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The Saskatchewan Roughriders have put together three straight wins, the latest being a 19-17 victory over the Edmonton Elks on Friday.
But Riders head coach Craig Dickenson has some concerns over the performance of the team.
“I’m not overly happy with how we played but I’m also a realist. I know that’s a team out there that was fighting for their lives and playing for jobs and they played very hard and I thought they played well for the most part,” Dickenson said of the Elks.
“As far as my concerns over our team, we got tired on defence and we will need to work on our conditioning a little bit. I feel offensively we are real close to putting it together.”
Safety Loucheiz Purifoy agreed the defence didn’t play up to its standard after allowing 14 points in the fourth quarter.
“We aren’t good enough right now,” Purifoy said. “I don’t think they should have scored. We will get back to the drawing board and fix it.”
Saskatchewan improved to 8-4-0, good for second place in the CFL’s West Division. Edmonton fell to 2-9-0.
It was the last home game at Commonwealth Stadium this season for the Elks, who finished 0-7 at home. It’s the first time in Edmonton franchise history the team went winless at home.
Riders quarterback Cody Fajardo finished the game with 24 completions on 33 pass attempts for 241 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.
It was another slow start for the Riders’ offence, which only had seven net yards of offence in the first quarter.
“We say every week we’ve got to start fast, we’ve got to be good on first down and we’ve got to score in the red zone and it seems like we’re only getting one out of the three each and every week,” Fajardo said.
“It would be nice one day to come (to the media) and be like, ‘That was the offence I’ve been expecting all year.’ We’ve got two more games here to figure it out before playoffs but I think we took the right step in the right direction after this game.”
One of the positives from the game for the Riders’ offence was its ability to finally hit a deep ball — something that has come at a premium for Saskatchewan in 2021.
In the second quarter, Fajardo connected with slotback Duke Williams for a 38-yard pass that set up a touchdown pass to slotback Brayden Lenius just two plays later.
Saskatchewan Roughriders slotback Duke Williams catches the onside kick against the Edmonton Elks at Commonwealth Stadium on Nov. 5, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber Bracken)
“I needed it. I needed it because I feel like I left (a big play) on the board against Calgary and that’s been in my mind since then,” Williams said. “The next ball I get that’s a deep ball, I needed to come down with it. I had it in my head that whenever the ball was in the air, I was going to get it.”
Edmonton quarterback Taylor Cornelius completed 21 passes on 35 attempts for 338 yards, with two touchdowns to wide receiver Danny Vandervoort.
Riders kicker Brett Lauther made all four of his field-goal attempts but did miss his only convert attempt.
Saskatchewan punter Kaare Vedvik had a solid game in his second CFL start, averaging 53 yards a punt and scoring one rouge.
Elks kicker Sean Whyte was 1-for-2 on field goals in the game.
The Riders’ defence put together another strong showing, recording three sacks — one from defensive end Jonathan Woodard and two from defensive end A.C. Leonard.
Edmonton went for two points after the first of its two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but Purifoy met Elks running back Walter Fletcher with a hard hit that stopped the rusher in his tracks.
“It motivated us. We were all mad that we gave up that touchdown so we knew we had to make a stop,” Purifoy said. “We played to our standards on that two-point play, which we should have been doing that whole drive.”
After Edmonton’s second TD, Williams recovered an onside kick attempt to ice the game. It was the third straight game that Williams had to come down with an onside kick to ice the game as the Riders continue to find themselves in close contests.
“We certainly don’t make life boring or easy on us. I said that to them in the locker room. I said, ‘You guys make it hard on me. I’ve got enough grey hairs in my beard – I don’t have any on my head,’ ” Dickenson said. “They are all teachable moments.”
The Riders will host the Elks in a rematch on Nov. 13 before ending the regular season with a showdown in Hamilton against the Tiger-Cats on Nov. 20.
Dickenson said he thinks the team has been playing better as it gets closer to playoffs.
“The goal is to be playing your best football at the end of the year and I think we’re going to play better next week than we did this week and hopefully we play better the next week as well,” Dickenson said. “I think we’re getting there.”
But Williams knows that once the playoffs begin, this sort of effort probably won’t cut it.
“We’re ready for playoff football but we’ve still got some work to do. In my opinion, 19 points in the playoffs won’t win the game and that’s just being honest. I feel like we’ve got to put up more points,” Williams said.
“The defence has been playing good since I’ve been here and we’ve got to complement their game and special teams have been playing good and we’ve got to complement that.
“We’ve got to complete all three phases to actually win a Grey Cup.”
