Photo courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders

Insert the “It’s a trap” meme here.

Coming into this week’s matchup with the Montreal Alouettes, everything pointed towards a potential trap game for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. They were coming off back-to-back emotional wins over their biggest rival, and they had a bye week on the horizon. The potential for the trap grew even larger as the Regina area dealt with an unusual amount of rain on Friday and much of the day Saturday. To make matters even worse, three of their starters in defensive backs Tevaughn Campbell and Marcus Sayles, along with receiver Joe Robustelli, were all removed from the lineup prior to the game. Oh, and then thanks to losses by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Edmonton Elks, the Riders had already officially clinched a playoff spot.

Should this 48-31 loss set off any alarm bells in Saskatchewan? Not really, they aren’t the first team to lose in this kind of situation, and they certainly won’t be the last. The Riders are still 10-3 and control their destiny in their mission to host this year’s West Final.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ third loss of the season.

The Good

Perhaps the best part of the evening for the Riders and their fans was that, eventually, the weather did let up. After an endless stream of rain and thunderstorms over the last day and a half in Regina, the rain stopped and led to a little over half of this game being relatively dry.

On the field, there were a few bright spots for the Green and White, with perhaps the brightest coming from receiver Ajou Ajou.

More often than not, when a player returns from an NFL training camp mid-season, they tend to struggle. In just his third game since returning to Saskatchewan, Ajou appears to have found his groove, as he was targeted 11 times with 9 completions for 95 yards.

Any time you can basically pick up a first down every time you catch a ball, you’ve had a pretty good night. Considering that it feels like the Riders could be changing their ratio soon with the pending returns of Kian Shaffer-Baker and Sam Emilius, Ajou being able to support those two as a third serious Canadian receiving threat would be a big help for this team.

The Bad

I don’t have to say it because it was that obvious, but it was not a banner night for the Riders’ defence.

Considering the number of starters Corey Mace’s unit was missing on the back end, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to many that the secondary had a rough night. None rougher than Kerfalla Exume, who started on the corner in place of Campbell. I don’t need to get into his night much more than that — most of you watched the game, and the man has been through enough.

What is surprising — and maybe concerning — is how rough a night it was for a defensive line that was eating their opponents alive for the last number of weeks. After punishing opposition quarterbacks for the last six games, they were barely able to get a finger on the Als quarterback, McLeod Bethel-Thompson. They also got gashed along the ground to the tune of 152 yards rushing.

Nothing sums up their issues with stopping the run better than a 12-yard run from Bethel-Thompson on a second-and-10 in the second quarter to keep a drive alive. Considering the DNA of a Mace defence is stopping the run, this won’t sit well with their coach.

The defensive front was bound to have a quiet game eventually. Unfortunately for them, it came on a night when they were really needed to help a depleted secondary.

The Dumb

There may not be a group of organizations that desire nothing but positive spin all the time, even in big defeats, more than professional sports teams.

The Riders had a bad night. Over the course of an 18-game regular season, those are going to happen. Sometimes teams should just let that be.

In an attempt to end the night on a positive note, the Riders’ public address announcer was tasked with discussing the fact that the team had clinched a playoff spot and the battle for a home playoff game was on, thanks to previous results over the course of the weekend, in hopes of perhaps drawing one last cheer out of the crowd.

Instead, the announcement was met with extreme indifference as Mosaic Stadium fell quiet after time expired. The awkward silence was pretty funny.

There are times when a dose of positivity during tough times can be helpful. Apparently, for Rider Nation, this was not one of those times.