The Saskatchewan Roughriders reached an ebb in Edmonton.
The Edmonton Elks, seeded fifth in the CFL’s West Division and trying to claw their way into the playoff picture, registered a 27-25 victory over the league-leading Saskatchewan side on Saturday.
Trailing 24-12 with under four minutes remaining, the Roughriders rallied for back-to-back touchdowns to move to within a successful two-point conversion of forcing overtime.
It was not to be, to the chagrin of quarterback Trevor Harris and, well, everyone else with allegiances to the visiting team.
“It sucks,” Harris said before the Roughriders left Commonwealth Stadium and flew back to Regina.
“I can’t sit there and lie to you and give you a bunch of great things, because it sucks.”
Inarguably — but there is also this: Welcome to the reality of a long, gruelling and inevitably humbling CFL season.
There will be, as I phrased it while prefacing a question to Malik Carney, ebbs and flows.
“This is definitely a test,” the Roughriders’ sacks leader said. “We’ll definitely go back and look at the film and make those corrections but, in this league, you can’t downplay any team.
“They’re all pros and they all get paid. On any given night, you can win or you can lose, and today we took that L.
“We’ve definitely got to go back to the drawing board and hold each other to a high standard, holding each other accountable.
“As we were saying in the locker room, ‘no feelings,’ because it’s pro ball, and we’ve got to get it done if we’re going to be where we want to be come November.”
The mind rewinds to the four best Novembers in franchise history — months that were highlighted by the Grey Cup victories of 1966, 1989, 2007 and 2013.
As much as those memories are savoured, there is the accompanying recollection of adversity that was overcome.
The 1966 Roughriders were 7-2 before finishing the regular season on a stretch that consisted of two wins, four losses and a tie. The team had only a tie to show for one four-game span.
In 1989, a 4-1 start was followed by four losses in succession. Saskatchewan eventually finished at 9-9 — the ninth loss being a 49-17 debacle in Edmonton — before winning three consecutive post-season games.
In 2007, 7-2 quickly became 7-5 before the tailspin was reversed.
The 2013 team was cruising along at 8-1 before losing four in a row.
To summarize: It happens.
It is also worth noting that a regular season virtually devoid of turbulence can foreshadow far more devastation than the Roughriders and their fans are currently experiencing.
We take you back to 1989, when Edmonton went 16-2 and established a league record for regular-season victories.
The precedent-setting performance was of absolutely no solace to the Green and Gold when the Roughriders won the Western Final, 32-21, at Commonwealth Stadium — site of the previously referenced 49-17 drubbing of 12 days earlier and, most recently, Saturday’s game.
Edmonton stood alone as the leader in regular-season victories until 2023, when the Toronto Argonauts also went 16-2 before falling 38-17 to the Montreal Alouettes in the Eastern Final.
In both cases, the eventual Grey Cup champion engineered a monumental upset victory in a division final.
Corey Mace does not have to be reminded. He experienced both ends of the spectrum as the Argonauts’ Defensive Co-ordinator, helping the Boatmen win it all as an 11-7 team in 2022 before enduring the heartbreak of 2023.
Those experiences put Mace, now in his second season as the Roughriders’ Head Coach, in a perfect position to manage and ultimately rectify the current situation.
“It’s not a sense of panic,” he said after the game, “but it wasn’t good enough tonight.
“We know that we’re going to the playoffs. That’s for sure. Like everybody, you want to be playing your best ball. We haven’t been doing that these last two weeks.
“There’s really nothing else to talk about. We’re on a two-game skid right now. Let’s continue to work our (butts) off so we can come out on the plus side of that and we can start trending in the right direction at the right time.”
The Roughriders, at 10-4, still occupy the driver’s seat, but back-to-back losses have removed some obstructions from the passing lane.
“When you’re 10-2 and everything’s going great, it’s easy to lead,” Harris said. “When you drop two in a row and, obviously, games you feel like you could have won — especially this one — it’s an important time to make sure that you keep everybody in the boat.
“Our process is our process and we believe in one another. I wouldn’t trade this team for any team, and I mean that. I feel like we’re going to hit our stride at the right time and I do think our best football is right on the horizon.
“I know last year we went through quite a losing stretch and I kind of told you guys (in the media) the same thing. This team has that (potential) and I think this team is even better than the one last year.
“I really, really believe in this team and I think we’ll be there in the end, but we’ve just to take it one game at a time.”