The Saskatchewan Roughriders had no answer for the Calgary Stampeders — yet again.
After Calgary won 24-10 six weeks ago, the two teams clashed again on Saturday in Week 12 of the CFL season with the Stampeders coming away with a 32-15 victory at McMahon Stadium.
The Roughriders, who have only lost to Calgary this season, fell to 8-2 on the year while the Stampeders improved to 7-3 in the West Division race.
“We took a punch today and that’s all it is,” said Roughriders quarterback Trevor Harris. “And so, we’ve got to make sure that we respond accordingly.
“We’ve talked about our character all year, and so it’s time to put that on the table and show who we are. And we will. We’ll bounce back from this.”
Harris finished the night 15 of 23 for 205 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He was also sacked four times in the loss against a team they could very well see in the playoffs based on their records to this point.
“Their pass rush did a good job,” said Harris. “And I’ve got to make sure I do a better job of getting the ball out quick for the guys.
“And I’m sure we’ll take a look at the film and see some things that we can kind of clean up. And we will. We’ll see them down the line and it and that’s not the end of this. It’s going to be fun.”
On the other side, Calgary pivot Vernon Adams Jr. completed 14 of 21 passes for 222 yards with three touchdowns and two picks as he helped the Stampeders to a second straight win over their Western rivals.
“It feels good,” Adams told TSN after the game. “(But) you don’t win Grey Cup in August.
“So we’ve got to do it when it matters. But we heard all the talk over there. So, we wanted to make sure we came out here and we gave our fans a great show.”
Saskatchewan’s A.J. Ouellette had 15 carries for 65 yards while KeeSean Johnson led the way through the air with 112 yards on four catches. Meanwhile, Calgary’s Dedrick Mills racked up 78 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries while six different receivers had catches for the Stamps.
“Defensively, I thought we struggled tackling no doubt,” said Mace. “I would say they’re the most physical team that we’ve faced. But those are the kind of things that we like.
“So if it comes down to one day that we get to play them again, we’ve got to find an answer.”
While the Roughriders had a 15-14 halftime lead, it was a tough start for the visitors on Saturday.
On Saskatchewan’s first drive of the game, the Roughriders got the ball into the red zone after a 40-yard pass interference penalty against the Stampeders, but the Green and White came away with just a single point.
After Johnson dropped a touchdown catch, Brett Lauther missed a 28-yard field goal wide left which resulted in a rouge to make it 1-0.
On Calgary’s first drive of the game, the Stampeders wasted no time getting into scoring range as Adams threw a 46-yard strike to a wide-open Daylen Baldwin before Mills ran in a touchdown from six yards to make it 7-1 with the convert.
Later in the first quarter, Saskatchewan gave the ball away as Harris was intercepted by Calgary’s Sheldon Arnold but on the very next play, Roughriders’ defensive back Rolan Milligan Jr. got the ball right back as he picked off Adams.
After a punt single by Saskatchewan to make it 7-2, the Stampeders increased their lead as Adams marched Calgary into the red zone before finding Jaylen Philpot for an eight-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-2.
On Saskatchewan’s second drive of the game, after lunging forward for a first down himself, Harris hit Johnson for a 62-yard gain down inside Calgary’s 10-yard line before connecting with Meyers for a seven-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-9 with the convert.
After forcing a Calgary punt, Saskatchewan’s offence went back to work as Harris engineered an eight-play, 85-yard drive — with two first down runs by Ouellette — before capping off the series with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Dhel Duncan-Busby to put the Roughriders up 15-14 after an unsuccessful two-point convert.
“Early in second quarter, I told the guys, ‘We’ve all taken our turns making the mistakes. There’s no more mistakes left to be made,’” said Harris. “And I thought we responded well in the second quarter, just unfortunately in the third quarter, whenever we did get a little bit of momentum, we didn’t capitalize on that and finish the drive.
“And when that happens, you can sort of get a lull. And I felt like we didn’t snap out of it, unfortunately.”
In the second half, the Stampeders retook the lead on the opening drive as Mills had a pair of first-down runs before Adams hit Baldwin for a 10-yard touchdown to make it 21-15 Calgary.
With the Stampeders looking to increase their lead later in the third quarter, the Roughriders defence took the ball away as Adams was intercepted by linebacker Jameer Thurman after defensive end Malik Carney deflected the pass at the line of scrimmage.
However, the Stampeders returned the favour moments later as former Rider Godfrey Onyeka intercepted Harris to give Calgary possession near midfield. That led to a 53-yard field goal by Calgary’s Rene Paredes to make it 24-15.
After a punt by the Roughriders, the Stamps added to their lead as Adams put together an eight-play, 93-yard drive capped off with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Erik Brooks. Adams ran in a two-point convert to put Calgary up 32-15.
With the Roughriders down by 17 and running out of time, the Green and White elected to gamble on third down on their next series however Harris — who was sacked for the fourth time in the game on the drive — and company turned it over on downs near midfield with 6:24 left.
After the Stamps punted the ball away, backup quarterback Jake Maier replaced Harris for the rest of the game, but Maier couldn’t get Saskatchewan into scoring position before time expired.
“I thought that there were some opportunities that we can look back on, that we could have capitalized on,” said Harris. “But again, like I’ve talked to plenty before, when you’re 8-1 and everybody’s praising you and talking about great you are, it’s not about your record, it’s about who you’re becoming in the process.
“And today obviously, we didn’t bring our A-game and they beat us; they beat us good. And so it’s a good thing for us to reflect on, look back on and see how we can improve.
“We have championship calibre guys in that locker room and I think this would be a good opportunity to show that.”
After being listed as a game-time decision, defensive back Marcus Sayles missed the game due to illness as safety Nelson Lokombo started in his place while Jaxon Ford started at safety. After Lokombo left the game due to a lower-body injury, Kerfalla Exume was pressed into action at cornerback.
After taking a big hit in the fourth quarter, Harris — who said he had cramping in both of his calves after the sack and was not affected by the hit — headed to the sidelines and didn’t return to the game as Maier finished the game for Saskatchewan.
“Trevor’s fine,” said Mace. “I made that decision. We were down I think 17 and we had 15 points on the night. They were getting to the quarterback early and often.
“It was just kind of a decision that I felt let’s get Jake in there; let’s get him some live reps. Just looking forward to the future of our season.”
The Roughriders will have a few days off before returning to practice on Wednesday ahead of the Labour Day Classic against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (6-4) on Aug. 31 at Mosaic Stadium.
And they fully expect to rebound after this loss to Calgary.
“I don’t know if it’s a true confidence killer,” said Mace. “I mean, we lost the game. And we’re 8-2; we’re still a good team.
“And we’re going to be facing a team in a game where records are freaking irrelevant anyway. Let’s just get back to what we do every week, man. We’ve just got to work on how do we get better — period.”
tshire@postmedia.com
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