Tyler Crapigna kicks Riders to bizarre victory that raises questions for Ottawa

The Saskatchewan Roughriders barely squeaked out a win Friday night in Ottawa, beating the Redblacks 32-30 in overtime. This was a wild one, with 29 points scored in the final nine minutes and the ref even messing up the overtime coin flip, and it easily might have gone the other way, especially after a late comeback from Ottawa and several poor Saskatchewan penalties in the final moments. In the end, though, Chris Milo missed an overtime field goal, Tyler Crapigna made one, and the Roughriders can be feeling very good about their third-straight win, while the Redblacks have a whole lot of questions to address going forwards.

For Saskatchewan, despite the close calls, this game was still highly positive. The victory improved them to 4-10 on the season and kept their playoff hopes alive, at least for the time being. Also, it came with progress not just on defence, but on offence, where Darian Durant threw for 328 yards and two touchdowns. The Riders' seven-play, 105-yard drive inside the final minutes was incredibly impressive, especially Rob Bagg's one-handed TD catch that capped it off, which was made despite called pass interference from defensive back Antoine Pruneau and put Saskatchewan up 29-22. There's still work to be done, as Durant only completed 57.9 per cent of his passes and the Riders almost threw this away with a number of late penalties (including a pass-interference call that set up Ottawa's game-tying touchdown and a a holding call that wiped out a return that put them in position to win in regulation), but this was definitely a further good sign for Chris Jones' regime. The playoffs this year are still unlikely, but this team seems to be heading in the right direction.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of issues to be addressed in Ottawa, which seems to be declining fast after a hot start. This was the Redblacks' second-straight loss, and it dropped them to 6-7-1. While they're still in first place in the East for the time being, there's a lot to worry about, especially at quarterback. Trevor Harris looked great even in defeat last week, throwing for 485 yards and two touchdowns against a tough B.C. defence, but he struggled against the Riders, completing just 12 of 21 passes (57.1 per cent) for 120 yards with a touchdown and an interception before being pulled in favour of Henry Burris. Burris was better, getting Ottawa back into the game late and throwing for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Here's one of them:

Still, Burris also completed just 56.3 per cent of his passes and tossed an interception. This showing alone isn't likely to win his starting job back, but it raises questions about Harris. The really concerning part is that neither Redblacks' quarterback looked all that great against a 3-10 team. Ottawa's going to have to get much better if they want to do anything in the postseason. They're in good playoff position, but they're not in good playoff form right now.