left to right - Edmonton Eskimos player #22 (RB) LaDarius Perkins tries to get into the endzone as Saskatchewan Roughriders player #45 (DB) Kacy Rodgers II goes after him during the 4th quarter of CFL game action between the Edmonton Eskimo's and the Saskatchewan Roughriders at the Brick Field located at Commonwealth stadium in Edmonton Friday, August 25/2017. Riders won the game 54-31. (CFL PHOTO Walter Tychnowicz- )
EDMONTON — It took a while, but Kacy Rodgers II finally is on the board.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders cornerback registered the first interception of his CFL career during Friday’s 54-31 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos at Commonwealth Stadium.
Rodgers had played 16 regular-season games before Friday’s contest and had never caught a football. That changed late in Friday’s third quarter, when Rodgers picked off Mike Reilly and returned the theft 50 yards for a touchdown.
“For me to finally be able to hang on to one, it’s a relief,” Rodgers said. “The little monkey is kind of off my back. Hopefully this means they’ll just keep rolling in.”
Rodgers began his CFL career with the Eskimos in 2015, but didn’t play in any regular-season games with them. He signed with the Roughriders in August of 2016 and played in 10 regular-season games that season, recording 32 tackles, seven pass knockdowns, one sack, one forced fumble … and zero interceptions.
The 25-year-old product of Southlake, Texas, admitted earlier this season that he was taking some grief from his teammates for his lack of interceptions. That chatter now can stop.
“I’m not sure why I couldn’t hang on to one before,” said Rodgers, who also has 24 tackles in seven games this season. “I guess I just had to go through that process of frustration and being down on myself.
“But at the end of the day, I know what I’m capable of. It really started in practice; we emphasize (ball skills) more now. I caught a couple in practice this week, so I felt like it was going to be my time (Friday).”
Before Saskatchewan played host to the B.C. Lions on Aug. 13, its defence had just two interceptions this season — and neither was recorded by a defensive back.
But Ed Gainey had four picks in the Roughriders’ 41-8 victory over the Lions and Rodgers and Jovon Johnson each had one Friday. Johnson returned his 40 yards for a touchdown, marking the first time since Sept. 12, 1976, that the Roughriders had two pick-sixes in the same game.
The DBs said before the B.C. game that interceptions tend to come in bunches, and that prediction is coming true.
“Our confidence is extremely high right now,” Rodgers said. “I don’t think we ever lost it, but Ed popped it off with his performance and, luckily, J.J. and I carried it through. Hopefully it’s going to give us momentum for the rest of the year.”
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Duron Carter provided a momentum-shifting play of his own Friday.
After Reilly’s one-yard touchdown run at 1:31 of the second quarter cut Saskatchewan’s lead to 14-6, Hugh O’Neill lined up to attempt the 32-yard convert. But the kick was blocked and the ball trickled into the Roughriders’ end zone.
Carter picked up the ball, started one way, reversed his field, got some blocks — and went 113 yards to the Edmonton end zone to earn two points.
“I wasn’t expecting them to miss (the convert),” Carter said. “(The ball) sort of rolled to me and I just had to make a play.
“I was going to punt it. I’ve always wanted to punt it and then go get it and score. But it opened up to the right, I had some great blocking and I just made a play.”
Carter said his jaunt was the farthest he’d ever run on a football field and suggested it was “a whole lot of work” for two points.
“I had to re-evaluate the rest of my game,” he chuckled. “I only have so many yards in me and that was like 200 yards.”
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That convert wasn’t the only kick O’Neill had rejected Friday.
Roughriders defensive end Willie Jefferson came off the edge and blocked an O’Neill punt late in the first quarter.
O’Neill tried to fall on the ball, but it squirted loose. Jefferson picked it up and trotted into the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown.
“The last time I scored a touchdown and it counted was college,” said Jefferson, a product of Stephen F. Austin State University. “I scored one in Edmonton in 2015. I scooped a fumble and took it for a touchdown, but it was called back.”
The last time Jefferson blocked a punt was Sept. 1, 2014, when he played for Edmonton. After Jefferson got his mitts on a punt by the Calgary Stampeders’ Rob Maver, then-Eskimos linebacker Otha Foster III retrieved the ball and went 57 yards for a TD.
The block and resulting touchdown Friday gave Saskatchewan a two-TD lead.
“I wasn’t really thinking about blocking the ball,” Jefferson said. “I just wanted to do my job like we’ve been preaching to everybody — offence, defence, special teams — for the last two weeks.”
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Roughriders returner Christion Jones left Friday’s game after suffering an injury to his left shoulder, leaving Carter and Nic Demski to handle punt returns.
Jones’ departure could open the door for Chad Owens to join Saskatchewan’s roster for the Labour Day Classic against the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Saskatchewan quarterback Kevin Glenn was poked in an eye late in the second quarter Friday, but he remained in the game.
That play — and another one on which Glenn was smacked in the head — could have been challenged by Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones, but he didn’t ask for a review.
That seems to be Jones’ approach since the league dropped the number of challenges a coach can request to one per game.
“I’ve been told that unless it’s just clear, clear cut, they’re not going to overrule it,” he said of the folks in the CFL’s Command Centre.
“I’ve got one challenge and anytime it’s anything under a three-score game, you’ve got to hold that challenge until you need it because, just as quick as you use it early, it can come back to bite you.”
