Darian Durant Leads Roughriders to Victory: Who Needs Michael Bishop?

Well folks, week three is in the books and the Saskatchewan Roughriders are the only undefeated team left in the CFL. The Roughriders improved to 3-0 this week in a 33-28 win in Hamilton.

It was Darian Durant's first career start in the CFL and he did not disappoint. Durant went 23-32 for 347 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. That's a good game for an all-star, and a fantastic game for a third string quarterback who's starting his first CFL game.

Casey Printers also had a good game, not quite as good as Durant's but good nonetheless. Printers went 17-31 for 261 yards and two interceptions.

Hamilton lost despite having more first downs (23-20), total yards (454-451), rushing yards (193-104), and time of possession (33:41-26:19).

The Riders had one turnover while Hamilton had three.  Casey Printers threw two interceptions for Hamilton and Jesse Lumsden fumbled once. Andy Fantuz threw Saskatchewan's interception on a miss-play.

Both running backs had good games with Cates running for 88 yards on 15 carries (5.9 ypc) and two touchdowns. On the other side of the field, Jesse Lumsden ran for 137 yards (7.2 ypc) and also had two touchdowns.

It was a great running back showdown with Cates and Lumsden being arguably the two best backs so far this season. Lumsden leads the league in rushing yards with 362 and is second in rushing touchdowns with four. Cates is third in the league in rushing yards with 257 and is first in the league in rushing touchdowns with five.

Weston Dressler led the Roughriders in receiving yards with six receptions and 122 yards and a touchdown. For Hamilton it was Chris Bauman who had eight receptions and 90 yards.

On the defensive side, Lance Frazier and Scott Gordon both had interceptions for the Riders and Chris Thompson for the Tabbies. Jesse Lumsden also fumbled the ball once and it was recovered by James Johnson of the Roughriders.

Although Ken Miller has been denying it, the Roughriders seem to be leading candidates to pick up Michael Bishop and/or Damon Allen. Bishop seems to be a better option, but now that we know Durant is as good as he is, do they really need him? Of course they would have a better quarterbacking core with Bishop, but do they really want to spend the money on something they don't need?

Damon Allen coming out of retirement to join the Roughriders was also a possibility. When asked about wanting to join the Roughriders Allen said that he would love to talk about it with them. This obviously is less likely to happen now that Bishop is on waivers.

Michael Bishop would be a great player to have here in Saskatchewan, but with Darian Durant looking great at only 25 years of age, do we really need him?