Penalties were probably the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ biggest undoing in their loss to the B.C. Lions on Sunday.
“It was more the timing than it was the total yards,” CFL analyst Glen Suitor said on his SportsCage segment Tuesday.
That says a lot since the Riders were flagged seven times for 72 yards, but Suitor is spot on.
Two infractions took touchdowns off the board. One negated an interception by Jonathan Edouard. Another put the Lions on the Saskatchewan one-yard line, and the ball was punched over the goal line on the next play.
Those were “game-changing” and “momentum-shifting” plays, Suitor said, and the Riders deserved all of them.
He felt the only penalty that was soft was on a holding call on offensive lineman Payton Collins in the third quarter. That essentially halted a Saskatchewan drive that was kick started by a 17-yard catch from fellow big guy Daniel Johnson.
“But other than that particular penalty, the other ones were penalties,” Suitor said. “They were lack-of-discipline penalties.”
Suitor singled out safety Jaxon Ford’s unnecessary roughness penalty for a late hit on Lions receiver Jermaine Jackson as particularly poor and maybe even selfish. Ford missed intercepting a pass intended for Stanley Berryhill III on the previous play.
“It wasn’t real late, but it was late enough that it put it in the in the hands of the officials. Once you do that, it could go either way – and it went against him,” Suitor said. “That was an I’m-pissed-off penalty. You can’t have I’m-pissed-off penalties against good teams.”
All the penalties didn’t help matters, but the Riders just weren’t good enough on offence.
They got receiver Sam Emilus back after a three-game absence with an ankle injury. He had seven catches for 66 yards before leaving late in the fourth quarter after being shaken up by a hit.
But fellow pass catcher Kian Schaffer-Baker missed his third game with a knee problem, and the Riders haven’t been able to account for not having him in the lineup of late.
“The explosion plays over the last three weeks have almost not disappeared, but they’ve dropped substantially,” Suitor said. “If you look three weeks ago and then total up their number of big plays down the field over 30 yards, most of them came before the last three weeks. They still can do it, but it just has fallen off.”
Watch the full interview below.
