Mitchell Blair
A football team would normally be smiling from ear-to-ear after posting its seventh straight victory and completing a three game sweep of a division rival by taking two of the three in their park, but instead of celebrating a 30-24 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday afternoon, there was a sense of tremendous concern because of their leader.
Quarterback Darian Durant left the field clutching his throwing arm after being drilled to the turf by Winnipeg defensive lineman Bryant Turner on a play that had been whistled dead by the officials and a play where no penalty was called.
It was a play that definitely affected receiver Weston Dressler.
“Your heart just sinks, Dressler said to reporters after the game. “You never want to see a guy go down on the field, especially someone like him. He is our leader. It’s tough to see, but we know what type of guy he is, what type of fighter he is and he’ll get back on the field.
Head Coach Corey Chamblin couldn’t say a lot about the injury when asked about it by 620 CKRM’s Carm Carteri.
“We don’t know the extent of the injury yet, but our prayers are with him,” Chamblin said. “This team will rally around him.”
The injury to Durant cast a shadow on what was a great performance from the team in all three facets of the game—especially a special teams unit that has seen its fair share of criticism over the past three weeks as Weldon Brown blocked a field goal that Rod Williams scooped up and scored a touchdown on while Dressler returned a punt for a major. Chamblin says everyone came up with a great effort to earn the two points.
“It was a team win,“ Chamblin insisted. “We had a lot of guys make big plays on the road in a very tough place. We showed a lot of grit and a lot of character. Everyone came through including the Rider Nation who was in the crowd.”
The running game was once again dominant as Anthony Allen, Will Ford and Jerome Messam continued to chew up big chunks of yardage. Allen had 115 yards on the afternoon. He gave a lot of credit to the Bombers for staying with them and giving them another hard battle.
“There was some tough runs out there. They’re a good team and they fight hard. “Allen said. “They delivered a lot of punches to us today, but we managed to take those punches and then deliver a knockout blow. It feels real good to beat these guys again because this was a series of games where we went at each other’s throats. I’m sort of glad to have seen the last of these guys for a while.”
After putting 30 points up on the Rider defence in the Labour Day Classic, Drew Willy and the Winnipeg offence had difficulties in getting things on track in this game. Williams, like Allen, said he is glad to have seen the last of their division rivals.
“It feels great to beat these guys three times this year. “ Williams gushed. “We came out and tightened it up during crunch time. We made some big plays late to preserve it.”
The team now comes back to Regina before heading east again. They will head to Hamilton to take on the Tiger-Cats next Sunday in an 11 o’clock start Regina time.
GAME NOTES:
- With Josh Bartel missing the game due to injury, Chris Milo handled the punting chores and had an average of over 46 yards a kick.
- Weston Dressler was the first player to return a punt back for a touchdown since he did it himself in 2012 in a game against Montreal.
- While the Riders won the game by 6, the Bombers had 100 more yards in total offence.
