Robservations: Get set for Ouellette … celebrate '88! … the Mace-Durant connection … and the weekly shout-outs
10/12/2024 10:07 AM
Saturday is Thor's Day.
A.J. Ouellette, who has been known to embrace a superhero persona while good-naturedly brandishing a replica Thor hammer, is to return to the Saskatchewan Roughriders' lineup today against the B.C. Lions (5 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).
An East Division All-Star with the Toronto Argonauts in each of the past two CFL seasons, Ouellette has missed the Roughriders' past six games with a hip injury.
"I love that guy," quarterback Trevor Harris said on Friday. "He's just got a different energy. I think everybody knows the different sort of physicality with the way he plays the game.
"But we have backs who are so unique in their talents — so different and so unique in the way they change our offence."
That explains why Ouellette, Ryquell Armstead and Frankie Hickson are all among the CFL's top 12 rushers in 2024.
"As a person, I love A.J. Ouellette," Harris continued. "Him and I have grown pretty close this year and he's a tremendous football player on top of that.
"The sort of personality and the physical, emotional element he brings to our team is definitely going to give us a different pop on offence."
And not just in obvious situations, such as when he is carrying the football.
"The thing that people don't give A.J. enough credit for is he's one of the best I've ever been around in terms of pass protection," Harris noted, "and he's really, really good at catching the ball out of the backfield and making stuff happen.
"If it's second-and-11 and he gets the ball in the flat, he makes the first person miss every time in the open field. When he gets you a first down after you throw a check-down, it can be deflating to a defence.
"Everybody knows what he's like as a physical running back, so I'm excited for him to get another opportunity to let it loose."
Ouellette's first opportunity as a Roughrider was on June 8 against the host Edmonton Elks.
Early in that game, he demonstrated the array of skills to which Harris alluded.
In a second-and-10 situation on the Elks' 47-yard line, Harris found Ouellette six yards downfield. He evaded the first would-be tackler and produced a 19-yard gain.
Harris found Shawn Bane Jr. for a 27-yard touchdown two plays later.
"That's why I never mind throwing the ball in front of the sticks on second-and-long with people like A.J.," Harris said.
"If you have guys who can really rack and run after the catch, it's awesome — and it's backbreaking to defences, because a lot of teams like to picket-fence at the first-down marker and kind of keep the roof on.
"If they want to do that, that's fine. We'll find ways to get first downs."
First downs aren't nearly as plentiful when you are A.J. Ouellette and you happen to be playing a video game against seven-year-old T.J. Harris.
"A.J. and I have gotten pretty close," the Roughriders' starting quarterback said. "We invite him over to my house for dinner and he plays Madden against my son.
"T.J. whaled on him, for the record. He's quite embarrassed. He quit at halftime and pretended like he wasn't trying.
"No, A.J. is just great. He's a tremendous human being. He's constantly working on himself — a brother in Christ — and he's just got a really good story.
"He's had some things happen to him throughout his football career where he's as tough as a $2 steak, mentally and physically.
"He's sort of a guy you love to be around, so I'm just really excited that he's here with us."
Ouellette signed with Saskatchewan as a free agent in February after rushing for 1,009 yards in 15 games with Toronto last season.
"I'm just excited that he is here with us and I'm excited to get an opportunity to know him," Harris said.
"Last year, for the first eight to 10 weeks of me having my leg propped up after my injury, I'm just hearing my son running around the house going, 'A.J. Ouellette!' I'm like, 'Can you stop being a stinking Argonaut?!'
"So this off-season, when I knew we had a chance to get A.J., I was like, 'This guy might actually be my teammate. Maybe T.J. was on to something.'
"It was one of those situations where my son loved him as a player. He was like, 'Dad, I know we're supposed to root for the Riders, but can I root for A.J., too?' I was like, 'Yeah, he's an Ohio guy. Go ahead.'
"T.J. rooted for him individually and now he's gotten to see one of his favourite players and play Madden against him. He also played against Ryquell last night.
"He does a good job of being a big CFL fan. He thinks it's pretty cool because he gets to meet my teammates who are superheroes."
Just like Thor.
LONG WAIT UNTIL '88
I was in my first year of Grade 7 when the Roughriders played host to the 1976 Western Conference final.
The next time I witnessed a CFL playoff game at Taylor Field, I had graduated with Great Distortion from elementary school, high school and university.
In fact, I was in my second year as a full-time employee of the Regina Leader-Post when the Roughriders returned to the post-season after 11 lonnnnnnnnng years of exclusion.
That elusive playoff berth was secured on Oct. 16, 1988, when the Roughriders edged the visiting Lions 28-25 and everyone mobbed 13th-year guard Roger Aldag.
As a bonus, Saskatchewan nailed down a home playoff game — a feat the Roughriders can repeat today by defeating the Lions.
B.C. was also the visiting team on Oct. 27, 2018, when a 35-16 Roughriders victory produced a home playoff game.
But the events of 30 years earlier still stand out because of everything I had experienced as a football fan between the ages of 12 and 24.
"I recall vividly how excited our fans were," Hall of Fame kicker Dave Ridgway recalled. "My goodness, it had been such a ridiculously long drought, and I hadn't even been there since its beginning, like Roger had!"
For more than a decade, it was "Roger, over and out" for the Roughriders when (or even before) late autumn arrived.
"My rookie year was 1982, Ray Elgaard's rookie season was 1983 and Glen Suitor's was 1984," Ridgway said. "By 1988, all the guys wearing the uniform had pretty much heard more than enough about 11 years without a playoff appearance.
"I think that back in 1987 when John Gregory and his coaching staff took over, and with Bill Baker as GM, we started to believe as a team that we could fight our way out of the malaise that we, management and our fans had been enduring for way too long.
"While it didn't happen in 1987, we could feel as a group that we were headed in the right direction."
Those suspicions were confirmed in 1988, when an 11-7 record put Saskatchewan in a tie for first with Edmonton. The latter team was awarded top spot in the West on the basis of head-to-head play.
"It was a wonderful feeling to actually qualify for the playoffs that year," Ridgway reflected.
"Quite honestly, I really believed that we were being rewarded for some of the pain and embarrassment we had endured as players during those years.
"In turn, we were trying to reward the fans who had stayed with us throughout all those damned ugly years."
The big payoff came a year later.
Saskatchewan defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 43-40 to in the 1989 Grey Cup Game.
Ridgway kicked the Cup-winning field goal, from 35 yards away, with two seconds left in the fourth quarter.
MACE MEETS DURANT
It began as a casual inquiry — one that was not supported by research, whatever that is.
I asked Roughriders Head Coach Corey Mace to offer his recollections of playing against Darian Durant, who along with Roy Shivers is to be formally enshrined in the SaskTel Plaza of Honour during halftime of today's game.
"With Doubles, you knew that it was going to be a tough game," began Mace, a Calgary Stampeders defensive tackle from 2010 to 2015. "He was a great competitor.
"I'd have to look back to see if I got him. I know I laid a few hits on him, but he always got up."
Out of curiosity, I returned to my desk and dove into the statistical tallies of Roughriders-Stampeders games from the period in which the playing careers of Durant and Mace intersected.
Bingo!
Sept. 17, 2010: Early in the second quarter at historic Mosaic Stadium, Mace felled Durant for a five-yard loss. It was the first CFL sack for Mace, who was then playing his third game of Canadian professional football.
A month later, at the very same stadium, Durant had a close-up view of another Mace milestone.
Oct. 17, 2010: In the fourth quarter, a blitzing Milt Collins sacked Durant and forced a fumble. Mace picked up the loose ball and elegantly sprinted 60 yards for his first CFL touchdown.
That play had begun when the ball was snapped to Durant by Jeremy O'Day.
Now the Roughriders' Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager, O'Day hired Mace in late November.
Small world, this football universe.
ROLL CREDITS …
• Nice people who deserve a plug: Darian Durant, Roy Shivers, Cleveland Vann, Tom Shepherd, Joey Walters, Patricia Walters, Leo Walters, Kelly Peterson, Karina Peterson, Lydell Lang, Adam Korsak, Joe Couch, Dan Farthing, Jorgen Hus, Nelson Lokombo, Samuel Emilus, Sarah Fedirko, Sabeen Ahmad, Tanner Howe, Dante De Caria, Kelsey Brazil, Francisco Lindor, Blake Tiedeman and Morgan Fleury.
