The Saskatchewan Roughriders reached an ebb in Edmonton.<\/p>\n
The Edmonton Elks, seeded fifth in the CFL\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It was not to be, to the chagrin of quarterback Trevor Harris and, well, everyone else with allegiances to the visiting team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sucks,\u201d Harris said before the Roughriders left Commonwealth Stadium and flew back to Regina.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t sit there and lie to you and give you a bunch of great things, because it sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inarguably \u2014\u00a0but there is also this: Welcome to the reality of a long, gruelling and inevitably humbling CFL season.<\/p>\n
There will be, as I phrased it while prefacing a question to Malik Carney, ebbs and flows.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is definitely a test,\u201d the Roughriders\u2019 sacks leader said. \u201cWe\u2019ll definitely go back and look at the film and make those corrections but, in this league, you can\u2019t downplay any team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all pros and they all get paid. On any given night, you can win or you can lose, and today we took that L.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve definitely got to go back to the drawing board and hold each other to a high standard, holding each other accountable.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we were saying in the locker room, \u2018no feelings,\u2019 because it\u2019s pro ball, and we\u2019ve got to get it done if we\u2019re going to be where we want to be come November.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mind rewinds to the four best Novembers in franchise history \u2014\u00a0months that were highlighted by the Grey Cup victories of 1966, 1989, 2007 and 2013.<\/p>\n
As much as those memories are savoured, there is the accompanying recollection of adversity that was overcome.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In 1989, a 4-1 start was followed by four losses in succession. Saskatchewan eventually finished at 9-9 \u2014 the ninth loss being a 49-17 debacle in Edmonton \u2014 before winning three consecutive post-season games.<\/p>\n
In 2007, 7-2 quickly became 7-5 before the tailspin was reversed.<\/p>\n
The 2013 team was cruising along at 8-1 before losing four in a row.<\/p>\n
To summarize: It happens.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
We take you back to 1989, when Edmonton went 16-2 and established a league record for regular-season victories.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014\u00a0site of the previously referenced 49-17 drubbing of 12 days earlier and, most recently, Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In both cases, the eventual Grey Cup champion engineered a monumental upset victory in a division final.<\/p>\n
Corey Mace does not have to be reminded. He experienced both ends of the spectrum as the Argonauts\u2019 Defensive Co-ordinator, helping the Boatmen win it all as an 11-7 team in 2022 before enduring the heartbreak of 2023.<\/p>\n
Those experiences put Mace, now in his second season as the Roughriders\u2019 Head Coach, in a perfect position to manage and ultimately rectify the current situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a sense of panic,\u201d he said after the game, \u201cbut it wasn\u2019t good enough tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that we\u2019re going to the playoffs. That\u2019s for sure. Like everybody, you want to be playing your best ball. We haven\u2019t been doing that these last two weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s really nothing else to talk about. We\u2019re on a two-game skid right now. Let\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Roughriders, at 10-4, still occupy the driver\u2019s seat, but back-to-back losses have removed some obstructions from the passing lane.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re 10-2 and everything\u2019s going great, it\u2019s easy to lead,\u201d Harris said. \u201cWhen you drop two in a row and, obviously, games you feel like you could have won \u2014 especially this one \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s an important time to make sure that you keep everybody in the boat.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur process is our process and we believe in one another. I wouldn\u2019t trade this team for any team, and I mean that. I feel like we\u2019re going to hit our stride at the right time and I do think our best football is right on the horizon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really, really believe in this team and I think we\u2019ll be there in the end, but we\u2019ve just to take it one game at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders reached an ebb in Edmonton. The Edmonton Elks, seeded fifth in the CFL\u2019s West Division…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-177967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}