Ed Gainey felt he was due.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive back has recorded six interceptions this CFL season — all in the span of the team’s past three games. Those six picks are one more than Gainey had in 60 career games entering the 2017 campaign.
“Over the course of the years of my career in the CFL, I haven’t really been able to play defence like that,” Gainey said after picking off Matt Nichols twice in the Roughriders’ 38-24 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday at Mosaic Stadium. “The first four years, I played special teams mostly and I would come in on certain packages and play a little bit of defence.
“Being in Saskatchewan, Coach (Chris) Jones and Shives (defensive backs coach Jason Shivers) and everybody, they really believe in me and they have my back. I’ve been able to focus that much more on my craft and focus that much more on my role as a defensive player.”
Gainey began his CFL career with the Montreal Alouettes in 2012 and spent two seasons there. He played two seasons (2014-15) with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats before signing with Saskatchewan prior to the 2016 season.
He had two interceptions for the Tiger-Cats in 2014 and three with the Roughriders last season. On Aug. 13, Gainey had a franchise-record four picks against the B.C. Lions before snaring two more on Sunday.
His first-quarter interception led to a one-yard touchdown run by Vernon Adams Jr., that gave Saskatchewan a 17-3 lead. Gainey made his second pick in the Roughriders’ end zone with 2:16 left in the fourth quarter to snuff out a Winnipeg drive.
His spree of thefts started after Jones talked to Gainey about picking up his play.
“It probably had a lot less to do with me and more about him as the player recognizing the fact that, ‘Y’know what? He’s probably right,’ ’’ Jones said. “(It was about) going back to look at the film, putting the work in and trusting his ability to go make football plays.”
In Gainey’s mind, he’s just repaying the trust Jones showed in him.
“Before I came here my first year, I felt like there weren’t going to be too many teams that wanted to have me on their team,” said Gainey, who noted he felt like he had “a short leash” when he played with other teams. “Coach Jones showed that he wanted me here and I just took that and ran with it.
“I heard that he was a good coach, I saw that he had won championships and he’s a winning coach, so I just wanted to come over here and play for him. I’m really just trying to make Coach Jones, Shives and all these guys happy about bringing me here.”
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Roughriders quarterback Kevin Glenn was a happy camper Sunday.
The 17-year CFL veteran became just the sixth quarterback in league history to start 200 games in his career, joining Damon Allen (304), Anthony Calvillo (277), Ron Lancaster (257), Henry Burris (229) and Ricky Ray (210) in that category.
Glenn also earned his 99th career win, tying him with Tom Clements for ninth on the CFL’s all-time list. And Glenn’s three touchdown passes gave him sole possession of seventh place in league history, with 287.
“This (game) is going to be a memorable one,” Glenn said. “The 200th game, the first Labour Day game in the new Mosaic Stadium, we win and I actually get the game ball — it was pretty nice.”
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Three of Glenn’s teammates each exceeded 100 yards receiving in Sunday’s game.
Bakari Grant (139 yards on seven catches), Naaman Roosevelt (119 yards on six receptions) and Duron Carter (101 yards on 10 grabs) all broke the century mark.
It’s the first time since Oct. 23, 1993, that the Roughriders have had such a trio in a game. Ray Elgaard, Jeff Fairholm and B.K. Williams all reached that mark for Saskatchewan in a 48-45 victory over the Calgary Stampeders.
“We’re just playing hard and trying to do the right thing,” Roosevelt said. “I feel like earlier in the season, we were trying to do too much and trying to make plays when they weren’t there. (Glenn) is doing a great job of spreading the ball around and we’re just making plays for him.”
It’s the fourth time this season that a CFL team has had three 100-yard receivers in the same game. The Toronto Argonauts did it June 15, the Ottawa Redblacks turned the trick June 29 and the Edmonton Eskimos did it July 28.
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EXTRAS: Receiver/returner Nic Demski and tailback Cameron Marshall left Sunday’s game with leg injuries. Jones said it was doubtful that either man would play in Saturday’s rematch in Winnipeg … Saskatchewan scored 34 points in the first half Sunday and four in the second half — a fact that didn’t sit well with Jones. “You’ve got two halves to play,” he said. “That’s why they call it four quarters and, unfortunately, we have yet to figure that out completely. We’ve got to make sure that we shut the door on people when we jump out to a lead.” … The Roughriders staged Fan Day at the stadium on Saturday and had another packed house on Sunday. The Saskatchewan fans’ passion, Jones said, was one of the reasons why he and his staff left Edmonton just days after winning the 2015 Grey Cup to take over the Roughriders. “Quite honestly, we would have stayed in Edmonton — because we had it pretty good,” Jones said. “The thing that drew us was the fact that, when the people get up in the morning here, they want to get up and read the paper or get on the Internet and find out something about our football team. That was the intriguing thing about coming here.”
