Elks Edge Roughriders on Emotional Evening at Mosaic Stadium

An Emotional Night

An emotional week for the Saskatchewan Roughriders was punctuated by a heartbreaking conclusion to Thursday’s CFL game at Mosaic Stadium.

Vincent Blanchard’s 57-yard field goal on the final play gave the Edmonton Elks a 36-34 victory over Saskatchewan in a battle of the West Division’s front-runners.

The classic contest was preceded by a tribute to Jayden Dalke and Bhishma Rajyaguru, both of whom lost their lives in a motor-vehicle accident near Lumsden on Saturday night. The Roughriders’ players wore decals on their helmets in memory of Dalke, a linebacker who had been with the team since 2022.

“I thought it was well done by the organization, honouring both people,” quarterback Trevor Harris said. “It was obviously a tumultuous, strange week to navigate as a team, but I was proud of our team in terms of coming out and fighting. The effort is going to continue to be there.

“This is a Corey Mace-led football team. You know you’re going to get everything we’ve got every single week, regardless of circumstance.

“I hope both families that we honoured are proud and could take some solace in the pre-game tribute to them.”

A Meaningful Tribute

The Roughriders also honoured Dalke midway through the first quarter, when they purposely fielded 11 players — one fewer than usual — and took a time-count violation as Oscar Chapman prepared to punt to the Mark Kilam-coached Elks.

The infraction was taken to acknowledge the void left by Dalke, who was a team captain and special teams standout.

“It was talked about a little bit through the week and then Nick Wiebe came into my office and asked if it was OK,” Mace said. “I said, ‘I’ve got no problem.’

“Shout-out to Kilam, too, for declining the penalty. He’s a good guy. That meant a lot to us.”

Wiebe, named the Roughriders’ Most Outstanding Special Teams Player in 2025, was one of Dalke’s closest friends on the Green and White.

“It was a super-emotional couple of hours,” Wiebe said of the tribute and the rollercoaster of a game. “I was thinking of how Dalk should be out there with us, calling the punt protections.

“Thinking about that all game was tough on the guys, for sure, but I’m proud of the way these guys battled today. I love everybody in this locker room and we’ll shake back next week.”

A Battle Between West Division Leaders

Edmonton (6-1) and Saskatchewan (4-2) are to conclude a timely home-and-home set on Aug. 1 at Commonwealth Stadium.

“Sitting here right now, I’m thinking, ‘Let’s fix the things we need to fix to be able to beat a good team,’ ” Mace said.

“We’ve got a long week. These back-to-backs are always interesting when you’re looking at different things like how you’re going to scheme up, how they’re going to scheme up, and you try to anticipate. As a coach, that’s the fun kind of stuff — sitting in the office, trying to play chess before the game even starts.

“Mostly for these guys, it’s about continuing to do what they’ve been doing, spend some time together, breathe a little bit, and have a couple of days. Then we get back to doing what we do.”

Mace spoke after a breathtaking display of Canadian professional football that included eight touchdown passes and 974 yards of net offence.

Saskatchewan’s Trevor Harris completed 26 of 36 passes for 386 yards. Cody Fajardo, who matched Harris by throwing four TD passes, went 25-for-32 for 510 yards — the fourth-highest total surrendered by a Saskatchewan team.

“There were some busts back there (in the defensive backfield),” Mace said. “You never want to see anybody running wide open like that. It was tough, so we’ll get back to the film.

“That’s a really good team that we were playing against. Let’s clean some things up.”

A Dramatic Finish

The Roughriders led 21-20 at halftime on the strength of touchdown passes from Harris to Kian Schaffer-Baker (56 yards), Samuel Emilus (12 yards) and KeeSean Johnson (two yards). Alex Hale converted all three majors before 28,513 spectators.

Edmonton responded with all 10 third-quarter points and led 27-21 entering the final frame.

The Roughriders went ahead 28-27 early in the fourth quarter when Harris threw a seven-yard TD pass to Dhel Duncan-Busby and Hale added the convert.

Edmonton quickly responded with an 81-yard TD pass from Fajardo to Austin Mack, whose second major of the game put the visitors ahead 33-28. Mack finished with four catches for 173 yards.

“Too many explosive plays,” defensive halfback Rolan Milligan Jr. lamented. “That was the biggest difference.”

Hale narrowed the gap to 33-31 with a 48-yard field goal — his longest as a Roughrider — at 7:26 of the fourth quarter.

After the Roughriders’ Antoine Brooks Jr. returned a fumble deep into Edmonton territory, an apparent 21-yard touchdown pass from Harris to Emilus was called back due to offensive pass interference. Hale was then wide on a 46-yard field goal attempt.

A failed third-down gamble by Edmonton gave Saskatchewan a first down on the Elks’ 29-yard line with 2:20 left in the game. The possession ended with an 11-yard Hale field goal that gave Saskatchewan a 34-33 lead.

On the play before 11-yard chip shot, Harris could not connect with a wide-open Johnny Johnson III in the end zone.

“I’m probably going to be waking up all night thinking about the last play,” Harris said.

The Elks then moved 52 yards in eight plays, converting two third-down situations, before Blanchard settled matters by splitting the uprights with a no-doubter of a long-distance three-pointer.

“That’s not an easy kick to do,” Emilus said, “so you’ve got to give him his props.”

Long Marches

The first-quarter TD pass to Schaffer-Baker completed a five-play, 108-yard drive.

It was the ninth documented drive of 108 or 109 yards in Roughriders history. Three of those drives have taken place within the team’s last 11 regular-season games.

The overall list includes five 109-yarders and four marches of 108 yards.

On June 13, the Roughriders moved 109 yards in 12 plays, the last of which was a four-yard TD pass from Harris to Emilus against the visiting B.C. Lions.

A.J. Ouellette’s five-yard touchdown run on Sept. 27, 2025 in Edmonton concluded an 11-play, 108-yard march.

Trevor's Tally

Harris became the first Roughrider to throw three touchdown passes in the first half since Kevin Glenn against the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sept. 3, 2017.

Also on Thursday, Harris passed Dieter Brock and moved into 14^th on the CFL’s All-Time passing-attempts list. Harris finished the game with 4,556. Brock threw 4,535 passes during a CFL career spent with the Blue Bombers (1974-83) and Hamilton Tiger-Cats (1983-84).

Also on Thursday, Harris became the first Roughrider to throw four TD passes in a game since Glenn accomplished that feat on June 29, 2017 against the visiting Toronto Argonauts.

Four different Roughriders had not caught at least one TD pass in a game since Glenn found Caleb Holley, Bakari Grant, Naaman Roosevelt and Nic Demski for majors on July 1, 2017 against Winnipeg in the first regular-season game at new Mosaic Stadium.

Harris is 288 yards shy of becoming the 12th CFL to pass for 40,000 in a career. As well, Harris is one touchdown pass behind Zach Collaros on the league’s All-Time list. Collaros, now of the Blue Bombers, ranks 13th with 221 TD tosses.

Elks Efforts

As referenced earlier, Fajardo’s passing-yardage total was the fourth-best against a Saskatchewan team.

553 — Peter Liske at Calgary, Sept. 29, 1968.

547 — Doug Flutie vs. Calgary, Oct. 23, 1993.

518 — Anthony Calvillo vs. Hamilton, Oct. 6, 1996.

510 — Cody Fajardo vs. Edmonton, July 23, 2026.

Blanchard, meanwhile, moved into a tie for the third-longest field goal against Saskatchewan:

59 — Dave Cutler vs. Edmonton, Oct. 28, 1970.

58 — Mark McLoughlin vs. Calgary, Oct. 9, 1988.

57 — Zenon Andrusyshyn vs. Toronto, Sept. 14, 1980.

57 — Vincent Blanchard vs. Edmonton, July 23, 2026.

Extra Points

• Schaffer-Baker set a career high for receiving yards (185, on eight catches). His previous best was 170 (five catches) at B.C. on Aug. 26, 2022. Those passes were thrown by Fajardo. After six games this season, Schaffer-Baker has 42 catches for 656 yards and four TDs.

• The Roughriders’ James Vaughters registered his league-leading fifth sack. Brooks Jr. and Mike Rose had the Roughriders’ other sacks. Brooks Jr. added six defensive tackles and the aforementioned fumble recovery.

• The Roughriders and Elks combined for 1,008 yards of total offence (rushing and passing yards, with team losses excluded). That was the highest total in a Roughriders game since Sept. 25, 2010, when Saskatchewan and the host Hamilton Tiger-Cats combined for 1,020 yards (including 517 by the Green and White).

• Saskatchewan’s Jonathan Edouard had three special teams tackles on Thursday.

• All eight of the game’s touchdowns resulted from passes.

• A 70-yard punt return by Saskatchewan’s Daniel Wiebe was negated by a holding penalty.

• The Roughriders’ next home game is Aug. 7, 7 p.m., against the Ottawa REDBLACKS. Tickets are AVAILABLE HERE.