It was “what if” Saturday for the Saskatchewan Roughriders as they suffered their first loss of the season 35-20 at BC Place.
It was always a matter of when, not if, the Riders would lose their first game of the 2024 season. If not for a few misses on offence, the Green and White may have left Vancouver with their fifth win of the year.
Though in the name of fairness, the Lions had their share of close calls so it may have all come out in the wash in the end.
Can I just add that was a pretty darn good football game too? It was an entertaining affair that offered up a little bit of everything.
Anyway, here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ first loss of the season.
The Good
It’s not very often that you hear praise for a defence when the quarterback they were facing put up 451 yards through the air, including 243 yards to the same receiver.
Here’s the thing though, if not for the effort of Corey Mace’s unit, the Riders probably would have suffered a similar fate to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last week. This game easily could have been over at the half.
Instead, the Riders’ defence bent but for the most part didn’t break, which is probably the only way to play what is the most prolific offence in the CFL.
Yes, Vernon Adams Jr. put up an absurd number of yards, including several explosive plays. The difference on Saturday was the Riders rarely let the Lions find the end zone. Adams only threw for one touchdown and was forced to run for another.
When you can hold the league’s best offence to just two majors, it’s at least a decent night. When you force a quarterback who had only thrown one interception all season to throw two, that’s even better.
When an offence as good as B.C.’s is forced to settle for seven field goals, you’ve given your team a chance to win.
There were a few times in this game where the Lions easily could have taken control. Shea Patterson’s first-quarter interception could have been a turning point and a missed touchdown pass to Jerreth Sterns followed by a missed field goal from Brett Lauther on back-to-back plays might have broken lesser teams. Instead, the defence made sure the Lions couldn’t take advantage.
No one’s ever going to be happy following a loss and I’m sure Mace would like to see more from his defence. But if it wasn’t for them, this game could have been ugly.
The Bad
Hot take alert: against the Lions, you’re going to have to score points. The Riders didn’t do enough on offence to secure their fifth win of the season.
The offence wasn’t awful, finishing the night with 340 yards of net offence. It’s not a historic night for the team but it could have been much worse too. What will probably haunt this team is the number of points they left on the field that could have swung this game in their favour.
It started in the second quarter when Mace opted to kick a 13-yard field goal from the Lions’ five-yard line. I would have liked to have seen a little more aggression from the coach there but if that was the biggest error on the night, then the Riders might have won.
When you add in that missed touchdown to an open Jerreth Sterns followed by a missed field goal from Lauther, another would-be major to Sam Emilus broken up in the end zone, and Shea Patterson getting stuffed at the goal line, it was simply too much for the Riders to overcome. However, the latter did set up Adams’ second interception of the game that led to a touchdown from A.J. Ouellette.
A late fumble from Emilus that led to the Lions’ second touchdown of the night was the one big mistake the team couldn’t recover from.
When you’re playing a team that is clicking on offence like the Lions, you can’t afford to miss on offence. The Riders did too much of that on Saturday night.
The Dumb
Through four games, we hadn’t seen much chaos on the field from the Green and White.
That changed against the Lions as the game featured six turnovers, eight sacks and one really fun special teams play.
After Oullette’s rushing touchdown to make it a 22-20 lead for B.C., kicker Brett Lauther executed a perfect onside kick that the Lions were not prepared for. We’ve seen Lauther trust his gut with what he sees from the other team’s return unit before. This time, the Nova Scotia native found a soft spot in the middle of the field and dribbled it about 12 yards before pouncing on it himself giving his team possession.
The Riders couldn’t cash in, but Lauther gave his team a great opportunity to gain the lead. It was also fun. Around here, we’re always fans of fun plays.
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