Riders' run game showing signs of improvement after OT victory over Calgary, Wes Cates says

The Saskatchewan Roughriders improved their record to 2-1 early in the 2023 CFL season thanks to a 29-26 overtime winner against the Calgary Stampeders.

According to Wes Cates, part of the success can be chalked up to the green and white's improved ground game, with running back Jamal Morrow putting up some impressive numbers regardless of the Riders' injured list becoming more lengthy.

Darrell Romuld

As always, the Grey Cup champion with us to break it down, West Cates. Welcome to CTV. Let's start with the run game because that is your area of expertise, the work on the ground by Jamal Morrow.

Wes Cates

“That was a great, great change from the last couple of weeks we've seen. I mean, you've watched a little bit of sparks against Edmonton where [they] kind of finished off the game late with some good runs but [it] just seems like Kelly just decided, ‘Hey we’re going to stick to the run’ and it was working for them. So they stuck to the ground game and got 160 yards out of it – with [Jamal] Morrow getting like 130 [yards], 22 touches. ‘I don't know but if I ever had 22 touches. But he put in some work with it.”

Wes give us an idea of just how hard it is to do something like that, especially given the injury early to Hawkins. He's out, don't know for how long, and then Ferland slots to outside to tackle. He hasn't played that since 2019. So as a back, what has your focus become?

“Well, I mean as a running back you can't really worry about who's playing up in front of you just want to know that you get it in film and make sure that you're on the same page with the O-line and understand that how they're going to block certain fronts. You go into every game and sort of, because certain teams play certain defenses, if you know what you're looking at, you kind of know how things are going to break. So I think it's just kudos to the offensive coaches and just those guys up front working with the back to kind of understand how they can attack the team they're going against. With the Stamps, they obviously had a good game plan. They stuck to it, moved some guys off the ball. Morrow picked and chooses his holes well. He bounced it outside when he didn't have much, he made something out of nothing. So I think there's a lot there to build off of. I'm really excited about what this team can do if they really can have that running attack and passing attack rolling every week.”

Riders had a couple of chances to win this game and there was one opportunity that a lot of people on the message boards and so forth are talking about. Where they elected to go for the third and one and could have put the game away there. When we talked to the coach after the game he said he's got a chart; chart indicated that he should go forward, so did his gut. Would you have gone?

“Ah, that's a tough one. I mean, I feel like you know, maybe you take the points just to give yourself a little bit more of a cushion. But analytics is a big part of the game nowadays. And that's what the analytics told him and that's what he felt like the team was capable of. So when you don't get a yard I guess, you just tip your hat to the defense you're going against some kind of hope it doesn't affect the outcome negatively. So this time they kind of got away with it. So, you know, maybe in hindsight, he might have made a different decision but you got to stick with the decisions you make. A win is a win.”

That's right. Injuries, they're building up for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. This is an early bye-week, probably comes at a pretty good time. How valuable are those as a player.

“Injuries are tough and it seems like the Riders have had more than their fair share of them over the last couple of seasons. I mean, you just got to hopefully have guys that can plug in there, step up and give you the same type of effort that the guy in front of them. So, I think they'll be alright it seems like this roster’s deep definitely with receivers and it seems like there's O-linemen that are on the mend. And some guys that are stepping up in their second, third year. So maybe it's never something that you want to deal with, but it's always something that you're going to have to deal with and you just hope that you guys aren't hurt for an extended period of time and you can just get back up and help the team when they can.”

He is Wes Cates, the Grey Cup champion with us on X's and O's. The Riders next test is Thursday, July 7, when they welcome the Edmonton Elks to town.

Cates played as a running back for the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 2007 until 2011. In that time he recorded 46 touchdowns, over 4,700 yards rushing and 2,095 yards receiving. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Cates now calls Saskatchewan home.