{"id":93019,"date":"2025-08-24T07:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T07:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93019\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T07:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T07:05:08","slug":"the-good-the-bad-and-the-dumb-of-the-saskatchewan-roughriders-32-15-loss-to-calgary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93019\/","title":{"rendered":"The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 32-15 loss to Calgary"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

There\u2019s an old saying in Saskatchewan: if you don\u2019t like the weather, wait five minutes. In the CFL, if you don\u2019t like how things look, give it a week, because a lot can change.<\/p>\n

No one is more aware of that than the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who came into their match-up with the Calgary Stampeders with a relatively comfortable lead atop of the West Division and a chance to make life even easier for themselves.<\/p>\n

As the week comes to an end, the Riders\u2019 room for error has shrunk following a 32-15 loss, and a storm is potentially brewing on the horizon with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on the schedule for the next couple of weeks. A two-game lead atop the division is now one over Calgary and two over Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t control the weather, but the Riders do still control their own destiny. But if the winds suddenly shift, things could get interesting in a hurry in Riderville.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders\u2019 second loss of the season.<\/p>\n

The Good<\/p>\n

Perhaps the best thing head coach Corey Mace did in this game was recognize when it just wasn\u2019t meant to be, living to fight another day.<\/p>\n

With just under four minutes to go in the game, the Riders forced the Stampeders to punt from their own 49-yard line. Down 17 points without much time on the clock for an offence that didn\u2019t show much all game outside of one burst in the second quarter, Mace decided to consider the big picture and pull starting quarterback Trevor Harris and running back A.J. Ouellette for the rest of the evening.<\/p>\n

At first, I was admittedly a little torn by the decision. On one hand, you don\u2019t like to see a team effectively throw in the towel before the three-minute warning \u2014 which is an eternity in the CFL, where we are told anything can happen. On the other hand, the CFL season is long and risking the health of your MOP candidate quarterback simply wasn\u2019t worth it given how Calgary was having their way with the Riders\u2019 offensive front.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think anyone would have blamed Mace had he kept Harris in a bit longer to go down swinging, but it was a rare case of a head coach opting to look at the big picture instead of pushing for a win they were extremely unlikely the achieve.<\/p>\n

The Riders are still 8-2 and have all but mathematically wrapped up a playoff spot. There are bigger goals to achieve this season, and you need your best players to get there.<\/p>\n

The Bad<\/p>\n

Old problems resurfaced for the Riders on Saturday evening at McMahon Stadium, and it was a double whammy.<\/p>\n

For the second week in a row, the Riders\u2019 offence got off to a slow start, managing just two points off 16 plays in the first quarter. Unlike last week against Hamilton, the offence wasn\u2019t bailed out by the defence as Calgary jumped out to a 14-2 lead early in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

To the Riders\u2019 credit, they did fight back with a couple of scores to give themselves a 15-14 lead at the half.<\/p>\n

From there, Harris and the offence went cold, scoring no points in the second half and managing just four first downs before the veteran pivot was pulled from the game in favour of former Stampeder Jake Maier.<\/p>\n

The defence didn\u2019t have its best night either, as the Stampeders again converted far too many second-and-longs. But when you don\u2019t manage to score more than a couple of rouges in three of four quarters, it makes it extremely difficult to win a football game \u2014 no matter how well a defence might play.<\/p>\n

Calgary deserves credit for making life difficult for the Riders, but we\u2019ve also seen prolonged silence from the offence far too often this season.<\/p>\n

The Dumb<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not too often you see four interceptions thrown in a game, and they don\u2019t really make that big of a difference in the outcome.<\/p>\n

Both teams combined for a whopping four points off of said turnovers: one Rene Paredes field goal and one rouge from Joe Couch.<\/p>\n

What makes the interceptions even weirder is the fact that in both cases, the quarterback who first threw the interception would get the ball back in fairly short order, thanks to their defence.<\/p>\n

Harris threw the first pick of the game with four minutes left in the first quarter, only to have Rolan Milligan Jr. intercept Vernon Adams Jr. on the very next play. Then in the third quarter, it was Adams Jr. who was initially picked off, only to have Godfrey Onkyeka make a great play and take one away from Dohnte Meyers just three plays later for Harris\u2019 second turnover of the game.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this game could be used as an example for coaches who preach ball safety over all else. It\u2019s okay to air it out a bit, and yes, interceptions will happen, but they\u2019re also not always the end of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders There\u2019s an old saying in Saskatchewan: if you don\u2019t like the weather, wait five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-93019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93019","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=93019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}