A last second blooper sunk the Regina Rams in Calgary Saturday but it was hardly to blame for the U-of-R’s football program losing it’s third straight and finding itself on the outs of a playoff position going into the home stretch.

A last second blooper sunk the Regina Rams in Calgary Saturday but it was hardly to blame for the U-of-R’s football program losing it’s third straight and finding itself on the outs of a playoff position going into the home stretch.

Ram kicker Ty Gorniak doinked a 22-yard field goal try off the upright that would’ve salvaged a victory in what instead turned out to be a 14-13 loss to the Calgary Dinos, dropping the Rams into fifth place in the Canada West standings heading into their bye week.

Ram head coach Mark McConkey was quick to blame his offence’s putrid performance for the loss and not the final play.

“We’ve got the best kicker in U Sports”, he said. “That’s not what lost us the game. It was probably the 60 plays prior to that. We just didn’t do a good job offensively today. Too many dropped passes. Too many errant throws and too many missed blocks. We’ve got the bye week to recover and we’ve just got to get better as a team.”

It was a dreadful game to watch for fans of either side who like offence.  

All 13 Ram points came off the leg of Gorniak, the conference’s leading scorer, who made all four of his other field goal tries, including his longest of the day from 39 yards out. He also punted a lot in the second half.

Regina failed to score a touchdown for the first time this season in a match where Ram quarterback Owen Sieben completed fewer than 50% of his passes and was intercepted three times, mustering just 123 yards through the air all afternoon, limited to just 54 of those yards in the second half.

“Our defence played outstanding. A few plays here and there but good to see they are back after that U of S game and offensively we looked good at times but we just didn’t put it together very much”, McConkey said.

Despite what appeared to be ideal passing conditions, the game looked more like a match being played in November rather than early October.

It was a costly loss for the Rams too. Reigning Canada West rushing champion Marshall Erichsen, who just returned one week ago from a torn achilles injury suffered in last year’s playoffs, left the game on crutches after a second half injury. His status is uncertain until further evaluation.

The three-headed monster of Erichsen, Christian Katende and Carter Ashman did grind out 213 yards rushing on a day Ram fans didn’t get much else to cheer about.

While Regina got nearly two thirds of its offence along the ground, the Dinos were pretty well the opposite in having a bit more luck passing the football. U of C quarterback David Jordan went 17-of-28 passing for 215 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. He opened his Canadian University career in a loss to the Rams, had yet to beat them before this game, and was happy to get this monkey off his back.

“It was about time we got a break. We had a lot of injuries going into this game and a lot of things happening behind the scenes and I’m just so happy this program could get a win under our belt and go into the bye week to fix the things we’ve got to fix”, Jordan said.

“I think this dates back to our week one loss to them last year when we went to overtime and lost, unfortunately, but I’m so glad to get a win against this team. (The Rams) are very well coached and I think we’ll see them again.”

It was by far and away the lowest offensive outing for the Dinos too, coming into this game, who were averaging nearly 32 points per game. Calgary survived off of two Boaz Comeau field goals, including one from 49 yards out, in addition to a single from a missed field goal and a Gavin Weiss 4-yard rushing touchdown late in the first half.

It marks the first Ram loss at McMahon Stadium in seven years. It also hands the head-to-head tiebreaker to the Dinos who now technically hold the final playoff spot ahead of Regina going into the final three games of the regular season. 

Rams won’t play again until Thursday, October 15th against the Alberta Golden Bears.