After two weeks of narrow losses, the Saskatchewan Roughriders found their way into the win column in Week 3.


The Riders controlled the game from start-to-finish against a struggling Hamilton Tiger-Cats team and walked away with a 37-20 win at Mosaic Stadium, the organization’s first win at the new stadium.

“Feels great, a lot better than last week, I’ll tell you that much,” said quarterback Kevin Glenn, who was 32-of-43 for 380 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He also rushed for two scores for the first time since 2004.

In the first two weeks of the regular season, the Riders lost by a combined four points, but they were able to put together a solid game across the board against the Ti-Cats to secure the win.

Saskatchewan’s offence was efficient, their defence pressured and limited Hamilton’s offence and the special teams were on point, including kicker Tyler Crapigna, who 2-for-2 on field goals after missing key kicks in each of the first two weeks.

“We played a solid game,” said head coach Chris Jones. “You’ve got to give our players credit, I thought our coaching staff did a real good job – Steve especially managing offensively.”

A safety opened the scoring for the Riders in the first five minutes and they drove into scoring position on the ensuing drive as well, but Glenn waited too long on a 2nd-and-goal throw and was picked off at the goal line by Hamilton defensive back Justin Rogers, who returned it 110 yards for a touchdown.

The turning point in the game came on the next drive as Saskatchewan took the ball 76 yards on nine plays, capped off by a six-yard touchdown run from Glenn to answer right back on the Ti-Cats.

“The way that we got down there, I don’t think anybody had any doubts that we couldn’t move the ball,” said Glenn. “The sign of a good team is overcoming that and flushing it down the toilet, forgetting about it and moving on, and everybody did that.”

The Riders would build up a 19-10 lead at halftime and instead of allowing Hamilton back into the game during the third quarter like last week against Winnipeg, Saskatchewan started the second half on fire.

Duron Carter hauled in an eight-yard pass for his first touchdown of the season just 3:38 into the second half to make it 26-10.

Hamilton battled back to make it a seven-point game heading into the fourth quarter, but Saskatchewan sealed the win with a one-yard TD from Glenn and a shutout from the defence in the final frame.

The Riders’ offence moved the ball throughout the game, finishing with 464 yards on the night.

Naaman Roosevelt had a big game after a slow start to the season, catching ten passes for 167 yards, while Bakari Grant scored a touchdown for the third straight game, finishing with six catches for 72 yards.

Carter had seven catches for 63 and a touchdown.

“We’ve got a great offence, from the o-line to the running back to the receivers, and we’ve got a great quarterback in KG and he finds all of us,” said Roosevelt.

“Our main goal this week was to finish, play four full quarters and I think we did today.”

Running back Cameron Marshall had a strong game as well with ten carries for 71 yards.

While the offence was moving the ball throughout the game, the defence played their most complete game of the year. The defensive line was in Hamilton quarterback Zach Collaros’ face throughout the game and limited the Ti-Cats to just 195 total yards.

The Riders didn’t bring much attack in the first two games of the season, but made a point of getting after Collaros in this week’s game.

“We wanted to go out and instill the physicality that we wanted to do from the jump, we wanted to play hard on first down and get off the ball on second down and that was the mode,” said defensive end Willie Jefferson, who recorded the Riders’ only sack and was in the Hamilton backfield all game.

“I feel more comfortable as a defensive lineman rushing four just because I know it’s more one-on-ones and it’s not going to be double teams, so when we run four men, there’s a lot of variables when we do that.”

Collaros finished the game 19-of-34 for 189 yards with one touchdown, which was Hamilton’s first offensive score of the year.

The Riders held the Ti-Cats to just 27 yards rushing.

Saskatchewan will get the next week off now with a bye in Week 4. Glenn said it was good for the team to head into the break on a winning note, “It’s a good chance for the team to enjoy this win and come back focused to put some more wins together,” he said.

The Riders will return to game action on Saturday, July 22 in Calgary.