OUT OF THE TUNNEL: A THRILLER ON CAPITAL HILL

BY: RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF

OTTAWA 44 SASKATCHEWAN 41

It may have been one of the more entertaining games we have seen from the Saskatchewan Roughriders offence in a long time. But in the end, it didn’t matter as the Redblacks held on to the victory Thursday night at TD Place dropping the Riders to 0-2 to start the season.

Both offences went blow for blow all game long but an 11-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter was too much for the Riders to overcome.

It could have been worse if the Rider defence didn’t stiffen up enough to hold the Redblacks to six field goals. Five of those were after Ottawa broke the Roughrider 25-yard line.

It was almost all positive for the Rider offence:

-Cody Fajardo was almost perfect in his first ever CFL start. The yards and touchdowns were fantastic but completing almost 80% of his passes (27-34) was almost uncanny. It’s a pace that is impossible to keep up but it’s what the Rider offence desperately needed.

-Shaq Evans continues to develop into the Riders number one receiving threat. His seven catches were a career high and he finally grabbed his first CFL touchdown.

-The duo of Marcus Thigpen and William Powell are almost a perfect complement to each other. Powell was great in the week one loss in Hamilton and Thigpen picked up the slack Thursday when Powell struggled a bit.

-A banged up offensive line had a solid game. The Riders broke the 100-yard mark rushing and Fajardo was sacked just two times and had enough time to complete 80% of his passes.

-Brett Lauther is still on the pace he had all of 2018. He was 3/3 including a 57-yard field goal Thursday night. He has hit 4/5 field goals in 2019 and the Riders will continue to need him to be clutch to bounce back from their 0-2 start.

Defensively the sack totals continue to pile up with another four Thursday night and at times they had Dominique Davis scrambling for his life.

Other than that, it was a very tough night for the Green and White.

-What hurt the Riders was the pair of fumbles that led to 10 points for the Redblacks and there was the four, two-and-outs that killed the offensive momentum and swung the field position in favour of Ottawa.

-After two years of relying on the big play, the Saskatchewan defence has yet to find its swagger. They haven’t forced a turnover. This was the lifeblood of the Riders in their resurgence and made up for a lot of the offensive woes.

-It was also tough to watch Nick Marshall get abused on Thursday. We all know that Marshall usually gives the Riders close to lockdown play on the corner but will give up one or two big plays per game. Let’s hope this was an anomaly.

-Special teams are also a sore spot. Specifically, the punt and punt return units. Hamilton had the punt return touchdown in week one to turn the game around and Ottawa was better in both the punt cover and return units Thursday night.

-Brett Lauther has been solid kicking field goals but for some reason converts have been a bugaboo for him. He has missed converts in both games this season. Yes, it’s just a single point, but if this continues it could make the difference at a very crucial time.

With all of the good and all of the bad let’s wait to make any conclusions until after a third of the season is done. The common statement in the CFL is the season doesn’t start until after Labour Day, but a team’s identity is pretty well defined after six games are in the books.

This is by virtue of the short CFL training camp and just two pre-season games to evaluate players and implement a game plan.

It’s even more evident this year as three of the four first-time head coaches, Craig Dickenson, DeVone Claybrooks and Khari Jones are still looking for their first CFL victory. Orlando Steinhauer is the anomaly with his 2-0 start to 2019.

The Roughriders home opener on July 1 is incredibly important. A win against a very beatable Toronto Argonauts (more on that below) will wash away the problems from their first two games of the season. A loss and oh boy will the vultures come to feast.

Thursday’s game was by far the most entertaining game of week two of the CFL season.

EDMONTON 39 BC 23

The Edmonton Eskimos beat up on Mike Reilly and the B.C. Lions 39-23. We said at the beginning of the season that one of Edmonton or B.C. will have a tough season. It’s rare that two teams that completely changed the look of their football club will have success.

So far, the weak offensive line play has killed the Lions. Reilly has been sacked eight times and they have rushed for just 57-yards on 19 carries for just three yards per carry. This is not conducive to having success offensively. It turns into too many two-and-outs, bad field position and wears out the defence.

On the other side of the ball, Trevor Harris is having an almost perfect start to a season. He has completed 77% of his passes for 741 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions. The Eskimos look scary good.

HAMILTON 64 TORONTO 14

On the other hand, the Toronto Argonauts look scary bad. They let up over 600-yards of offence, gave up a field goal return for a score as well as a late interception for a touchdown in a 64-14 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

This isn’t a great debut for Corey Chamblin as head coach of the Argos especially for a defensive-minded coach. A lot of work needs to be done in a short time if Toronto wants even a sniff of success at Mosaic Stadium on Canada Day.

One last note, the East Division is 3-1 to start the season against the West Division. Don’t expect this to last.

(RODPEDERSEN.COM STAFF/PHOTO: OTTAWA REDBLACKS)