REGINA -- Saskatchewan Roughriders' receiver Joe Robustelli didn’t hit the stat sheet all that often during the Labour Day Classic against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, but when he did, he made sure to make his presence known.
First up was a spectacular reach-back, one-handed catch for a key first down that eventually led to Mario Anderson’s third-quarter touchdown. The second ended up as one of the most important plays of the game -- a tackle for a rouge in the contest’s final minutes that led to Saskatchewan taking what would turn out to be a crucial eight-point lead.
Important plays at important times, and they both figured heavily into Saskatchewan’s 34-30 victory at a raucous Mosaic Stadium.
“I'm going to be honest with you, I would estimate I watched each one of those probably 200 times over the weekend,” Robustelli told voice of the Roughriders Dave Thomas when asked which of the two plays was his favourite.
“Everything with my story -- not playing for 12 years -- when I make plays like that, going back and sitting in my room and being able to watch them when I was two, three years ago training and visualizing myself making plays like that, it's really cool to see. I definitely go over and watch them, maybe a little bit too much, but I enjoy it.”
The catch came with 1:52 remaining in the third quarter and saw Robustelli reach back for a pass behind him, tip it up to himself and haul it in despite coverage for a 16-yard gain. Two plays later, Anderson ran in from 26 yards out for a 23-17 lead.
It was a special effort that left Thomas marvelling on the Rider Broadcast Network and here’s how it looked:
“I ran the route of my depth and [quarterback] Trevor [Harris] trusts us to make plays so he threw it out there,” Robustelli said in explaining the play. “They played the [run pass option] well, dropped back and tipped it up in the air, which slowed it down a little bit and honestly probably made it a little easier for me to catch. I stuck my arm out, tried to tip it up to myself and it ended up working out.”
Then came an even bigger play as the game wound down. With the Riders facing third down at the Winnipeg 44, Harris got off a pooch kick that rolled to the Winnipeg goal line and was picked up by Deatrick Nichols. Robustelli was one of the players on the surprise cover team, he used his speed to get down the field and hammer Nichols in the end zone.
One point and a 32-24 lead that would prove exceptionally important when Winnipeg was forced to go for two after a late touchdown, resulting in Tevaughn Campbell's game-clinching, pick-two interception.
“I really enjoy those types of plays,” Robustelli said. “It allows me to show off my speed and the coaches know that they have somebody that runs pretty well. So they're like: 'Listen, we're going to put it down there and you have an opportunity to either recover it, go get it, or you can go make a play close to the end zone.’ I'll go do that, so whenever that opportunity presents itself, I want to make sure I can go make a play.”
It was a play you’ll only see in the Canadian Football League and left Robustelli a little awestruck at the bravado it took for offensive coordinator Marc Mueller to make such a call at that time of the game.
“I'm not as smart as coach Mueller, I never thought that we would run that play in that situation,” Robustelli said. “So I was kind of confused, I was wondering why we were out on the field and then I heard the play call and was like: ‘You know what, this is actually a great call.’ Then we had to go out there and execute it.”
And execute they did, with Harris catching pretty much everyone in the building off guard, getting the ball down to the line and giving Robustelli his chance.
“It was a pretty decent kick… it was a perfect call, the perfect play,” he said.
Here’s how it looked:
TREVOR HARRIS WITH THE PUNT!
— CFL (@CFL) September 1, 2025
It leads to a rouge for Saskatchewan in a WILD sequence! @oktire #LDWeekend
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Now, the two teams take the field against one another again, this time in the Labour Day rematch against the Blue Bombers in Winnipeg.
While the Riders are first in the CFL with a 9-2 record and the Bombers are now 6-5, as the Labour Day Classic showed and then some, fans can expect a battle any time the teams are on the field. That holds especially true playing games against one another in back-to-back weeks.
“That's the tricky thing,” Robustelli said. “They could come out and play what they were and we have to run off what they were doing, or they can come out with something completely different. You have to game plan for anything, go out there and see what happens.”
Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk and Wes Cates have all the pre-game news and views at 11 a.m. on Saturday on the Rider Broadcast Network, followed by Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder with the game call at 2 p.m. from Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.
