Riders' Harris shrugging off individual accolades
Pro Football Focus (PFF) ranked Riders' quarterback Trevor Harris as the best starting pivot in the CFL in Week 7 with a 93.0 grade. Harris completed 23 of 30 passes for 395 yards and three touchdowns.
Despite that score being the highest given this season to a player at any position, Harris cares more about team wins.
'You've heard Nick Saban say it before; it's rat poison. Whether it's good or bad, if you start patting yourself on your back or beating yourself up, neither one of them are true. Every week is a new week and that's why coach Mace talks all the time about going one and oh,' Harris said.
KeeSean Johnson caught six of Harris' 23 completions over the weekend, for 77 yards. Johnson told CTV News that the receivers weren't aware of the PFF accolade given to Harris, but that it is still nice to see their quarterback recognized.
'It feels good, it means that we're doing our job and we're doing it at a high level. And that's something that we pride ourselves on and we try to execute each play each week,' Johnson said.
The Riders' receiving room have taken turns putting up big performances this season. Johnson, Sam Emilus, and Joe Robustelli have all had games of over 100 yards receiving.
Dohnte Meyers was the latest to have a monster game, to the tune of seven catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns.
'Sometimes when you watch KeeSean make the first and second guy miss and get up field for those sneaky five or six yards afterwards. And yeah, Dohnte, shoot, he's just one of those guys who's got a lot of juice and explosiveness,' Harris said.
'We're lucky to have him and we're going to try to keep putting them in good positions. But it seems like this happens and you forget about Sam Emilus who's an absolute dog. You forget about Robustelli who just went for almost 200 the week before, and Dhel who's a budding star as well,' he added.
The Riders will look to put on another offensive show this Friday against the visiting Edmonton Elks but know that a repeat performance will be hard-earned.
'They have a lot of good guys, and their record doesn't show how good they are. That's something that we emphasize, don't go out there and take a team lightly for what their record is. They're a good team, they have a lot of good players over there, so we have to go and start fast, finish fast,' Johnson said.
The Riders currently sit second in the West Division at 5-1, while Edmonton sits last at 1-4.
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