Mitchell Blair
Guarantee, shmarantee!
The Saskatchewan Roughriders walked into B.C Place Sunday night and ruined the “guaranteed win” declaration of Lions President Dennis Skulsky by winning their 5th game in a row by a score of 20-16.
The game did not go as the script would suggest though as backup quarterback Tino Sunseri ended up being the hero for the green-and-white. The 2nd year grad from the University of Pittsburgh was called into duty when Darian Durant informed the coaching staff he couldn’t go after suffering an injury to his throwing hand late in the first half.
Sunseri came in and completed 8 of 13 attempts for 86 yards. He admitted after the game he didn’t really think he was getting in until just before the 3rd quarter when Durant informed the coaching staff he couldn’t go because of the injury whose severity is not known.
“When I go in there, I am confident of what I can do because of the way I practice throughout the week,” Sunseri said. “I knew we could make plays and we did when we had to.”
One of those plays came on the final play of the 3rd quarter when Sunseri threw his first professional touchdown pass to offensive lineman Dan Clark who made a catch reminiscent of Tony Champion in the 1989 Grey Cup to give the Riders a lead they would never relinquish. It was a play that had Head Coach Corey Chamblin smiling at game’s end.
“I’ll tell you what,” Chamblin said jokingly to 620 CKRM’s Carm Carteri after the game. “I’ve got to talk to Brendan Taman about giving him a raise because that was a big play for us.”
As for Clark, he told a Vancouver newspaper that he was just doing his job.
The play was called and I knew I just had to make the play and catch the ball,” said Clark, who is usually a backup offensive guard. “It was great to come through and make a big play.”
While Chamblin was smiling with the play of Clark, he was also smiling with the mental fortitude his team showed to dig deep and get a tough win in a tough environment
“This team is building our character and learning how to win in places like this“ Chamblin said. “We knew they would have some things that would catch us off guard early, but we said we had to fight through the adversity. We played soft to start off and then like a boxing match once we knew what they were doing, we countered.
Several players had a great game defensively including rookie defensive tackle Trevor Guyton. He says the defence talked about shutting down the Lions and they came through.
“We talked about it all week“ Guyton said. “They put up some big numbers on us, especially on the ground, the last time we played and we didn’t want that happening again. We weren’t surprised to go out there and shut it down.
The win leaves the Riders with a record of 6-2 as they prepare for the annual back to back games against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers starting with the Labour Day Classic Sunday at Mosaic Stadium in a 2 o’clock start.
GAME NOTES:
- Chris Milo put recent struggles behind him by going 4 for 4 in field goal attempts. 3 of the 4 were from beyond the 40 yard line.
- The Riders defence has not allowed a TD since Winnipeg’s Rory Kohlert scored on August 7. That is a streak approaching 130 minutes
- John Chick did not register a sack, but the Riders defense had three on the night giving them 32 on the season
- With Will Ford gaining almost half of It, the Riders ran for 228 yards on the night.
