Holy Cow what a ball game !

In the words of the immortal New York Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto "Holy Cow what a ball game" and what a game it was.The longest to be ever played at Mosaic Stadium something like four hours and ten minutes as it unofficially ended at 12.10 AM Sunday morning.August 19 2007. The result of this thriller is that the Saskatchewan Roughriders won 39-32 in a game halted at the beginning of the fourth quarter because of lightning that coincided with a torrential downpour..Would you believe moments later the power was lost at Mosaic Stadium.and the lights went out. . After all was said and done after the game resumed and the rest of the fourth quarter was played the Green and White guys were ---NUMERO UNO---TOP OF THE HEAP.How good can it get ?It was one for the ages that will never be forgotten and the brave ones from the sellout crowd of 28800 who were still in the stands till the end went wild at the end of the rain delayed fourth quarter. This is fabulous .Now the team gets a week off as do all Western teams before the second half of the schedule starts with the annual Labour Day contests. So till at least late Friday August 31st after the game in BC between the Lions and Alouettes the Roughriders are in first place in the West.

This team is really learning to win in many ways and as has been said before winning is contagious as it spreads from player to player on the team as they play more relaxed and thus better as they realize they don't have to win the game all by themselves as they know their teammates also feel the winning virus and are equally relaxed and thus better.

This was a character win to say the least and it showed all and sundry just how bad this team wants first place in the West a position they have not been in at this time of year since 1976.
The Riders were down 22-10 midway thru the second quarter and were not playing very well as Eskimo signal caller deluxe Ricky Ray had connected on eleven straight passes and was looking unbeatable. However in the last six minutes of the half Kerry Joseph took charge of the Rider offence with some nifty running and pin point passing and marched them downfeild for two touchdowns and a 24-22 half time lead.

The third quarter was all Eskimos and with the wind behind them they regained the lead even though their touchdown came off a Jason Goss interception and they lead going into the fourth quarter and had possession of the ball and on third down on their first series with the raining start to come down heavily the usually reliable Sean Fleming simply dropped the slippery football as he went to punt it and an the ever alert Scott Schultz fell on it for the Roughriders.

Then the game was called because of the storm. When it resumed fifty five minutes later it was all Riders as they kept the Eskimos off the score sheet and got a feild goal and single off the foot of Luca Congi and the winning touchdown on a two yard run by Joseph after he had set it up with a long pass and run play to Matt Dominguez who had another spectacular game with seven receptions for 170 yards and it is those YAC yards {yards after catch} that make Matt so valuable.

The Rider defence which had played poorly in the second quarter tightened up dramatically in the fourth quarter as they finally figured out how to nullify the crossing patterns that had worked so well for Ray and his receivers particularly Kamau Peterson in the first three quarters.

Kerry Joseph had another sensational game with timely running to go with one of his best passing efforts of the season and he continues to display the running style he showed us in Ottawa when he ran for over one thousand yards and his ability to run continues to keep defences off balance because in most cases it is ad lib running and not a called play.

The loss of one of the finest offensive tackles in league history Gene Makowsky to mononucleosis did not present as big a problem as was initially anticipated as Wayne Smith moving from left guard to left tackle seemed to be right at home. D. J. Flick also had another spectacular evening with a couple of fabulous receptions and continues to compliment Dominguez as a big play performer.

The fans loved this one even though the contest was delayed fifty five minutes because of the storm as a league rule states that a game cannot be played if an electrical storm occurs. Coffee row will be buzzing all week with stories of how wet the fans were who held on till power was returned and how the Riders came back from what appeared to be a certain defeat in the early moments of the second quarter to record one of their most memorable wins.