Riders surprise Elks and everyone else in opener

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That’s not exactly what anyone was expecting from the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Before Saturday’s 29-21 season-opening victory over the Edmonton Elks inside near-empty Commonwealth Stadium, the Corey Mace-led Roughriders were supposed to be a well-disciplined team that relied offensively on running back A.J. Ouellette and defensively on the pass rush generated by its front four.

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Hahaha! What do we know anyway?

Ouellette gained only 40 yards (with one touchdown and one fumble) on 18 carries.

On obvious passing downs the defensive line often deployed a three-man front, which didn’t apply much pressure on Elks quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson until Bryan Cox Jr.’s huge strip-sack on a four-man rush in the dying minutes.

And three of Saskatchewan’s six penalties came at the conclusion of a play, following a whistle. That’s totally undisciplined!

After nearly out-running an attempted Gatorade shower from enthusiastic Riders trying to celebrate their head coach’s first CFL victory, Mace told the media postgame he wouldn’t apologize for the imperfect victory. But he admitted the senseless, post-whistle penalties taken by right guard Logan Ferland, safety Jayden Dalke and left tackle Trevor Reid were “frustrating.”

Mace vowed there would be “in-house” repercussions.

Ferland’s infraction nearly changed the entire trajectory of the contest.

With the Roughriders leading 7-4, within scoring distance late in the second quarter and building momentum, Ferland was ejected and assessed a 25-yard penalty for punching an opponent.

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Ryan Sceviour replaced Ferland and immediately surrendered a sack on quarterback Trevor Harris. The Riders’ pass protection ultimately stabilized — with blocking help from Ouellette — to let Harris complete 22 of 31 passes for 305 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. In his first regular-season game since knee surgery 11 months ago, Harris didn’t run once while throwing all his TD passes to Shawn Bane Jr.

In a league known for mobile quarterbacks and kickers who don’t like computer chips in their footballs, it was also interesting that Saskatchewan’s Brett Lauther made four converts but didn’t attempt a field goal.

The CFL ruled earlier this week — because of near-unanimous complaints from the league’s kickers — they would not have to use the chip-embedded Wilson footballs that provide computer data such as velocity and height of a quarterback’s throws.

After scoring only one point through the second and third quarters, the Roughriders somehow reinvigorated themselves in the fourth with that key fumble recovery from Cox plus an interception from linebacker C.J. Avery. The defence, keyed by a strong performance from rookie halfback DaMarcus Fields and the return of veteran halfback Rolan Milligan Jr., also made a last-minute stop after Ouellette’s fumble.

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Against an Edmonton team notorious for giving away football games, the Roughriders got two majors from Bane and one from Ouellette while outscoring their hosts 21-3 in the fourth quarter.

Bane shifted regularly between slotback and wideout. He caught six passes for 125 yards while finding huge openings in Edmonton’s rookie-laden secondary. The move-him-around innovation came from first-year offensive co-ordinator Marc Mueller, who knew Bane’s talents from two seasons together with the Calgary Stampeders.

Mueller’s best call might have come on his team’s first offensive play, when Harris threw the longest pass of the day. It fell incomplete, but it showed everyone the Roughriders were capable and thinking about using deep passes rather than the dink-and-dunk offence they suffered through with the previous coaching staff. Hooray for unpredictability!

The Roughriders’ next game is Sunday in Hamilton against the Tiger-Cats.

Hamilton lost its opener to the Stampeders, who sit tied atop the West standings with the 1-0 Roughriders after unexpected losses by the division’s preseason favourites, the B.C. Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

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Predicting what might happen next is evidently a fool’s game.

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