The Saskatchewan Roughriders will be without their starting quarterback this week due to the effects of a late hit in last week’s victory over the Toronto Argonauts, but head coach Corey Mace isn’t fuming about it.
Trevor Harris was placed on the one-game injured list with a concussion after absorbing a late shot from Argos’ defensive tackle Jordan Williams late in the first quarter that appeared to clip his facemask, drawing a major penalty. The incident came one play after Riders’ receiver Dhel Duncan-Busby was flagged for an illegal low block that seriously injured Toronto DB Kenneth George Jr., leading to allegations that it was retaliatory.
Those two calls kicked off a rash of penalty flags, as the Argos and Riders combined for 307 yards on 29 infractions throughout the game. Each fanbase left calling for supplemental discipline, but Mace indicated on Friday that he has wasted little time discussing the hits in the days since.
“I like to live in reality. That’s football, man. Sometimes, it’s a violent sport, and it gets aggressive; temperatures flare,” he said. “Clearly, if you look at the totality of the penalties, it was getting a little bit hectic, but certainly both clips have been talked about.”
“I’m sure that there’s going to be disciplinary stuff throughout the league, not just in our game. The league does a good job of doing that throughout the whole league on a week-to-week basis.”
Williams and Duncan-Busby were both fined by the league on Thursday for their actions, though the amounts of the financial penalties were not disclosed. Six other players were slapped with similar charges for partaking in various infractions around the CFL last week.
The Riders will pay a substantial cost of their own, however, as Harris missed the first two practices of the week while undergoing concussion protocol. While he was a full participant on Thursday, the 39-year-old was not cleared for the Week 4 clash with the B.C. Lions and will sit in favour of backup Jake Maier.
“We did have a long week after the game last week, but mapping out the protocol, it just didn’t line up,” Mace said. “Obviously, we’ve got a lot of confidence in Jake, and we are moving into a bye week as well. A lot of things went into it, but ultimately, with those (concussions), you don’t really want to risk it. There’s proper steps to follow, and the timeline just didn’t match.”
Harris did not exit last week’s game after being hit, finishing 13-of-17 passing for 254 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Mace indicated that the team was not made aware that he was suffering from a possible concussion until after the game, and that they have been playing the situation by the book ever since.
“As far as Trevor, nothing came to light (about whether) he did suffer a concussion, we didn’t even talk about it throughout the game. He was operating fine. We didn’t know anything until later, after the game, ” he said. “We’ll see. I don’t know what else to say to that whole situation, but where we are right now, just happy that things have been handled and done the right way.”
The Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-0) will host the B.C. Lions (1-2) at Mosaic Stadium on Saturday, June 28 with kickoff slated for 7:00 p.m. EDT. The weather forecast calls for a high of 24 degrees with a 40 percent chance of showers and a risk of thunderstorms.
The game will be broadcast on TSN and CTV in Canada, CBS Sports Network in the United States, and can be streamed on CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune in on 980 CKNW in Vancouver or 620 CKRM in Regina.
