Since the West Final in 2019, no team has been a bigger thorn in the side of the Saskatchewan Roughriders than the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Outside of the Labour Day weekend game, where special things tend to happen for the Riders, their rivals to the east have won just about every game that matters and have done so with general ease.
Friday night at Mosaic Stadium in front of a crowd of 29,649, the Riders gave their fan base their most cathartic win in years. Not only did they beat the Bombers, but they did so with a physical, punishing defence, playing a style that Winnipeg had employed many times before.
This kind of win could be a turning point in this rivalry, though only time will tell.
Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ fifth win of the season.
The Good
A week after giving their team a chance to win against the league’s best offence, the Riders’ defence wasn’t in the mood for moral victories.
There’s no question that head coach and defensive coordinator Corey Mace’s unit led his team to victory against the Bombers. The defence wanted to set the tone early and it wasn’t a pleasant one if you were on the opposing side.
Everyone knows the Bombers’ key to success has been imposing their physical will on their opponents. For years, Andrew Harris and now Brady Oliveira have come into Mosaic Stadium and gone off for big numbers. The Blue and Gold have turned the Riders into pulp many times over.
Saskatchewan’s defence made sure that didn’t happen on Friday night. Oliveira was held to 49 yards on nine attempts and the Bombers as a team only managed 65 yards. Mace’s unit has had the odd issue in the secondary through the first six games of the season, but they’ve consistently been strong against the run. They were again on Friday night and it likely won them the game.
The Riders left the game in the hands of Zach Collaros and his receivers and they couldn’t get the job done. The Bombers were forced to settle for three successful field goal attempts and didn’t find the end zone once.
Even when Collaros found long-time Rider killer Nic Demski, Jameer Thurman made sure fans wouldn’t be thinking “Here we go again” by causing a near-game-sealing fumble.
Cathartic.
The Bad
For much of the night, the bad was a few drops from Rider receivers in the first half, most notably Kian Shaffer-Baker, that kept the Bombers in this game.
But then the final play of the game happened.
A case of deja vu swept over Mosaic Stadium when quarterback Shea Patterson took the snap with five seconds left and started to run around. We had seen this same play last season when Trevor Harris ended up taking a big and unnecessary hit that left him injured.
Once it became obvious this was what the Riders were doing, a couple of things had to happen differently. Firstly, I would have put one of the other quarterbacks on the roster on the field for the play. And I would have stressed to them to get the ball out quick enough.
What ended up happening was Patterson holding on for far too long and the inevitable occurred. After the quarterback let go of the ball, Bombers linebacker Adam Bighill came in for the shot.
The Riders’ bench was understandably upset and let Bighill know it. You can’t blame them. You also like to see Patterson’s teammates come to his defence.
It was a gross and unnecessary hit that should be re-visited by the league, but one that easily could have been avoided if Patterson had given himself up or thrown the ball sooner.
The Dumb
You can file this one under “something you don’t see every day.”
With 1:23 left in the first half, Bombers’ head coach Mike O’Shea opted to trot kicker Sergio Castillo out to attempt a 61-yard field goal. Normally, this would be pretty insane but Castillo had hit from 60 earlier this year and has been perhaps the Bombers’ best and most consistent player this season.
The kick would come up a little short and to the right but that’s when the dumbness happened. Rider kick returner Mario Alford ran into the official who was standing under the goalpost as he was trying to track the ball. Luckily for the Riders, the former Most Outstanding Special Teams Player was able to recover and get the ball up the field a bit.
We’ll never know if that return could have been more exciting if Alford was able to catch it cleanly. It was also a bit of a microcosm for Alford’s season to date, as his best returns have been wiped out by situations out of his control.
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Joel Gasson is a Regina-based sports writer, broadcaster and football fanatic. He is also a beer aficionado.
