Riders down Chris Jones' old team with defence, Eskimos' Western hopes dim

While Saskatchewan Roughriders' head coach and general manager Chris Jones has been known for building great defences, including with the Edmonton Eskimos when they won the Grey Cup last year, his team hadn't accomplished that this year. Heading into Sunday's home game against Edmonton, they were 1-10 on the year, and a defence that had given up a league-high 364 points was one of the major culprits. The Riders locked down Edmonton Sunday, though, particularly containing star receivers Adarius Bowman and Derel Walker, and that gave them a 26-23 overtime win. It's a win that provides some hope Saskatchewan's heading in the right direction, and a loss that greatly diminishes the Eskimos' chances of getting back into the West Division playoff picture.

The defensive coverage throughout this game was superb, and much of it was thanks to Jones' unorthodox strategy of avoiding typical zone coverage schemes and instead having top defensive backs Ed Gainey and Justin Cox shadow Bowman and Walker respectively in continuous press man coverage. In many cases, that wouldn't be ideal; zone coverage can be very advantageous, allowing for more consistent spatial assignments for defensive backs and more help from those nearby. In this case, though, it worked almost perfectly, limiting Edmonton's two major threats and causing their passing offence substantial issues.

Bowman led the Eskimos with nine catches for 152 yards, but he didn't have a touchdown and he gave away a touchdown (on a controversial fumble call where Gainey stripped the ball from him and returned it, with Edmonton fans arguing the play should have been blown dead), and Walker only had five catches for 44 yards. The Eskimos' biggest passing play of the day was a 72-yarder to Nate Coehoorn, and while quarterback Mike Reilly threw for 306 yards and a touchdown, he only completed 19 of 36 passes (52.8 per cent) and also threw a late-game interception that gave Saskatchewan a chance to win in regulation. Not all of that was purely on the defensive coverage, of course; the Riders also got significant pressure on Reilly (even though they only sacked him once), and the wind was a major factor affecting the passing game all day. Still, Jones' coverage game plan played off very well against his old team.

The worrisome sign for the Riders is that despite all their defensive success, they still almost lost this game. They couldn't get much going in the passing game either, with Darian Durant throwing for just 174 yards with an interception, and while they were better on the ground (Durant had five carries for 61 yards and the game-winning touchdown in overtime, while Curtis Steele had 13 carries for 87 yards), they still only put up 20 points in regulation. And that was with the aforementioned controversial defensive touchdown, a play and a call they certainly can't count on getting every week. They also threw away their chance to win in regulation after a late interception by Cox, taking a time-count violation penalty that pushed them out of field goal range. There's still a lot of work to do in Regina, but this week was a good sign, especially of how their pass defence now appears to be coming together a bit more.

Meanwhile, Edmonton's hopes of reaching the postseason and defending their Grey Cup are slipping further and further away. The Eskimos have now lost three in a row and are 5-7 on the season, and they're three games back of 8-4 Winnipeg for the third and final West playoff spot with just six games to go. It's tough to see them catching up unless things dramatically change. A crossover could still be in play, as Toronto's currently in third in the East with a 5-7 mark (and Hamilton and Ottawa aren't much better, at 6-6 and 5-5-1 respectively), but Edmonton would have to finish ahead of the third-place East team to make that happen, and that's not necessarily a sure thing either. The Eskimos did get a better showing from their defence in this one, but they didn't have enough offence to pull off the victory, and when the story of their 2016 season is written, this could loom large as a missed opportunity.