{"id":123808,"date":"2017-10-14T08:20:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T12:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=123808"},"modified":"2017-10-14T08:20:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T12:20:39","slug":"lindleys-late-td-lifts-redblacks-over-roughriders-33-32-ottawa-makes-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/14\/lindleys-late-td-lifts-redblacks-over-roughriders-33-32-ottawa-makes-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Lindley’s late TD lifts Redblacks over Roughriders 33 32; Ottawa makes playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Harris<\/a>
Harris marched the Redblacks to two late fourth quarter touchdowns and Ryan Lindley’s one-yard TD run with two seconds remaining secured the win. (Photo By Jeffrey Beall – Own work, CC BY 3.0)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

REGINA \u2014 The Ottawa Redblacks are heating up at the right time.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Trevor Harris and the Ottawa Redblacks came-from-behind for an improbable 33-32 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday night that earned the defending Grey Cup champions a playoff berth for the third consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Harris marched the Redblacks to two late fourth quarter touchdowns and Ryan Lindley’s one-yard TD run with two seconds remaining secured the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis league is about just getting into the dance and getting hot late,\u201d Harris said after his team improved to 7-9-1 and moved into first place in the East Division. \u201cTonight was not pretty. We didn’t have our best offensively, defensively or on special teams. But we found a way to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m sure Saskatchewan is sick right now because they outplayed us tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Riders (8-7) had won six of their previous eight games after a dismal 2-4 start to the year.<\/p>\n

Defensive back Ed Gainey said his team’s performance late in the fourth quarter reminded him of the early stages of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot,\u201d Gainey said. \u201cThis is just another episode of what we looked like at the beginning of the season. We keep getting penalties to keep drives going or penalties that back us up. We just have to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan assumed a 32-20 lead with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. That’s when Harris and company pushed back.<\/p>\n

Harris hooked up with Greg Ellingson for an 11-yard touchdown with 3:09 remaining to cut the deficit to five.<\/p>\n

The Ottawa defence forced a Saskatchewan punt on the ensuing possession, and Harris repeated his previous drive.<\/p>\n

Three straight completions moved the ball to the Saskatchewan nine-yard line. Harris looked again for Ellingson deep, but Gainey was flagged for pass interference and the ball moved to the one-yard line to set up Lindley’s score.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the game right where we wanted it,\u201d Gainey said. \u201cWe just couldn’t find a way to execute at the end of the game. They kept fighting, kept coming at us and eventually came out victorious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris completed 17-of-33 pass attempts for 262 yards and two touchdowns. He was without the services of Brad Sinopoli, while Ellingson \u2014 the league’s leading receiver\u2014 was limited to just two catches for 13 yards.<\/p>\n

Still, Harris was proud of the character his teammates showed on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn’t bother us where we play,\u201d Harris said. \u201cWe’re a tight-knit group and I think we’re getting better at the right time and hopefully we can go into the playoffs on a great note.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the flipside, Kevin Glenn responded with a solid performance after getting pulled from the previous game. Glenn threw for 387 yards on 29-for-39 pass attempts. Duron Carter enjoyed a monster performance with 11 catches for 231 yards.<\/p>\n

Had the Riders held on for a victory, they could have possibly clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n

Instead, they’ll travel to Calgary next week with hopes of a road win over a team they’re winless against this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re very frustrated. We get into situations like this that are supposed to propel us higher in the standings and we just need to take advantage of it,\u201d Gainey said. \u201cWe need to keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyler Crapigna kicked six field goals for Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

REGINA \u2014 The Ottawa Redblacks are heating up at the right time. Quarterback Trevor Harris and the Ottawa Redblacks came-from-behind …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":123809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[26561,27769,21975],"class_list":["post-123808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ottawa-redblacks","tag-ryan-lindley","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","mauthors-craig-slater","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}