Saskatchewan held to single field goal in second half, go on to 27-21 defeat at home to Lions<\/p>\n
REGINA — Giving up big plays at inopportune times, surrendering turnovers on promising drives and getting absolutely no luck when it comes to the replay command centre.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say the Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 27-21 defeat at the hands of the B.C. Lions on the final night of the Canadian Football League regular season was a microcosm of nearly every one of their losses this season. Thankfully for the Green and White, there were a whole bunch of caveats to go along with it.<\/p>\n
Many of the Riders\u2019 starters played sparingly throughout the contest, with starting quarterback Trevor Harris and running back A.J. Ouelllette each playing a quarter-and-a-half before being taken out\u00a0for the evening. By the time the fourth quarter hit, almost everyone in Saskatchewan\u2019s line-up had seen at least a series or two. And with the Riders having locked down their spot at hosts of the West Final weeks ago, the intensity to win wasn\u2019t nearly as high as it will be in two weeks\u00a0time.<\/p>\n
The Lions, on the other hand, had a ton to play for — the win sees B.C. finish second in the West Division with an 11-7 record, and as a result, they\u2019ll now host the Calgary Stampeders in the West Semi-Final on\u00a0Saturday, November 1. A loss would have meant a fourth place finish and a trip to Montreal to face the Alouettes in the East Semi-Final.<\/p>\n
So, another narrow loss to close out the season, but one that still left the Riders with some positives to take away from things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told the guys, again, gritty, gritty, gritty performance,\u201d said\u00a0head coach Corey Mace, who sees his crew finish the regular season with a 12-6 record. \u201cThey played their tails off\u00a0like they did last week versus Winnipeg. Both of those teams, they came in hot with something to prove and I thought we swung with them all the way till the end of the game. There were a couple calls here and there,\u00a0I wish the football Gods were on our side, but that’s how it goes. Excited to gear up here for the West Final.\u201d<\/p>\n
The football Gods were especially ornery when it came to the Roughriders and the CFL command centre, as Saskatchewan couldn\u2019t catch a break on a handful of plays that could have completely swung the game.<\/p>\n
The first came early in the third quarter when B.C. receiver Keon Hatcher fumbled at\u00a0the goal line,\u00a0Saskatchewan\u2019s Tevaughn Campbell picked\u00a0up the ball and went\u00a0the distance the other way for an apparent touchdown. The score would have given the Riders a 21-13 lead and all the momentum, but it was instead called back due to the officials having blown the whistle at the moment of the fumble. Mace, who sits on the CFL rules committee, explained how that all worked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can award you the football, but anything gained after that, you can’t advance the ball after a whistle has been blown whether it’s justified or not.\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s the rule that we have. We kept them out of the end zone, but unfortunately we didn’t come away at those points. They end up being pretty crucial, so it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The command centre also broke the Lions\u2019 way on what would stand as the game-winning points in the fourth quarter. Lions’ quarterback Nathan Rourke scrambled out of danger and\u00a0flipped\u00a0a pass\u00a0that was\u00a0hauled in by Hatcher in the Riders’ end zone. The on-field officials initially ruled no catch, but after a lengthy review, the call was overturned and B.C. awarded the touchdown.<\/p>\n
The major came with four minutes and 11 seconds\u00a0to play and marked the final points in the game. As tough as the two turn of events were, Mace was happy with how his troops were able to shrug things off and try and get back in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as the guys,\u00a0they know what it is,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is ball. We build and pride ourselves on adapt and conquer. You got to adapt. This is the situation that we’re in. It’s football, it’s about the ball, let\u2019s keep playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Roughrider who had an exceptional showing\u00a0was linebacker Aubrey Miller Jr., who came into the game backing up Jameer Thurman but ended up leading the team with nine tackles. As well as things went for himself personally, the 26-year-old\u00a0sounded almost despondent with how things turned out in the contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u00a0wanted to demolish these guys and\u00a0show that we can all play,\u201d he said. \u201cNo matter what the number is on the depth chart, we got guys. I wanted to finish strong, man, so I’m kind of disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what more he could have done himself to create a better result — even with his near double-digit tackle total — Miller Jr. didn\u2019t beat around the bush.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of the stats matter to me if we don’t win,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t know, I might be too hard on myself, but I\u00a0love winning. When you get the opportunity to lead in something, the only thing you want to do is win. I don’t like coming up short. The guys still played a hell of a game, my teammates did, but I\u00a0wanted to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the final result wasn\u2019t what the Riders wanted, there were some good takeaways: Harris and Ouellette were exceptionally effective when they played, helping stake Saskatchewan to an 18-13 lead. Harris finished 10-of-11 passing for 112 yards in his 25-or-so minutes of work, Ouellette had 11 carries for 43 yards. Jake Maeir had flashes of brilliance for the Riders in the final three quarters and was 16-of-24 passing for 154 yards.<\/p>\n
Then there was kicker Michael Hughes, who made his debut in place of Brett Lauther and was four-for-four on kicks, with two field goals — a long of 42 — and two extra points.<\/p>\n
Over on the other side of the field, Rourke ended up 23-of-28 passing for 368 yards — the vast majority of those on big plays, including a 63-yard touchdown by Ayden Eberhardt on the first play of the game, with three touchdowns and one interception.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe sees it so well, man.\u201d Mace said when asked about what it is that makes Rourke\u00a0dangerous. \u201cHe can make all the throws and certainly if you get any kind of mental lapses, he’s going to find it. He certainly did on the first day of playing the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you know, I thought our guys did a good job putting some added pressure on him and we got a turnover there\u2026 we feel that\u00a0if we get a chance to see them again, it’ll be a good tilt,\u00a0like tonight was.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Roughriders have the week off to rest and repair while the West and East Semi-Finals take place on Saturday, November 1. Saskatchewan\u00a0hosts the West Final on Saturday, November\u00a08 at Mosaic Stadium, facing the winner between\u00a0the Calgary Stampeders and B.C. Lions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saskatchewan held to single field goal in second half, go on to 27-21 defeat at home to Lions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-240673","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\/240673","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=240673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}