REGINA — Despite being on a remarkable run, the Saskatchewan Roughriders aren’t losing sight of the big picture.
The Riders improved to 8-1 for only the second time in their storied history with a 29-9 victory Saturday over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in a battle of first-place CFL teams.
Quarterback Trevor Harris, who completed 20-of-26 passes for 307 yards and three touchdowns, was pleased with the win but his focus remains on the team goal of winning the league championship.
“It’s awesome. It's really cool that through half of the season we have eight wins but again, eight wins is not something that we had on our list of items to check off. Us winning eight games is great, but that's all it is. It’s eight wins, it's 16 points,” said Harris.
The Riders' veteran extended his league-record streak of consecutive games with a completion percentage of 70 per cent or better to 12 games by finishing the game at 77 per cent.
“We're getting toward our goals. It's awesome that we're able to continue getting wins but it doesn't score us any points next week, so we'll enjoy this one today. But there's things we want to clean up and get better for next week.”
While Harris and the Saskatchewan offence was rolling up the yardage, the Riders' defence spent the afternoon harassing Hamilton quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell. Entering the game on a tear with 2,856 passing yards, 21 touchdown passes and only three interceptions in nine games, Mitchell was sacked six times and threw two interceptions.
Mitchell felt there were a number of reasons why the Ticats didn’t perform their best.
“There’s a lot of factors. There's the noise, there's them coming off a bye and feeling juiced up, their D line getting good pressure,” said Mitchell, who finished 16 of 31 passing for 201 yards and two interceptions. “We’ve got to do everything we can to be physical and match that. Whoever's the most physical is going to win the game. That's just how it is in CFL.”
Hamilton had opportunities early in the game to take the upper hand on Saskatchewan, reaching the red zone twice only to settle for field goals of 11 and 21 yards from Marc Liegghio.
“I thought the biggest fail for us really was the red zone, which we've been really good at. We weren't able to put some distance (between us) in the first quarter when we had the wind,” said Tiger-Cats head coach Scott Milanovich.
“We had a couple opportunities, maybe, to put some distance between us and them and we weren't able to get the touchdowns. And then they made a couple plays on offence. And then third quarter, we got behind.”
The Riders took control of the game with 18 unanswered points in the second quarter. Entering the frame trailing 6-1, the Riders took their first lead of the game on a 52-yard touchdown pass from Harris to receiver Dohnte Meyers. Running back O.J. Ouellette then added a two-point convert to give Saskatchewan a 9-6 lead.
Saskatchewan increased its lead late in the quarter when Harris connected with Tommy Nield on a 26-yard touchdown pass with 1:06 left in the half.
On the ensuing possession, Hamilton was on the Saskatchewan 43-yard line facing a third-and-two situation. Their third-down gamble failed when Mitchell was sacked and fumbled, with the Riders recovering the ball on the Hamilton 51-yard line.
With a stiff wind at their back and only four seconds left in the half, the Riders decided to give kicker Brett Lauther a shot at a 59-yard field goal on the final play of the half. Lauther, who missed three field goals in the game, drilled this attempt down the middle to send the Riders into the locker room with a 19-6 lead.
The Tiger-Cats chose to take the wind to start the second half, but the third quarter was dominated by Saskatchewan. The Roughriders defence intercepted Mitchell twice in the quarter as Saskatchewan proceeded to increase its lead to 26-6 with an impressive drive into the wind.
Harris capped an 11-play, 90-yard drive that took 7:10 off the clock with a 12-yard touchdown reception to Joe Robustelli with 54 seconds left in the quarter.
“I thought that was a big statement drive, and I think it was the biggest drive of the year for us in terms of statement wise and situationally,” said Harris. “But again, it just shows that we have growth. It doesn't show that we've arrived. We have not arrived. We have plenty to clean up. We can do plenty better, and that's what we plan on doing.”
Saturday’s game, played before a sellout crowd of 33,350 at Mosaic Stadium, ended a gruelling three-game run for the Ticats. It began with a 28-24 victory over the Edmonton Elks on Aug. 2 and continued with a 41-38 loss to the B.C. Lions on Aug. 17.
Having played three games in two weeks, the Ticats are looking forward to their bye week before hosting the Toronto Argonauts on Sept. 1. They may be coming off consecutive defeats but Mitchell, like Harris and the Riders, is keeping his focus on the bigger picture.
“Yes, we're first in the East. Yes, we have eight games left. We are where we want to be, but this doesn't affect our confidence of who we are, what we can do, and the ability that we have to finish the season,” said Mitchell.
“You have use that to go out and get better. We have to understand that when you're in Winnipeg at the Grey Cup, this is going to be the atmosphere you're in. It helps us prepare for it but it's our job to use that to our advantage and continue to get better from it.”
Micah Johnson led the Riders with two sacks while Mike Rose, Caleb Sanders, A.J. Allen and Shane Ray had one sack each. Tevaughn Campbell and Rolan Milligan had interceptions for the Riders.
Saskatchewan’s KeeSean Johnson was the game’s top receiver, hauling in eight passes for 117 yards.
UP NEXT
Roughriders: Visit the Calgary Stampeders on Saturday, Aug. 23.
Tiger-Cats: Host the Toronto Argonauts on Monday, Sept. 1.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2025.
Jeff DeDekker, The Canadian Press
