{"id":77151,"date":"2025-08-17T20:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/77151\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T20:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T20:39:08","slug":"we-sent-the-whole-league-a-message-corey-maces-defence-trounces-scott-milanovichs-offence-in-rider-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/77151\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We sent the whole league a message\u2019: Corey Mace\u2019s defence trounces Scott Milanovich\u2019s offence in Rider win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders<\/p>\n

Hyped as a legitimate Grey Cup preview in Regina, Saturday\u2019s Roughrider-Ticat matchup didn\u2019t live up to its billing.<\/p>\n

The Saskatchewan defence, run by head coach Corey Mace, humiliated the Hamilton offence, run by their head coach Scott Milanovich, in a 29-9 rout for the home side.<\/p>\n

A sellout crowd rivalled the loudest games we\u2019ve seen from the noise-box in Winnipeg and aided a Roughrider defence that racked up six sacks against Bo Levi Mitchell and intercepted him twice as part of a four-turnover day.<\/p>\n

Mace\u2019s men are on a roll, not surrendering a touchdown in 11 of their last 12 quarters of football. That includes back-to-back routs where they\u2019ve held the other side to single digits, something unheard of in this Canadian Football League.<\/p>\n

So, is this performance enough to declare the Rider defence the league\u2019s best?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re good,\u201d Milanovich said after his squad was held to 14 fewer points than they have been in any other game this season. \u201cI\u2019m not going to anoint them that. There\u2019s still other good teams that we still have to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Classy in defeat, a battered and beaten Bo Levi Mitchell credited the Rider fans for making life absolutely miserable for him and his passing attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat (crowd noise) definitely helps them,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cThe same way Winnipeg has won for a lot of years at home. They\u2019re a great defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defensive lineman Mike Rose was in on the festivities with a sack and forced fumble. He says he and his teammates didn\u2019t make much of the Grey Cup preview hype surrounding this game.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, we ain\u2019t worried about them. We\u2019re worried about us. That\u2019s what we\u2019re worried about. We\u2019ve got to play our game. When we play our game, nobody\u2019s beating us,\u201d Rose said.<\/p>\n

The Milanovich-Mitchell duo very easily could\u2019ve ended up in Saskatchewan, but didn\u2019t due in part to the Stamps trading Bo\u2019s rights out of the division and Milanovich preferring to spend his winters in Florida rather than Regina.<\/p>\n

Corey Mace had no prior head coaching experience when general manager Jeremy O\u2019Day chose him, and not the Grey Cup-winning head coach Milanovich, to lead the Riders before the 2024 season. It was a gutsy move that looks downright genius in light of the 4-0 record for Saskatchewan vs Hamilton since that fork in the road, and especially so after Saturday\u2019s beatdown.<\/p>\n

Milanovich and his team are looking better all the time, but it still feels like his and Mace\u2019s coaching careers are intertwined over the Saskatchewan possibilities, despite never having never played or coached together. For now, it is clear that Mace is the one with the upper hand in this battle.<\/p>\n

The Riders are all saying the right things and trying very hard not to sound too cocky about the big win, knowing full well they just might have to face these Tiger-Cats another time in the Grey Cup. But make no mistake about it, the Roughriders made a statement on\u00a0 Saturday that extends far beyond their correct coaching choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we sent the whole league a message,\u201d said defensive back Tevaughn Campbell, whose early third-quarter interception zapped any momentum the Ticats might have felt coming out of halftime.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is the Grey Cup. That\u2019s everyone\u2019s goal, and we know we\u2019re a team that could get there. It\u2019s just up to who we are going to see in the Grey Cup, and if it\u2019s going to be Hamilton, it\u2019s going to be Hamilton.\u201d<\/p>\n

But is anyone surprised it looked so easy for the Roughriders to whack another first-place team like this? Mike Rose says no: \u201cIf we don\u2019t do this, I\u2019m more shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been said that offence is exciting, but defence wins championships. If this week in Riderville is any indication, the Roughriders\u2019 dominant defence just might put that theory to the test this fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders Hyped as a legitimate Grey Cup preview in Regina, Saturday\u2019s Roughrider-Ticat matchup didn\u2019t live…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-77151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77151","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=77151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}