Game Recap 

Sergio Castillo’s field goal with 28 seconds gave the Edmonton Elk a 26-24 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Edmonton was able to register eight sacks on Roughider QB Cody Fajardo on Friday night.

Saskatchewan was unable to take advantage of Edmonton discipline problem with the green and gold taking 158 yards in penalties in the victory.

After a field goal on the Riders opening possession, Edmonton gave a helping hand to Saskatchewan when former Rider Ed Gainey was called for a pass interference for 40 yards on the second Rider drive. On a third and two situation, Fajardo elected to go deep to Shaq Evans who got in behind Edmonton’s Jaime Harry for a 42 yard touchdown.

Taylor Cornelius provided the first spark for the Elk offence with an impressive 56 yard scramble. Edmonton had to settle for a field goal after Larry Dean timed his hit perfectly on Derel Walker at the goal line to knock the ball loose from the receivers hand. A 23 yard field goal by Sergio Castillo put Edmonton on the board at 10-3.

There was some controversy as Edmonton tied the game early in the second quarter. Cornelius fumbled the ball at the Riders one yard line, despite Saskatchewan linebacker Darnell Sankey emerged from the scrum of players with the football, the officials ruled Edmonton retained possession. Riders Head Coach Craig Dickenson challenged the call but without video evidence, Edmonton kept the football. Cornelius would score on the following play as the score was knotted up at 10-10.

Following a short Rider possession, the Elk would waste no time taking the lead. On the opening play of the drive, Cornelius found Dillion Mitchell in behind the green and white secondary as he scampered in for a 77 yard touchdown as Edmonton picked up their first of the game with just under nine minutes remaining in the first half.

Saskatchewan was unable to take advantage of excellent field position that was handed to them on the ensuing drive. Following a roughness call on the convert and a offside on the kickoff, the Elk found themselves kicking off on their own ten yard line. The green and white ended starting their offensive possession at the Elk 50 yard line. After their drive was stalled, a 35 yard field goal attempt by Lauther hit the right upright, leaving the Riders with no points.

A golden opportunity for Saskatchewan to tie the game at half slipped through their hands after beginning a drive on the Elk 30 yard line following a no yards penalty. The green and white offence stalled once again, as Lauther made a 39 yard field goal.

The Elk were unable to extend their lead at the end of the half with Castillo’s field goal hitting the upright, leaving the score 17-13 in favour of Edmonton.

With the Riders trailing by a touchdown, AJ Allen reversed the momentum for the Riders with a punt block allowing the offence to begin the possession at the Elk 26 yard line. But the green and white couldn’t cash in on any significant points following another stalled drive, Lauther’s 38 yard field goal attempt sailed wide left as the Riders trailed 20-14 entering the final quarter.

Rider nation began to express their frustration with the offence early in the fourth quarter following a quick two and out with Saskatchewan down by nine points.

A 38 yard field goal by Lauther restored deficit to a one score game.

Down by six, Saskatchewan’s offence got the ball at their 31 yard line with 2:23 remaining. The Riders were able to move the ball to the seven yard line setting up Brayden Lenius with the touchdown grab that put the Riders ahead with 1:08 left in the contest.

Following the Castillo field goal, Saskatchewan had one more chance to move the ball with 28 seconds remaining, but were unable to do so.

After the game Fajardo said the Edmonton defensive schemes caused problems for the Riders.

“Just seem to drop everyone in coverage and rush three which makes it very difficult to find passing lanes and it seemed like the last three times we played them.”

Even though it’s a low point right now for the Riders, the starting quarterback is trying to look at the big picture.

“It’s not like we just got eliminated from the playoff contention, we’re still very much in the hunt, I know this, if we punch our ticket to the playoffs, a lot of teams will be afraid of us.”

Linebacker Darnell Sankey agrees that the most important thing the team can do now is stick together.

“Teams start to lose, that’s when they typically start to shatter, they shatter from within, as long as our locker room stays together and as a unit then I really believe we can come back and win.”

Head coach Craig Dickenson believes his team has been worn down by the adversity they’ve faced this season.

“I think the guys in there are beat up, I think they’re tired, and we’re not playing well.” Dickenson said when you add all of those factors, the confidence is down.

The Riders head coach did say he will be meeting with Jeremy O’Day and the rest of the football operations staff next week and they will look to at all possible changes the team could make during the bye week.

Controlling the line of scrimmage is an area of the team that concerns Dickenson right now. He says the Riders are losing too many battles on both sides of the ball in the trenches.

“Right now we’re not good up front on either side, so we got to somehow improve that and we got to be more physical, this is the second game in a row they ran through us like hot knife on butter, so there’s lots to do.”

Dickenson pointed out the green and white are currently playing without their two top interior defensive lineman from earlier in the season in Anthony Lanier and Garrett Marino and the loss of the two defensive linemen have impacted negatively on the Riders. He added the removal of Marino was necessary.

Looking back at the eight sacks Edmonton registered on Fajardo on Friday night, Dickenson felt it was a combination of the offensive line along with his quarterback holding on to the ball too long.

“The eight sacks are on the offence.” He added “There were some where the o-line needs to be better, there’s some where are quarterback needs to step up, step out and there are some that are probably scheme related where they’ve done a better job of figuring out our protection, eight sacks, there’s plenty of blame to go around.”

With the Riders now 6-8 and a third encounter with the Blue Bombers on tap, Dickenson is hoping the Riders batteries can recharge next week. With the Grey Cup set to take place in Regina in November, he knows that the green and white have a long road ahead of themselves if they want to return home to play in the championship game.

Next Rider game is Friday, September 30 when they travel to Winnipeg to meet the Blue Bombers.