Starters versus starters, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were better than the B.C. Lions on Saturday night at Mosaic Stadium.

Saskatchewan’s backups also looked capable of beating the Lions. That was until the CFL’s uncontrollable God Centre reviewed two game-changing calls that helped the visitors beat the first-place Roughriders 27-21 and clinch a home playoff game for the second-place Lions (11-7).

B.C., with its huge stadium and booming crowd counts, will play host on Nov. 1 to the third-place Calgary Stampeders (11-7), whose crowds have dwindled in recent years. The semifinal winner visits Saskatchewan (12-6) for the West final on Nov. 8.

Conspiracy theorists, have at it.

There are no plausible excuses for the two calls, one which negated a 107-fumble return for a touchdown by Riders cornerback Tevaughn Campbell and another that awarded B.C.’s Keon Hatcher a game-winning touchdown reception in the fourth quarter.

“Huge,” Campbell said postgame to reporters. “It changed the game. We lost by six points.

“The hardest part is we have no control over it. We can’t change it.”

Hatcher was involved in that third-quarter play, too. He fumbled the football while trying to cross the goal line, causing havoc and the game’s most exciting play. Until the God Centre stepped in to quell the excitement for the announced crowd of 25,416.

Replays showed Hatcher did not score before the ball bounced backwards off a Riders’ helmet and was scooped by Campbell. Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke chased after him, coming from an angle towards one of the CFL’s fastest players, and collided with Campbell as he bounced into the end zone.

In the CFL, where the Command Centre-turned-Replay Centre-turned God Centre interjects itself into virtually every play for a lengthy debate that occasionally determines the correct call, this audio/video review decided there was no touchdown in either direction because a yet-to-be-explained, play-stopping whistle had been blown well after the fumble.

The Roughriders got possession at their three-yard line and punted soon after. B.C. scored a TD on its next possession.

“There’s going to be times when those calls fall our way and I’m going to be happy as s***,” said Riders head coach Corey Mace in his postgame media scrum. “Tonight they didn’t fall our way.

“It is what it is. I just hope the football gods will bless us. And we’ll take it, for sure.”

Unlike their previous game, which they also lost against the fourth-place Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Roughriders deployed most of their offensive starters for the first half against B.C. and were ahead 18-10 when quarterback Trevor Harris was replaced by backup Jake Maier 10 minutes into the second quarter.

Third-string quarterback Jack Coan, running the short-yardage team, scored both Riders touchdowns. They were converted by kicker Michael Hughes, who nailed both of his field-goal attempts and added a 90-yard single on a kickoff that went through the uprights AND the end zone during his first CFL game as a replacement for struggling, injured, veteran Brett Lauther. Whether it’s a permanent or temporary switch is worthy of debate.

“It was good to get a rouge,” said Hughes. “I didn’t know it went through until we got over to the sideline and they were like, ‘Hey, I think that went through the posts.’”

Knowing a loss would have sent them to the East division as the crossover team, the Lions scored a touchdown on their first offensive play, a 63-yard pass from Rourke to Ayden Eberhardt, who also caught a third-quarter touchdown.

While the Lions used their starters though the entire contest, Saskatchewan was freely substituting players on offence and defence to reduce the chance of injuring a starter heading into the playoffs. They were especially protective of Harris, who looked sharp after a week’s rest while completing 11 of 12 passes for 112 yards. Rourke was 23-of-28 for 368 yards.

B.C. was trailing 21-19 late in the fourth quarter when Rourke shovelled a pass to Hatcher in the end zone. A perfectly positioned official, about 10 yards from the play, believed the receiver used the ground to help catch the ball. The official justifiably waved the pass incomplete.

Up to the God Centre, where every potential scoring play is reviewed and the CFL’s defined standard for overturning a call is “clear and obvious.” Anyone who saw that as a clear and obvious catch really should be God.

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