Music: {allcanada} It's all in the Bagg

HAMILTON, Ont. -- With his offence shut down in the first quarter and facing a 15-point deficit, Saskatchewan quarterback Darian Durant knew he had the weapons to make a comeback.

Durant ended the evening by throwing three touchdown passes, two of them to Rob Bagg, as the Roughriders rallied to defeat the Hamilton Ticats 32-25 Saturday night.

"We've been down before," he said. "We were down by 11 in the fourth quarter last week (an 43-37 OT win against Calgary). So we know what type of team we have. We just made plays when we needed to."

Durant threw his three TD passes from 70, 43 and 19 yards out. He also had one interception and two lost fumbles. The league's top quarterback ended the evening with 23 completions on 31 attempts for 418 yards. Weston Dressler caught seven of those for 139 yards and one TD. Bagg had five receptions for 119 yards and his two scores. Wes Cates also scored for the Roughriders.

"They tell me all week, `Just give `em a chance and they'll make the plays,"' said Durant. "They did a great job of that tonight."

Tied at 25-25 heading into the final quarter, Hamilton's new defensive end and former Roughrider Stevie Baggs caused a Durant fumble on the Saskatchewan 29-yard line. But Hamilton running back DeAndra Cobb fumbled on the one-yard line, and Saskatchewan recovered. It was Cobb's second fumble of the game inside the 20-yard line.

That led to an 85-yard scoring drive and Bagg's second TD of the game, a 19 yarder, to give Saskatchewan the 32-25 lead midway through the fourth.

To make things interesting, Saskatchewan was trying to run out the clock when Durant fumbled his second of the night at the Hamilton 40 with 49 seconds left in the game. Hamilton got down to the Saskatchewan 13-yard line with one second left on the clock, but Hamilton pivot Kevin Glenn was intercepted by James Patrick in the endzone to end the game.

"The men just really battled," said Saskatchewan coach Ken Miller. "We got behind and dug ourselves in a hole again and we just came roaring back. Hamilton made some big plays on us and moved the ball really well, but our defence got some big turnovers and got stops when they needed to. And Darian was just phenomenal at getting the ball to our receivers."

This was only Saskatchewan's second win on the road as they improve to 8-4 and Hamilton falls to 6-6.

Matt Carter, Quinton Porter and Marquay McDaniel each scored for Hamilton. Glenn threw two touchdown passes, from nine and 10 yards out plus two interceptions. Dave Stala led Hamilton receivers with eight receptions for 128 yards.

Saskatchewan kicker Luca Congi was good on one of two field-goal attempts, missing his first from 44 yards before tying the game at the end of the third with a 35-yarder.

Hamilton kicker Sandro DeAngelis made one of two field-goal attempts, hitting from 32 yards, but missing from 41 yards.

Cobb rushed for 166 yards yards on 15 carries, plus two untimely fumbles, in a losing cause.

"A couple of plays there we shot ourselves in the foot and I was the one holding the gun," said Cobb.

Hamilton had six turnovers on the night -- three fumbles, two interceptions and one on downs.

"If only we didn't have some of the turnovers we had down in the score zone," said Hamilton head coach Marcel Bellefeuille about the difference in the game. "If we didn't allow them to capitalize and go back down the field and score. If we didn't have those big swings, what I call 14-point swings. We had two 14-point swings. That's what I'll labour over tonight."

After Congi missed a 44-yard field goal to start the third, Hamilton took the ball 82 yards on six plays, culminating in a 10-yard TD pass from Glenn to McDaniel and a 25-21 Ticat lead.

After a Roughrider punt single, Saskatchewan defensive back Lance Frazier jumped in front of a Glenn pass to Carter and ended up at the Hamilton 49-yard line to set up a Congi 35-yard field goal and tie the game 25-25 heading into the fourth.

Saskatchewan took a 21-18 lead into the locker-room at halftime on a 43-yard TD pass to Dressler with one second left on the clock. After being intercepted by Hamilton's Dylan Barker on the Ticat seven-yard line with less than a minute left in the half, Durant got the ball back on his own 48 with 16 seconds on the clock. He needed just two plays for the score, eventually finding Dressler all alone on the sidelines.

Hamilton was up 15-0 in the first quarter after Marcus Thigpen returned the opening kickoff 28 yards to the Saskatchewan 50-yard line. Glenn needed just two plays -- a 41-yard completion to Dave Stala and a nine-yard TD pass to Carter -- to put the Ticats up 7-0 less than one minute into the game.

They added a second score on their next possession, driving the ball 79 yards, mainly on a 52-yard run by Cobb, before Porter punched it in from the one-yard line on the fourth try thanks to two Saskatchewan offside calls.

DeAngelis' missed field goal made it 15-0 before the Roughriders began to move the sticks late in the first quarter. Cates finished a 75-yard drive with a one-yard TD run over the top.

Hamilton responded by moving the ball down to the Saskatchewan 30-yard line before Cobb coughed it up at the 15 and it was recovered by Saskatchewan at their own seven-yard line. Aided by a roughing-the-passer call in the Saskatchewan endzone, the Roughriders drove the ball 103 yards on six plays, ending when Durant hit Bagg for a 70-yard pass-and-run.

DeAngelis hit a 32-yard field goal for an 18-14 Hamilton lead before Saskatchewan's score in the final seconds.