The most hyped game of the CFL season sure lived up to its billing. This one was an instant classic.
Eight lead changes. A combined 896 total passing yards by two veteran, gunslinging quarterbacks. A final-play, long-distance, game-winning field goal.
The only problem for the Saskatchewan Roughriders on that last part is that it was Edmonton Elks’ Vincent Blanchard who booted a 57-yard attempt down the middle as the clock expired on Thursday night.
What a heartbreaking 36-34 loss it was for the Riders. They’ll now merely attempt to keep pace with the Elks for top spot in Western Division in the return matchup next Saturday instead of being able to pull ahead.
How they got themselves in that predicament is the focus of Riders Morning After.
Why they lost
The easy answer is they didn’t have the ball last in a game in which it felt like points were going to be scored on every possession and a low-percentage kick did them in.
But there’s more to it than that.
Former Riders quarterback Cody Fajardo picked apart the Saskatchewan secondary to the tune of a career-high 510 yards passing and four touchdowns. Only seven of Fajardo’s 32 pass attempts were incomplete.
The Riders couldn’t slow down Fajardo at crucial times. The most glaring example came in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.
Dhel Duncan-Busby hauled in a seven-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Harris on second and goal on the opening play to give the Saskatchewan the lead. The next time Fajardo got the ball, though, he threw an 81-yard bomb to Austin Mack to restore Edmonton’s advantage.
That just can’t happen.
A shank wide left by Riders kicker Alex Hale from 46 yards with 3:17 left could have changed the home team’s fortunes. That miss came after an offensive pass interference penalty on Sam Emilus to negate a Saskatchewan touchdown, too. But Hale did give the Riders a 34-33 lead with an 11-yard chip shot with 1:46 on the clock.
No, it was the inability to stop Fajardo that truly led to the Riders’ demise in this one. Glen Suitor was certainly onto something, given that Saskatchewan held Elks running back Justin Rankin to just 39 yards on the ground.
Game ball
It’s clearly Fajardo here. I mean, he had 510 yards through the air and four touchdown passes. He was basically flawless. His only miscue came on a fumbled snap on third and short in the fourth quarter before he compounded the issue with a desperate, failed lateral that resulted in a turnover.
Fajardo’s counterpart gets the distinction for the Riders. Harris did his best to keep pace with his Saskatchewan predecessor, surpassing him on the franchise’s all-time passing list in the process.
He threw for 386 yards and found four different Riders for majors: Kian Schaffer-Baker, KeeSean Johnson, Emilus, and Duncan-Busby. He was picked off once, but it occurred when a ball was tipped into the hands of offensive lineman Gavin Meyer.
It was his inability to connect with a fifth receiver for a touchdown that can also be added to the list of why the Riders lost.
Harris underthrew a wide-open Johnny Johnson on what would have been a three-yard score with less than two minutes to play. The Riders had to settle for that short Hale field goal. Had Harris made good on that pass to Johnson, and Hale convert on his extra point, a last-possession field goal would have been useless for the Elks.
“They showed up,” Riders coach Corey Mace said of Harris and the offence to Dave Thomas in the postgame show. “They were carrying us. They did more than enough to give us an opportunity. At the end there, shoot, we really would have liked to have converted that last one. But these guys were marching the field all night, doing a heck of a job.”
Needed more from
The secondary. This one’s pretty clear.
The Riders game entered the game with the CFL’s second-ranked defence. That’ll be knocked down a peg.
The pass rush could have been better, but Fajardo was sacked three times.
This defeat is largely on the last line of defence.
“Just was a mental bust for us,” Mace said. “We’ve got guys running wide open. We’ve got to be tuned into the details, and we missed that on a few occasions.”
Play of the game
There is no shortage of candidates.
Schaffer-Baker was a human highlight reel. He had 93 of his 185 yards receiving on Saskatchewan’s first scoring drive of the game. That culminated with a 56-yard touchdown that saw him blow by Kordell Jackson.
He also made a stylish one-handed grab in the third quarter.
https://x.com/CFL/status/2080487030740631765
But Elks’ Blanchard deserves the title. Kickers seldom get enough love.
Hitting a game-winning field goal is impressive enough. Doing so from 57 yards is a whole other animal.
https://x.com/CFL/status/2080505654520000528
The stat that matters most
Did I mention Fajardo had 510 yards passing? I feel like I did, but it’s worth mentioning again. Yeesh.
