The road to a earning bye to the West Division Final or securing even a home playoff game just a got a lot rougher for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Riders couldn’t find the end zone nearly enough on Friday nor could they stop the B.C. Lions’ quick-strike offence. The result was a 31-24 loss in a game they really couldn’t afford to lose.
The defeat left the Riders tied with the Lions at 8-6. However, the Riders drop to third place in the West by relinquishing the tiebreaker to B.C. thanks to falling 2-1 in the season series.
The Riders also failed to make up ground on the Edmonton Elks (10-4). They remain four points behind Edmonton for top spot in the West Division. The Elks host lowly Hamilton on Saturday for the chance to expand their advantage.
That deficit now seems nearly insurmountable for the Riders – especially with a home-and-home against first-place Montreal still on the schedule – even though they host the Elks in the season finale.
The Riders are certainly in a jam now after their second straight loss and fourth in the last six games. How they go in this predicament is the subject of Riders Morning After.
Why they lost
There are two reasons: the discrepancy in red-zone conversions between the two teams, and the inability of Saskatchewan’s defence to get stops on multiple occasions after its offence put points on the board.
The Riders moved the effectively for large swaths of the game.
Quarterback Trevor Harris threw for 297 yards and had a touchdown pass. A.J. Ouellette rushed for 77 yards on 19 carries in his return to the lineup. The numbers aren’t eye-popping for Ouellette, but he had a few productive attempts – including a long of 17 yards. The ball was spread around nicely though the air, highlighted by KeeSean Johnson collecting 119 yards and Kian Schaffer-Baker recording 61 yards in his first game since Aug. 1.
It’s just that the Riders had difficulties finishing off drives.
A Dylan Djete 13-yard touchdown in the second quarter and Ouellette punching one in late in the fourth to give the Riders a puncher’s chance allowed Saskatchewan to go 2-for-5 in the red zone.
The Lions also had five attempts in that area of the field and got the ball over the goal line all but once.
The Riders were always going to be challenged to slow down the B.C. offence led by quarterback Nathan Rourke. That proved to be the case as Rourke went off for 375 yards and four touchdowns.
It was the way a couple of those touchdowns happened that were backbreaking to the Riders.
Twice the Lions went 70 yards down the field on just two plays after a Dawson Hodge field goal. The second of those – a 59-yard pass to Justin McInnis followed by an 11-yard connection between Rourke and Jermaine Jackson – put the Riders down 31-16 with three minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Allowing that to happen once is bad enough. Allowing that to happen a second time, especially when trying to mount a comeback, is unacceptable.
Game ball
Overall, there’s no question this belongs to Rourke. He was electric. Other than James Vaughters getting in a sack, the Riders had few answers for his elusiveness and big arm.
From the Saskatchewan point of view, it’s Rourke’s counterpart who deserves the recognition.
No, Harris couldn’t go shot for shot with Rourke. The stats alone back up that assessment. But the veteran pivot managed the ball well and gave the Riders every opportunity to stay competitive in this game.
That they couldn’t win it is more on the defence.
Needed more from
The defensive side of the Riders’ effort has largely been taken to task here, but there’s a little more worth mentioning.
The secondary didn’t have it on Friday. Rourke appeared to pick on Malcolm Bell, a rookie making his first CFL start.
Bell was burned on Lions touchdowns twice, once as part of a crew of Riders when Rourke found Jevon Cottoy just over the goal line and the other time when he whiffed on tackling Keon Hatcher Sr. before his score.
https://x.com/CFL/status/2103691739496419611
It wasn’t a banner night for Bell at cornerback. Friday showed that the Riders secondary needs some shoring up.
Play of the game
Rourke was a scrambling machine on Friday. The Riders struggled mightily to wrap him up when it looked like they had him contained.
The most glaring example came on the play that probably did them in.
https://x.com/CFL/status/2103709581054812222
How Caleb Sanders didn’t bring Rourke down here is still hard to believe.
That eventual 59-yard gain by McInnis set up the Jackson touchdown on the next play and made it a two-touchdown game late. The hole was too deep with three minutes on the clock for the Riders to have a realistic chance to get to level terms.
The stat that matters
It’s been mentioned but it bears repeating. Both teams got to the red zone five times. One team scored four times. The other scored twice. You know the rest.
