As the Roughriders prepare for their home-opener on Sunday against Hamilton, let’s take one more opportunity to look back at their week two win in Steel Town.
The Riders trailed by 7 with under a minute to go and thanks to 4 critical Brett Lauther points the Riders walked out of Tim Horton’s Field.
Let’s look at that final 43 seconds through the eyes of Brett Lauther. We start with the Riders marching the ball late in the ball game. Just outside the red zone Trevor Harris finds Kian Schaeffer-Baker open in the end zone for his second touchdown of the game, the first multi-touchdown game of KSB’s career. Following the celebration in the end zone, Lauther trotted onto the field along with Long Snapper Jorgen Hus, Holder Adam Korsak and the rest of the convert team. At that point the Riders were trailing 30-29, so the 39-yard extra point was no gimmie especially with the added pressure of tying the game. All of that said, no problems for Lauther as his kick easily split the uprights to tie the game at 30.
Following the convert, it was time to prepare for the kick-off. Lauther and the kick-off team would jog onto the field for the important play. The game was tied and forcing Hamilton to start with the ball as far away as possible from field goal range was key. Lauther, who lead’s the league in kick-off average at 70.2 yards/kick, hammered another one that was modestly returned by dangerous returner Lawrence Woods III. Mission accomplished, the Tiger Cats would have to move the ball about 40 yards to get into field goal range. Lauther’s job wasn’t done, though, as after helping to cover the kick he needed to jog back to retrieve his tee and head to the sidelines.
Keep in mind that in Hamilton the player benches are on the same sideline so Lauther took a little bit of a shortcut through the Tiger-Cats bench. It was during his jog to the Rider bench that teammate C.J. Avery would intercept a deflected Bo Levi Mitchell pass. So, Lauther made a beeline to his spot on the sidelines where he wanted to strike a couple of practice kicks into the net before being potentially called upon to kick the game winner. Lauther’s typical routine is to kick one into the net when the Rider start an offensive drive and then one more before heading out onto the field, two kicks total.
Back to his warm-up, where Lauther would slow down his heartrate to where he wanted to be. He then would call upon Rider President of Football Operations and General Manager Jeremy O’Day to provide some uninterrupted space for him to get his warm-ups in, not a bad choice as it definitely wasn’t O’Day’s first block thrown.
Two warm-up kicks into the net and Lauther would once again take the field with the rest of the field goal team with zeros on the clock and a 43-yard field goal to connect on.
No doubt about it! Right down the middle. Celebration on! A Thor Hammer strike at midfield and a wave goodbye to the fans and the rest is a 2-and-oh start thanks to a 33-30 win.
Now it needs to be stated that this isn’t the first time that Lauther has found himself in this type of clutch situation. Lauther is 12 for 12 when it comes to go-ahead field goals or converts in the final three minutes of a game or in overtime since joining the Riders.
The Riders really get a kick out of Brett Lauther!
Hear the entire conversation with Lauther here:
