After 58 minutes of offensive ineptitude, it was a defensive play that won Monday's West Division showdown between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Eskimos at Mosaic Stadium.

With Edmonton leading 12-9 and looking to finish off a big win in enemy territory, Riders defensive end Willie Jefferson snatched a Mike Reilly pass out of the air and scored the game's only touchdown to give Saskatchewan a 19-12 win.

Similar to his first pick-six of the season against the Bombers in the Banjo Bowl, Jefferson ran down the entire length of the end zone line before going in for the touchdown, killing some valuable time off the clock.

"I caught the pick and I was really trying to take some time off the clock," said Jefferson. "Most of the time when I catch interceptions, it's just linemen and quarterbacks chasing me, at the end of the day, none of them were going to catch me."

Jefferson put together a monster day for the Riders with a team-leading five tackles, a quarterback sack and the game-winning interception return for a touchdown.

The win is the seventh in the past eight games for the Riders, who continue to hold down second place in the CFL's West Division.

"It's satisfying to come out of here with a win and every week just try to get a bit better," said Riders head coach Chris Jones. "We've strung together a pretty good little run here and the guys seem to be getting a little stronger. We're in the weight room three times a week, so I feel like we're getting stronger and faster and hopefully, we can keep it rolling."

The Riders' defence held Reilly to 13-of-27 passing for 222 yards and three interceptions in the loss. He did scramble for 57 yards to lead the Eskimos in rushing yards on the day.

"We're just buying into the system and believing in each other," said defensive back Ed Gainey, who had one of the Riders' three interceptions. "We've got a lot of guys that are coming in, stepping up, and making plays this year, as far as rookies, and that sprinkled in with a lot of veterans, who know how to make plays, we're just coming together and what better time than right before the playoffs."

A week after scoring four touchdowns on offence in Montreal, the Riders' allergy to the end zone returned against the Eskimos as they moved the ball into Edmonton territory eight times, but had to settle for four field goals from kicker Brett Lauther.

Quarterback Zach Collaros finished the game, 25-of-38 for 259 yards with one interception. 

The Riders' run game was non-existent with 20 yards on ten carries for Tre Mason, while Collaros had nine yards and Nick Marshall picked up three.

"From an offensive standpoint, we moved the ball well all night, we just didn't finish enough drives. I don't feel like we had a poor night, there's a lot of things that we left out there, but I do feel like we're getting better," said Collaros. "Just a total team win, on special teams, Brett making some big kicks for us; Willie, obviously; two other interceptions on defence, they were hitting Mike all night, and on offence, we did enough and took control of the football."

The Riders did dominate the time of possession, as they held the ball for 33:22 compared to 26:38 for the Eskimos.

Edmonton had to settle for four field goals from Sean Whyte on offence, three of which came in the first half as they led 9-6 at halftime.

Lauther missed two field goals in the second half, one from 46 yards in the third quarter and then again from 50 yards in the fourth quarter, but the defence came up with the play when the Riders needed it.

Riders head coach Chris Jones said they will take a win however it comes, "You don't ever apologize for winning a football game, especially when you're beating a guy that I know what kind of competitor (Reilly) is and even at the end of the game, with two seconds left, you see that he's going to try to find a way to beat you," he said.

Penalties hurt both teams throughout the game, the Riders were called for 110 yards of infractions, while Edmonton collected 55 yards.

The Riders are now 10-5 this season and continue to control their destiny in the West Division with a four-point cushion on Winnipeg for second place, while also trailing Calgary by four points for first place. Saskatchewan will play those two teams over the next two weeks.

"There's been pressure on us all year, we’re here in Saskatchewan where you can't drop a game, so that's what's fun, when you get to this time of year, you have to play execution football," said Jones. "There's going to be some more games exactly like that, that mimicked a lot of the playoff games that I've been involved in, they're going to go down to the wire and that's why you do this time."

The Riders have a quick turnaround as they will travel to Winnipeg to face the Blue Bombers coming up on Saturday at noon.