The door was open for the Riders to take control of first place in the West Division on Thursday Night in Montreal.
Throughout the first half, the Green and White were poised to walk through it and surpass the B.C. Lions. Then the Alouettes made a change at quarterback and the door slowly closed in the Riders’ face as their mistakes mounted, losing 20-16.
Given the short week for Saskatchewan and that the Als were coming off of a bye, the outcome wasn’t all that surprising. It’s not an overly devastating loss for the Riders either but it’s one they could have won, which is always going to sting.
Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ second loss of the season.
The Good
With one fewer day to rest before travelling the furthest East his team will this season, head coach Corey Mace made the smart decision to rest running back A.J. Ouellette, who has clearly been showing signs of injury over the last few games.
If this was a must-win game or a playoff contest, I’m certain Ouellette would have played. But at this point in the season, the right decision was to give their prized free-agent signing the week off.
From a game-planning perspective, it was worth taking a longer look at Frankie Hickson, who had spent most of the season on the practice roster. Could he provide a spark for what’s been, at best, an average rushing attack to date?
The answer was an emphatic ‘Yes!’
Hickson exploded out of the blocks, rushing for 98 yards in the opening half, including an explosive 20-yard touchdown run. Hickson had more than 100 yards of total offence through the game’s first 30 minutes.
Given the way things went in the second half, the Riders didn’t get much of a chance to use the Liberty product as he only added 19 more yards along the ground to finish the night with 117 yards.
Running back is one of those positions where it pays to put in fresh legs throughout the season. There’s no question it worked for the Riders on Thursday in Montreal. Could we see more of Hickson for the rest of the year? It would be pretty hard to put him back on the practice roster at this point. Will this allow the Riders to rest Ouellette a little more? Perhaps.
The Bad
After a solid start, the Riders started to look like a team on less than a full week of rest in the second half.
Not only did they not have an answer for Alouettes’ third-string quarterback Davis Alexander until they had already given up the lead, but they also started making too many unforced errors. You just can’t do that against a Grey Cup contender.
It started right on the opening kickoff of the second half when DaMarcus Fields took an unnecessary roughness penalty long after Letcher Jr. had been forced out of bounds. If there’s one way to give a team life when opening a half with a new quarterback, that’s it.
From there, the Riders were flagged five more times in the second half, including an illegal procedure penalty when the offence didn’t line up properly on a big gain by KeeSean Johnson. The worst of all was an illegal participation call on the usually reliable Mitch Picton, who stepped out of bounds on a catch that would have kept a potential game-winning drive alive. Instead, the penalty ended the game itself.
Add in a couple of missed field goals from Brett Lauther and a fumble from Mario Alford and it was just too much for the Riders to overcome.
The Dumb
It’s not too often a fumble benefits a team compared to an incomplete pass but that’s exactly what happened for the Alouettes in this game.
With just over nine minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Riders finally got to Alexander, who had been shredding them since coming into the game in the third quarter. Bryan Cox Jr. had the quarterback under pressure before forcing a fumble but the ball would be recovered a few yards downfield by Montreal receiver Cole Spieker.
Initially, the play was called an incomplete pass. The Als were set to kick a field goal before the command centre decided to step in and review the play. It would be overturned to a fumble leaving the Als with a third-and-one, which they converted.
The Als would eventually be forced to kick a field goal again but not before they took nearly another five minutes off the clock.
The command centre did ultimately get the call right but it was curious that, as far as we know, they didn’t review returner Mario Alford’s fumble in the first half. The play appeared to be pretty close and could have been automatically reviewed.
Neither fumble decided the game but some consistency from the booth would be greatly appreciated.
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Joel Gasson is a Regina-based sports writer, broadcaster and football fanatic. He is also a beer aficionado.
