Roughriders survive scare to beat Stampeders in double OT

The Saskatchewan Roughriders survived a scare on Saturday night.

Facing the Calgary Stampeders in Week 3 of the CFL season, the Roughriders won 40-37 in double overtime to improve to 2-0 to begin the season. However, the Green and White almost squandered leads of 16 and 14 points as they held 21-7 and 31-17 leads at one point in the game.

"It's just a character win," said head coach Corey Mace. "There were multiple opportunities we could have put the team away. Ultimately, we did not do that.

"I know people might may have questions about how many new guys and stuff we play with, but this is a team, and they stuck together.

"Call me crazy, but I'll take this kind of win today for this team moving forward."

Quarterback Trevor Harris threw for 349 yards and three touchdown passes, two to receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker, but it was a first-half fumble and missed field goal return that almost proved costly for the Roughriders as they gifted the Stampeders 14 points in what was otherwise a dominating first half for Saskatchewan.

"Football is like life, man," said Schaffer-Baker, who had a game-high 130 yards on eight catches. "It's going to be a rollercoaster ride. It's full of ups and downs. It's all about just riding those waves. It's never getting too high in those high moments, and it's about never getting too low in those low moments.

"It's just staying even keel the whole time and I think we did a phenomenal job of that. I know we didn't answer the way we wanted going into half (but) I think we responded as soon as we came back out."

Despite those plays — and the fact that the team failed to score a point in the fourth quarter as they ended with five straight punts to end regulation — the Roughriders were able to secure the victory in overtime as Harris made three first-down throws to Samuel Emilus, Dhel Duncan-Busby and Schaffer-Baker before short-yardage specialist Tommy Stevens plunged in from one yard out in the second overtime to secure the win after Saskatchewan's defence held Calgary to a field goal.

"We were in a position where we were trying to conserve the lead in the fourth quarter so wasn't there wasn't quite as (much) urgency from us," said Harris, who was 23 of 36. "And that's what we've got to clean up.

"We've got to take that game and bury it. When we're up two scores, 31-17, we've got to extend it to three scores, and then get a stop and get to get the ball back and make it four scores. That's kind of what team we need to be, and then we will be as we, as we go throughout the season."

The game started out on a good note for Harris and the Roughriders as the quarterback connected with KeeSean Johnson for a 38-yard gain up the sideline on the first drive, which led to a field goal to give the Roughriders an early 3-0 lead.

Near the end of the first quarter, Saskatchewan put together another strong drive as Harris found a leaping Samuel Emilus for a 38-yard gain before Stevens ran into the end zone for his first major from two yards to make it 10-0.

In the second quarter, after Harris fumbled the ball on his own 14-yard line, the Stampeders took advantage of the turnover as Quincy Vaughn snuck into the end zone a few plays later to make it 10-7.

Saskatchewan immediately responded as Harris hit Schaffer-Baker over the middle and the receiver did the rest of the work as he scampered 53 yards into the end zone a touchdown to put the Roughriders up 17-7.

Later in the quarter, Harris put together another strong drive as he found Emilus for a 27-yard gain before connecting with Schaffer-Baker on a four-yard touchdown pass, his second-career two-touchdown game, to make it 23-7 as the convert attempt was missed.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Roughriders recovered the ball on a windy day at McMahon Stadium, which led to Saskatchewan attempting a 47-yard field goal into the breeze. However, Alex Hale's kick was wide left and Tyreik McAllister returned it the entire length of the field for the touchdown to make it 23-14 at the break.

"We were kicking into the wind, which was a bit of a problem obviously," explained Mace. "I thought we had enough time to push it down the field to get us within the striking range.

"We put our hawkeye field goal team out there, so you're not sending a bunch of O-linemen out there to cover the kick.

"(We) trusted Alex's leg there. He had enough power (but) it was tough. Obviously you didn't expect a long return there, but that's ball, sometimes it happens. But I felt pretty good to see if we could steal some points there. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for us."

After the Stampeders added a field goal early in the second half to make it 23-17, the Roughriders marched down the field and elected to gamble on third-and-eight instead of kicking a 41-yard field goal into the wind.

"As you can imagine, I didn't want to risk that again," said Mace. "We were in a situation there, but I was like, let's put the confidence in the offence to go ahead and do that there.

"It kind of that fringe area where you don't want to risk missing the kick again and having the return all over, and then also tough to gauge it for a punt there as well. So, faith in the offence (and) glad it worked out."

On third down, Harris found Emilus for the first down before the quarterback hit Johnson on a four-yard touchdown pass moments later. With A.J. Ouellette's two-point convert, the Roughriders took a 31-17 lead with 4:35 left in the third quarter.

Vernon Adams, who had just 20 passing yards in the first half for Calgary, then put together a four-play, 64-yard touchdown drive — with 20-plus yard strikes to Dejon Brissett and Erik Brooks — before Vaughn plunged into the end zone from a yard out to cut the lead to 31-24.

With less than two minutes to go, after converting a third-down gamble near midfield, Calgary's Dedrick Mills ran for a pair of first downs before Adams, who finished with 254 passing yards, hit Tevin Jones on a 12-yard touchdown pass with 34 seconds left to tie the game 31-31.

Looking to get into field-goal position with time winding down, Harris hit Schaffer-Baker for a first down before a pair of incompletions forced the Riders to punt it away, leading to overtime.

On the first series, with Calgary taking the ball first, the Stamps marched to the 11-yard line before kicking a field goal to go up 34-31.

The Roughriders, needing a field goal to extend overtime, failed to get a first down before Hale made a 38-yard kick to tie the game and send the game to a second series.

After defensive lineman James Vaughters made a nice tackle on Adams on second down, Calgary was held to another field goal in the second overtime series to go up 37-34 before Harris picked up a three first downs to get Saskatchewan to the one-yard line.

From there, Stevens plunged into the end zone for his second touchdown of the night to win it for the Roughriders, improving them to 2-0 while Calgary dropped to 0-2.

"We were able to hold them to the field goal and we were able to get the ball back, and I knew once we did, we were going to put together a scoring drive," said Harris. "I just wanted to make sure that we ended with the ball in our hands in the end zone with us winning the game.

"But some good things to clean up. I'm glad that we have things to clean up after a win, as opposed to if you take a loss."

Injury notes: After losing halfback Rolan Milligan Jr. and safety Nelson Lokombo to injury in their season opener against B.C., the Roughriders had a couple more players go down on Saturday as rookie halfback JuJu Hughes and running back A.J. Ouellette were tended to by trainers at one point and did not return to the game. Mace didn't have an update on either players' status immediately after the game.

Next up: Saskatchewan will host the Toronto Argonauts on Friday night at Mosaic Stadium in Week 4. The Argonauts are off to a 1-1 start after a 44-24 win over Ottawa on Saturday. Technically, Toronto will be the home team on Friday in Regina as the club is playing a few "home" games elsewhere due to the World Cup taking over their home turf.

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