REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders brought in head coach Corey Mace for a reason, and that reason showed up in their Week 5 win over the Toronto Argonauts.
The Argos were the best team when it came to turnover differential in 2023 due to a ball-hawking defence led by Mace. Saskatchewan hoped the former Double Blue defensive coordinator would be able to bring that mentality to his team and that’s exactly what he did.
The Riders defence forced five turnovers to beat the Argonauts 30-23 on Thursday night at Mosaic Stadium. The offence also did a good job protecting the football as pivot Shea Patterson did not give the ball away to Toronto a single time in his first CFL start.
CFL.ca brings you three key stats from Saskatchewan’s win over Toronto in Week 5.
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5 – Turnovers forced by Saskatchewan
The Roughriders forced four interceptions and a turnover as the defence made play after play to propel the Green and White to their fourth win of the season.
Rolan Milligan Jr. had two interceptions and Marcus Sayles added a pick six in a dominant effort for Saskatchewan. Two of the four interceptions came in the fourth quarter to end Toronto’s hope of completing a comeback effort.
0 – Giveaways by Saskatchewan
Almost equally important to the defensive effort was Patterson’s good care of the football. The young pivot is starting in place of injured starter Trevor Harris and did not give the ball away a single time to a talented Argonauts defence.
Patterson also scored two majors (one passing, one rushing), while completing two key passes on the last drive of the night to ice the game.
107 – Interception return yards
Not only did Saskatchewan force multiple turnovers on the night, but they also added important return yards after jumping the football.
Milligan Jr. and Sayles were the main culprits of the yardage, with the former returning 54 yards for the score and the latter adding a 49-yard return later in the fourth.