Davis: Despite kicking woes, Saskatchewan Roughriders drub Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Always honest and self-effacing, Saskatchewan Roughriders veteran Brett Lauther told reporters following an easy 29-9 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats that his CFL team was 'playing basically without a kicker.
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'That's how good this team is.'
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Lauther is the Roughriders' kicker. Their struggling kicker.
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He's the biggest question mark facing a championship-caliber team that owns a four-game winning streak and a CFL-best 8-1 record.
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The Roughriders don't seem too concerned about the popular, seven-year veteran and evidently aren't looking to upset a tight-knit locker room by replacing him. After Lauther nailed a wind-aided, 59-yard field goal to give the Riders a 19-6 halftime lead, basically the entire roster rushed onto the field to congratulate him.
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'He's not had the year he wanted to have,' said Roughriders head coach Corey Mace, who started his postgame media scrum by thanking fans for selling out the stadium and being exceptionally loud and supportive.
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'But in the same breath he's done some incredible things for this football team, today included. Sometimes we were going for two(-point converts) because the wind was so crazy it would be tough to (kick a one-point convert).'
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Playing before a sold-out crowd of 33,350 on a windy afternoon at Mosaic Stadium, Saskatchewan's dominating defence throttled Hamilton's top-scoring offence by sacking Ticats quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell six times and — for the second straight game — did not surrender a touchdown.
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Saskatchewan's D-linemen have become unrelenting this season as Mace, who doubles as the defensive co-ordinator, started supplementing their pressure with fifth and sixth pass rushers. Defensive tackle Micah Johnson, with two, Mike Rose, Caleb Sanders and Shane Ray and linebacker A.J. Allen had sacks.
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As pleased as Mace was with the sacks, he was happiest about disrupting a Ticats offence that averaged 32 points per game and a QB who had tossed 21 touchdown passes and said publicly his team 'wanted Sask.' There were some postgame chuckles about that remark in the Riders locker room.
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The loss dropped Hamilton to 6-4, still best in the East. Saskatchewan won an earlier meeting 28-24 and this rematch was portrayed as a potential Grey Cup preview, or at least a showdown between two quarterbacks touted as outstanding player-award candidates.
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