The Saskatchewan Roughriders started the season 2-0 after a nice and easy rocking-chair win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — or not.
We ended last week saying life in Riderville is never boring. This game reinforced that statement with the Riders needing a defensive stop in the last minute to hold on for a second straight game.
Here are my thoughts on how it all went down.
It’s not how you start — thank goodness!
For the second week in a row, the Saskatchewan Roughriders gave up the first touchdown of the game. And for the second week in a row, the Riders didn’t score in the first quarter. But for the second week in a row, it didn’t matter.
One would assume that, at some point, they will manage to squeak out at least one point in the opening 15 minutes. They may also spoil fans and decide to cover someone in that stretch as well.
On the positive side of things, Saskatchewan has played pretty well while in the chase position in both games and they’ve spent more time looking like a good football team than not. But, it is a little concerning that neither side of the ball has looked sharp to start either of these games this year.
Running like the rent was due
The headlines were not kind to A.J. Ouellette last week. Thomas Bertrand-Hudon drew a lot of praise, including from this piece, after his Week 1 performance. Then, Ka’Deem Carey was brought in and many people were asking if the Riders were looking for a way out of the Ouellette business.
Ouellette obviously heard that and powered his way to one of his best games as a Rider, going for 96 yards and an epic score. It is not like things were going awesome for Carey either as he started the season as a free agent. So, whether that was the motivation or a recognition that this next stop has to be a good one, it led to 6.5 yards per carry in understandably limited action. Both men were running like their jobs were on the line this week, giving the Riders a much-needed boost.
Lauther struggles
Brett Lauther had made 23 straight kicks heading into this game. That streak ended with a flourish as Lauther struggled in Week 2, missing three field goals and an extra point, adding an extra degree of difficulty to the Riders’ win.
It would probably be better for attention and clicks if I came on here and claimed that the Riders need to get rid of their kicker and make a big change. But — I don’t know if you heard on the broadcast — there was some wind in Hamilton. If you took a drink every time TSN said “The wind is swirling” in the first half, you probably had a very difficult Sunday morning.
Plus, Rider fans have seen this before. And Rider fans have also seen Lauther come out of it. Last year, Lauther went three-of-seven against Montreal in Week 11, only to miss one FG the rest of the season. The Riders would love for Lauther to be a bit more consistent, but sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.
Mill-again
One of the defensive stars of 2024 popped up again in Week 2, with Rolan Milligan Jr. taking an interception to the house early in the second half to give the Riders the lead for the first time.
Milligan’s eight interceptions last year helped make Saskatchewan’s defence the best in the league in the turnover department. The Riders were on the wrong side of the turnover battle in Week 1 against Ottawa, forcing only a turnover on downs in the 31-26 win. I liked some of the moves the Riders made in the offseason to help Corey Mace’s defence out, but it does seem that they lack a bit of the teeth they had in 2024.
They have given up quite a bit through the air over two weeks, which they were prone to do a bit last season. When the defence was at its best last year, it was a bend but don’t break D. They would give up a few little passes and just assume that at some point they were either going to force a turnover or the opposing QB would lose patience, force something, and the Riders would pounce.
A few too many times this year, they have been bend and then also break. Again, they came up with the stops when they needed to this week, but I do worry a little bit about what will happen against some of the tougher teams in the league.
Emi-less
We wondered last week if Samuel Emilus had taken a step forward this year and could settle in as a true number-one option for the Green and White. Well, if he has, he hid it very well in Week 2, getting just 37 yards receiving on four receptions before exiting late with injury.
There certainly was some more attention paid to Emilus this week, but it’s not like that doesn’t happen to other top receivers in this league. Clearly, it didn’t slow the Riders down with KeeSean Johnson going for 124 yards on eight receptions, helping Trevor Harris to a 295-yard day.
So is it actually Johnson who is the Riders’ number one receiver? Probably not. What is more likely is that this will be the same as last year, where it is number one by committee. They have plenty of skill in the receiving room with Johnson and Emilus joined by Dohnte Meyers, Mitchell Picton, and Dhel Duncan-Busby — who a very smart writer here predicted would break out this year — not to mention Shawn Bane Jr. and Kian Schaffer-Baker who are on the injured list.
Trevor Harris’ favourite receiver is whichever one is open. One week that will be Emilus, others it will be Johnson, Meyers and Duncan-Busby may even work in there as well.
SeeSean run
Maybe KeeSean Johnson won’t be the dominant receiver in Saskatchewan all season long, but he sure was this week. When Trevor Harris needed one of his guys to get open in the fourth quarter, it was Johnson who stepped up, coming up with several key catches, adding an exclamation mark with a very good catch in tight coverage in the endzone.
If there is one receiver who could separate from the pack in Regina it is probably Johnson. He has shown himself to be a reliable option on second down and has had a few very strong runs after the catch that show some bigger play potential. This is looking like it will be an offence that makes you pick your poison and this week Hamilton picked the wrong one.
None shall pass
If you told a Rider fan at the beginning of the season that the offensive line would be a big story through the first two weeks of the season, they would’ve expressed great concern over the health of their 39-year-old QB. The talk coming into Week 1 about the O-line was mainly focused on who wouldn’t be there after Sean McEwen went down with a season-ending injury.
However, the make-shift offensive line has not only survived but thrived. Trevor Harris has been kept very clean through two weeks, getting sacked just once, and they stepped up when the Green and White needed them the most. On the KeSean Johnson TD that ended up sealing the game, Hamilton brought EVERYBODY on the blitz — all the linemen, a couple of linebackers, and three members of the Arkells. Harris still had time to throw a dart for his only TD pass of the game.
Then, in the final couple of minutes, Harris was allowed time to scramble and find Johnson for a first down. That helped Saskatchewan take more time off the clock and set up Lauther in a spot where he could miss and still get a point — or field goal range, as the rest of the league would call it.
This performance from the O-line has to be miles ahead of what even the most optimistic Riders fan or coach would have expected through 120 minutes of football.
Some noise in the numbers on defence?
I don’t want to be Downer the Gopher here, but this just doesn’t feel like the same defence that caused so many problems for offences a season ago.
Yes, as mentioned above, Milligan gets the pick-six but it still doesn’t feel like it is as terrifying as it was to play against last year. Statistically, it’s fine — they only gave up 21 points, they only allowed 51 yards on the ground, and they scored a TD on defence. But the old eye test just isn’t adding up to me. It feels like it is easier to move the ball on this team.
With a couple of exceptions, they aren’t getting much in terms of pressure on QBs to start the year. The short, underneath stuff is going to be there — the field is huge, you can’t cover all of it — but there were a lot of open Ticats down the field as well, with Kenny Lawler torching the defence on a few occasions. Even the stops they got felt more like Hamilton misses than great Rider stands.
The run defence stats look good for the second week in a row. Last week, they genuinely looked good against the run, but this week, the yardage total was because Hamilton just basically stopped running. Bell was looking really strong with his only two second-half runs going for 16 yards and 9 yards. I will listen to the argument that the Riders’ defence was so strong and intimidating against the run that Hamilton didn’t gameplan for it and, to quote Omar from The Wire, “Sometimes who you are is enough.” But, it just doesn’t look right to me after two games.
Final Thoughts
For the second week in a row, I find myself feeling more negative about a Rider win than I probably should.
Trevor Harris was solid, KeeSean Johnson made several big plays to help seal the win, the run game was strong, the defence came up with some big plays, and they are 2-0. There really is a lot to like and Rider fans over the years have learned to never apologize for a win. But, I don’t subscribe to the “they don’t ask how, they ask how many” philosophy.
Unless the win results in you lifting a big shiny thing over your head after it’s done, I think it’s very fair to ask how. And right now, the “how” isn’t adding all the way up for me. They will look to go 3-Ontario with a very winnable matchup against the 0-2 Argos before a three-week stretch where they will play BC twice and the suddenly-awesome-again Stampeders. At that point, maybe all will be solved and my worrying will have been for nothing.
