Corey Mace doesn’t get caught up in the numbers game.
That was evident on Monday, when the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ eye-popping run-defence data was brought to his attention.
“Statistics, they’re sweet, but we just need you to chart the W’s and the L’s,” the Roughriders’ Head Coach said with a smile. “That’s really what it comes down to for us.
“Everything in between will maybe parlay into the outcome of each game, but the only thing we focus on is finding ways to put one in the win column.”
The 2024 Roughriders have won five of their first six games while repelling the run to a degree that is without precedent in many ways.
For the first time, Saskatchewan has yet to allow an opposing team to run for 100-plus yards through six games.
Over that span, Saskatchewan has allowed only 302 rushing yards — a CFL-best average of 50.3 per game.
The league record over a complete regular season is 58.5 yards per game, set by the 1995 Calgary Stampeders.
The Roughriders’ best average dates back to 1968, when they allowed 78.6 rushing yards per game.
Over the first six games in 1968, Saskatchewan permitted 494 rushing yards — 192 more than the current total.
“I think everyone buys into our run defence, DBs included,” middle linebacker Jameer Thurman said. “They play a huge part in this.
“The D-line, they’re stout, and if other teams want to climb up to the linebackers like teams have been trying to do, our D-linemen are going to eat.
“If they want to stay on those blocks versus our D-linemen, then we’re also going to eat at linebacker. If they want to try to test the edge, our DBs are coming up and they’re filling the gaps where needed.
“And we’re fast on defence as well, so nobody’s really outrunning us.”
On Friday, for example, the Roughriders held the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ Brady Oliveira to 49 yards on nine carries.
Subtract one 16-yard burst and he averaged barely four yards per rush as Saskatchewan won 19-9 at Mosaic Stadium.
Oliveira gained a league-best 1,534 yards along the ground en route to being named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player in 2023.
He entered Friday’s contest with 238 rushing yards over a two-game span.
Against Saskatchewan, Oliveira paid for every yard due to the ferocity and frequency of the hits that were administered.
“You want to let the guys know that it’s going to be a long day if they continue trying to (run the football),” Thurman said.
“We were taking shots and we were letting them know that, ‘If this is what you’re all going to do, then this is how it’s going to be.’
“But we weren’t setting the tone just for that game. We know that we have to go against them a couple of more times, so now they know exactly what they’re going to be in for and they’ve got to game-plan accordingly.”
Until Friday, the Roughriders had never held an opponent to a double-digit rushing-yardage total beyond the five-game mark.
Saskatchewan registered five-game streaks at the outset of the team’s past two championship seasons — 2007 and 2013.
The current total of rushing yards allowed (302) is the Green and White’s All-Time best after six games. The next-best totals are from 1985 (374 yards), 1989 (416), 2007 (428) and 2018 (430).
“Once you eliminate the run game, that takes the physicality out of the game that teams want to set a tone with,” Thurman noted.
“If you can’t set a tone, then what are you doing?”
