there working their tails off to make sure he has a lot of space available to him," Mace said.
“Ultimately, it’s his decision making, seeing the holes and pressing. He was excellent last week, if we can continue that on our return game, flip the field and give our offence a good drive start, it puts us in a good place.”
Alford was in complete agreement.
“Coach draws up the scheme, I try to execute it to the best of my ability and so do all the other 11 guys who I play with,” Alford said. “It's a team thing, we go out and execute our play.”
Be sure to catch the Roughriders pre-game show on Saturday with Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk and Wes Cates at 2 p.m., including exclusive interviews, while Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder have the game call at 5 p.m. You can hear everything on the 620 CKRM Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network.