There have been games in recent outings where the Saskatchewan Roughriders have had some bad penalties and miscues on both sides of the ball that resulted in an ugly loss, but few compare to what went down in Vancouver on Sunday night.
The Roughriders saw two touchdowns called back due to penalties, gave up four turnovers and dropped a 30-16 decision to the B.C. Lions.
The loss sees Saskatchewan fall to 6-4 to remain in second place in the West. B.C. won its fourth straight and has climbed all the way back to 5-5 on the campaign.
It seemed like nothing was going to go the Riders’ way, and that sentiment only grew worse as the game continued and the mistakes and miscues began to add up.
“The sad thing is I feel like it was very similar last week,” Riders coach Corey Mace said, referring to the much-discussed 26-19 loss to Hamilton. “We didn't win the turnover battle and penalties, they cost us in different ways this week. Those were huge game-changing and momentum plays for us.”
Two of the biggest swings in the game were the result of Riders infractions.
The first came late in the first half when Quali Conley found nothing but open space on a run to the right side, going 49 yards to the house. A penalty to Jermarcus Hardrick had that major called back, and the score went from a potential 14-13 Riders lead to 13-6 B.C. at the half.
Then in the third quarter, Nick Wiebe appeared to have a touchdown after recovering the ball on a muffed punt, but that was called back when Melique Straker slipped at the last second on the coverage and ended up getting called for no yards. That, too, would have put the Riders up by a point.
The third in general marked bad times for Saskatchewan — a Jonathan Edouard interception was called back due to an offside penalty by Caleb Sanders and the Lions had a couple of plays that looked to be snuffed end up going for big yards. Then came another dagger, when a promising drive was snuffed thanks to a pass to Dylan Djete being intercepted by Stantley Thomas-Olivier.
In the end, B.C. scored 14 second-half points on touchdowns from Zander Horvath and Keon Hatcher Jr. and the Lions had things in hand heading into the fourth quarter, leading 27-6 instead of finding themselves in a far closer game.
“It just feels like we left a lot of plays on the field. It feels like we just shot ourselves in the foot,” said receiver Dhel Duncan-Busby, who hauled in a 32-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter for Saskatchewan’s lone major. “Then we do a bunch of stuff on special teams and on defence and we get plays and then we just kind of just stop ourselves. It just seems like it was self-inflicted wounds.”
Trevor Harris ended up completing 28 of 42 passes for 356 yards, but the two interceptions loomed large. The Riders did get things going a bit in the fourth — including Duncan-Busby’s touchdown and Jaxon Ford’s first career interception on a promising drive for the Lions — but those plays weren't enough.
Alex Hale had another solid game for the Riders, though, hitting all three of his field goals on the night.
Seeing two weeks of subpar performances left a bad taste in Mace’s mouth, and he vowed things will turn around soon.
“If something happens back to back, to me, that's the head coach's fault,” he said. “I got to go take a peek at what I have to do to get these guys to understand that we can't have that right now. I don't think we're a team right now that can shoot ourselves in the foot multiple times a game and expect to win. And truthfully, I don't know that there's any team in the league that can do that.”
Duncan-Busby is confident it won’t be long before the Riders are back at their winning ways, especially given their experience.
“We've been here before and we're going to rely on the 13th man once we get back home,” he said. “Obviously, it hasn't really slid out the way that we wanted to, but we just have to kind of rely on each other and lean on each other and we'll be able to figure it out.”
Saskatchewan is back in action next Saturday when they host the Toronto Argonauts at Mosaic Stadium. Kick-off is at 5 p.m.
