REGINA — Heading into the game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Montreal Alouettes on Saturday night, it appeared for all intents and purposes the Green and White would be in for a good night.
Montreal had lost their previous five games, were absolutely riddled with injuries and appeared to be a team struggling to get anything going.
So how did it all turn out?
The Alouettes absolutely dominated on offence from start to finish, picking apart the Riders defence through the air, gaining yards on the ground almost at will and cruising to a 48-31 victory in Canadian Football League action at Mosaic Stadium.
Saskatchewan falls to 10-3, but thanks to Toronto’s win over Edmonton earlier in the day, they’ve become the first team to lock down a playoff spot. Montreal improves to 6-7 and maintain their spot in second place in the East Division.
The contest once again featured another slow start by the Riders, as they were outscored 10-3 in the first quarter and 18-7 in the second.
“I thought early we fell behind defensively, we didn't do a good job holding their offence and slowing their rhythm down offensively,” head coach Corey Mace said on the Rider Broadcast Network post-game show. “We marched the ball a little bit, but then we turned the ball over so things were piling up against us… if nothing else, it was another reminder, a humble reminder, that we got to be on our stuff constantly or it ain't going to work in our favour.”
Once Montreal got rolling, well, the stats pretty much say it all.
Alouettes’ quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson faced little to no pressure all game and finished 20-of-26 passing for 370 yards and two touchdowns. His favourite target was Tyson Philpot, who took advantage of a mismatch on Riders’ defensive back Kerfalla Exume to haul in all nine passes he was thrown for 238 yards and two majors. Then there was running back Stevie Scott III, who came into the game after Travis Theis was injured on the first play of the game and ran 19 times for 125 yards.
Former Riders quarterback Shea Patterson had two short-yardage majors for Montreal’s other touchdowns.
Saskatchewan was able to get things rolling a bit in the second half after the ugly opening 30 minutes, but with the defence struggling to get stops — Montreal would punt only once in the game — their efforts wouldn’t be enough.
“I mean, I don't care what you say, we put up that amount of points as an offence, we got to be able to hold an opposing team to less points than that,” Mace said. “I didn’t think that there was a good rhythm for us as a team, but ultimately I was proud of how hard the guys tried to scrap and fight to get over the hump.”
With veterans Marcus Sayles and Tevaughn Campbell ruled out at game-time, the contest marked the first start of both Exume and Benny Sapp III’s careers. Montreal made sure to test them both as often as they could, and while Exume had difficulty dealing with Philpot, Mace wasn’t about to pin everything that happened on his young defensive back.
“I mean, it's Tyson,” Mace said. “Whether X is out there or not, he's a really good receiver. But early we gave up some huge explosions, mental busts, and that falls on my lap as a coach. Can't put too much emphasis on those guys,, we got to make sure that we're coaching them up to execute it better. It's never just one person we got to cover with 12.”
Roughriders’ veteran defensive back Rolan Miligan Jr. said he would have liked to have seen the defence make more plays in important situations.
“We gave up too many explosions,” he said. “We got to make our plays when our plays come to us. Whether it's in the box on the run game, downfield, deep passes, too many balls going up top early. It's hard to dig yourself out of that hole after you give up that many points.”
Asked if the two rookie corners coming in affected the defensive secondary’s plans, Milligan Jr. didn’t mince words.
“The standard is the standard,” he said. “It doesn't matter who's playing defence, you got to know what you're doing. You got to make your plays. They're going to see who's been in the game for 13, 14 weeks and they're going to try you. You got to be a football player and make your plays and we didn't do that.”
Trevor Harris had himself a serviceable game as the Riders pivot, completing 23-of-32 passes for 252 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Jake Maier came on in relief in the fourth quarter and completed six-of-10 passes for 118 yards, a major and a goal-line interception on the final meaningful play of the game.
A.J. Ouellette had a solid game running the ball with 16 carries for 90 yards and a major. Quarterback Tommy Stevens joined receivers Dohnte Meyers and KeeSean Johnson in adding the Riders other majors.
Asked about another slow start for the Riders and how to stop them from happening, Ouellette pointed to better pre-game preparation as a key.
“We need to start off with the energy that we need,” he said. “I think maybe getting a little bit more team play during the warmup [would help], getting everybody accustomed to the physicality and the hits and all that. Once we get rolling, we're good.”
Establishing a little more diversity on offence could also have helped, he surmised.
“I felt like we could have established a run a little bit better at the beginning,” Ouellette said. “The first run went for like one yard or whatever. So I got to do better for the offence, keeping the defence guessing what we're going to do at the beginning.”
The Riders will have plenty of time to recover from the loss, as they now head into their third and final bye week. Their next game is on Saturday, Sept. 27 when they travel to Edmonton to face the Eskimos.
