The Saskatchewan Roughriders take aim at their fourth win in five games when they host the Ottawa Redblacks on Friday night at Regina.
The stretch began with a 27-22 road victory over Ottawa on July 3 behind two touchdown passes from Trevor Harris.
Harris is tied for second in the CFL with 17 touchdown passes and running signal caller Tommy Stevens leads the league with eight rushing scores.
Stevens ran for three in last Saturday’s 28-26 road victory over the Edmonton Elks. He is the fourth Saskatchewan quarterback to run for three touchdowns in a game.
“Having that extra Swiss Army Knife in our backpack, if you have it, you use it,” Harris said of Stevens. “We’re thankful Tommy has gone out there and gotten it done. … If you have someone like Tommy Stevens, you use him.”
Stevens is halfway to matching the single-season rushing TD record for a quarterback. Ottawa’s Caleb Evans set it by rushing for 16 scores in 2022.
Harris, 40, ranks fourth in the CFL in passing yardage with 2,254. He is enjoying another stellar season on the heels of being Grey Cup MVP when Saskatchewan recorded a 25-17 victory over the Montreal Alouettes in last year’s title game.
The Roughriders (5-2) will be without star receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker (knee), who was placed on the six-game injured list on Thursday. He ranks third in the league with 704 receiving yards and has four touchdowns among his 45 catches.
Ottawa (0-7) is coming off its third setback by 20 or more points this season after being drubbed 34-13 by visiting Montreal on July 31.
It marked the fifth time this season and Redblacks allowed 34 or more points. And the latest poor effort led to defensive coordinator Will Fields being dismissed by head coach Ryan Dinwiddie.
Jeff Reinebold, who was the special team coordinator, is the new defensive coordinator for a unit that ranks last in the CFL in scoring defense (35.3 points per game) and total defense (437.3 yards per game).
Dinwiddie is in his first season with Ottawa. He made it clear improvement is needed in every area.
“We have to find ways to get better,” Dinwiddie said. “We got to critique some things. We got to keep that locker room positive. You got to keep the coaching staff positive. When you’re 0-7, there’s a lot of stress but at the end of the day, we have to make sure we do our jobs.”
Jake Maier passed for 311 yards against the Alouettes and was intercepted once. Maier has thrown for 2,027 yards and eight touchdowns while being picked off nine times.
–Field Level Media
