The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ newly-acquired running back, Ryquell Armstead, ran all over the Calgary Stampeders this past week, recording 25 carries for 207 yards.
Though he failed to get into the end zone, it was still a remarkable performance as the 27-year-old averaged 8.3 yards per carry. He’s the first CFL player ever to rush for 200 yards in a debut with a new team and the league’s first running back to log as many yards since Hall of Fame running back Jon Cornish rushed for 208 yards and two touchdowns against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 2013.
Have the Roughriders unlocked something in Armstead? Can their running game be this dominant from week to week? Or was this a one-off?
I don’t want to diminish what Armstead or the Roughriders achieved this past weekend. He’s unquestionably a highly-talented running back and this was the type of dominant performance for which the entire offence deserves credit. With that said, the conditions that led to the standout day are unlikely to be repeated by either Armstead or the Roughriders this season.
The Bridgeton, N.J. native’s performance didn’t come out of nowhere. He was a fifth-round NFL draft pick who started each of Ottawa’s first 11 games this season. He was not just their leading rusher, he was averaging five yards per carry. Coming into this game, he had the fourth-most rushing yards in the CFL on the season. Were it not for the number of 15-yard penalties he accrued — and subsequent fines he was handed — he’d likely still be a member of the Redblacks.
Calgary was the perfect team for him and the Roughriders to face if they were looking to make a statement with their ground game.
First of all, the Stampeders came into the contest with the worst run defence in the CFL. They allowed a league-worst 1,518 rushing yards through their first 13 games and a disastrous average of 6.5 yards per carry — over one yard more than the next-worst team.
Secondly, as poor as Calgary’s defence has been against the run all year, it’s reasonable to think they were more concerned about shutting down Saskatchewan’s passing attack. Trevor Harris was coming off back-to-back games against Winnipeg’s league-best defence against whom he threw for 655 yards and five touchdowns.
Thirdly, the Roughriders came into the matchup with the fewest rushing yards in the league, the fewest yards per attempt, and star running back A.J. Ouellette on the six-game injured list. Calgary probably wasn’t even thinking about Ryquell Armstead. He was signed to Saskatchewan’s practice roster four days before this game. Had they known they’d be facing Armstead instead of Frankie Hickson, their preparation might have been different.
This was Armstead’s best game in terms of rushing yardage, though the most efficient game of his professional career came against Calgary earlier this year when he was still in Ottawa. On August 16, he ran for 120 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, averaging 10.9 yards per carry. He also caught six passes for 44 yards out of the backfield.
Teams that tackle poorly struggle against backs like Armstead who can run downhill, though his elusiveness in space makes him a concern against even good run defences. It’s reasonable to wonder whether or not Saskatchewan’s front office considered the fact that they had two games remaining against Calgary, both with playoff implications, when signing the back who gave the Stampeders such a tough time earlier in the year.
The frequency with which Calgary used three-man fronts early on seems to indicate they didn’t expect Saskatchewan to come at them on the ground. The Roughriders routinely drove Calgary’s defensive line off the ball with double-teams and effectively reached the next level. By my tracking, Armstead logged 100 yards before contact, which highlights two serious problems the Stampeders had.
First of all, allowing four yards per carry before contact speaks to immediate losses on the line of scrimmage and linebackers not being able to get in position to make a play. On almost half of his runs, defensive backs were the first contact Armstead took on. It’s generally a bad sign when defensive backs lead the team in tackling and, in Calgary’s case, halfbacks Ben Labrosse and Kobe Williams led the way.
The second problem with this yard-before-contact number is that it still leaves 107 yards of after-contact yardage, which is inexcusable. Armstead bounced off defenders, pushed them to the ground, and dragged them for additional yardage all night long. That’s what usually happens when you allow a big back like Armstead to build up steam and go untouched into the secondary.
Ryquell Armstead (@track_chaser) is living up to the billing in his first game as a Rider.#CFL #Riders #RiderNation
pic.twitter.com/YRSzjR0xcS— 3DownNation (@3DownNation) September 21, 2024
Calgary kept their base personnel on the field instead of opting to add more run-stoppers as almost all of Saskatchewan’s runs used five-receiver sets. The Roughriders were lined up in base five-wide formations on 14 of Armstead’s carries, and, on his 11 other runs, they generally used Ajou Ajou, Samuel Emilus, or Kian Schaffer-Baker as a standing split end instead of fullback Albert Awachie, who might have been matched by the Stampeders with a larger defender.
The final element that allowed Armstead to have a career night was the scoreboard. No other running back in the CFL has had 25 carries in a game this season and that’s not because players like Brady Oliviera, William Stanback, and Ka’Deem Carey can’t handle the workload — of course they can. It’s that the game situations haven’t allowed it.
In three-down football, it’s hard to sustain drives with a run-heavy attack, even for the best rushing teams. All it takes is one penalty or a first-down gain of less than four yards and you’re in a passing situation. To commit to the run to the point where your lead back accumulates 25 or more carries, you have to have a pretty good lead early in the game, but it can’t turn into a blowout.
An early lead allows you to keep the ball on the ground because it keeps the clock running and there’s less pressure to turn every drive into points. In a blowout, teams will often pull their starting running back, in part to get their other players carries, but mostly to preserve their starting back who will inevitably take on heavy contact.
In this game, Calgary opened the scoring on their first drive with a touchdown, but a missed extra point allowed Saskatchewan to take the lead when they answered with a touchdown of their own. The Roughriders never relinquished the lead but they were never able to build a three-score lead either, which is why the conditions were perfect to continue running the ball with Armstead.
So, will Ryquell Armstead have another 200-yard game in Saskatchewan this season? No.
This was a perfect storm that involved playing exactly the right opponent who entered the game with the wrong defensive plan, activating a newly-acquired practice roster player the day before a game, getting effective blocking from a unit that had struggled to do so all season, and maintaining a two-score lead for the majority of the game.
This doesn’t mean that Armstead and the Roughriders can’t continue to run the ball effectively — they have a rematch against Calgary in the final week of the season, after all. However, with the cat out of the bag, there’s little chance we’ll see a result like this again in 2024.
