This week’s matchup between the current division leaders in the CFL did not disappoint, even if Rider fans left Mosaic Stadium unhappy.
Neither team was able to take complete control of a game that featured six lead changes and was still in doubt on the final play of the game.
Did the Riders beat themselves? Maybe. At the same time, the Montreal Alouettes are the best team in the league for a reason. If you give them an opportunity to win, they’re going to take it. That’s what happened on Friday night in front of 28,123 fans.
Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ fourth loss of the season.
The Good
For the first time since early June, Rider fans were able to watch their team play with starting quarterback Trevor Harris at the helm.
During Harris’ two years in Saskatchewan, he’s missed more games with injury than he’s played in. You can’t blame the Green and White faithful for being excited to see one of the league’s best pivots back on the field.
If there was any concern about Harris looking rusty after missing the last six games, they were quickly extinguished. The 38-year-old led the offence quickly down the field on a six-play, 44-yard drive to open the game before stalling out. He looked exactly like you’d expect Harris to look.
The veteran pivot only got better as the game went on, finishing the night with 355 yards passing, two touchdowns, and only eight incompletions.
Numbers aside, there’s a noticeably quicker pace to the Riders’ offence with Harris at the controls compared to Shea Patterson. Not only does he get the ball out quicker, but everyone can operate at a pace that is much more difficult to defend.
If Harris can play at or near this level for the rest of the season — and stay healthy — this Riders offence will be difficult to play against.
Bonus Good
Riders’ running back Thomas Bertrand-Hudon became the first player in the CFL to wear a Guardian Cap in a game on Friday night.
Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Canadian RB/FB Thomas Bertrand-Hudon becomes the first CFL player to wear a guardian cap in a game.
This comes after we saw Indianapolis Colts’ running back Jonathan Taylor and a few of his teammates wear the extra padding in an NFL preseason game last weekend.
Yeah, they look a little goofy, but I’ll never make fun of a player for taking extra safety precautions. The more players start wearing them, the more normal it will become.
Good for Bertrand-Houdon.
The Bad
There’s no question who the worst Saskatchewan Roughrider was in Week 11.
Kicker Brett Lauther, who’s had a less-than-stellar season to date, had the bottom completely fall out on him, missing four field goals that could have helped the Riders cruise to a victory over the Als. One of those was returned 128 yards for a touchdown by James Letcher Jr.
There have been calls for general manager Jeremy O’Day to bring in another kicker to push Lauther. Those calls are only going to get louder and, frankly, are justified at this point.
Bonus Bad
It would be easy enough to pick on Lauther, but I think head coach Corey Mace deserves his share of heat for some rather conservative decisions he made in this game.
One of Lauther’s four missed field goals came after Mace inexplicitly left Harris out on a third-and-inches to try and draw the Alouettes offside. The Als didn’t bite, Mace took the delay of game penalty and opted for the field goal attempt.
Mace opted again to kick a field goal on a third-and-one from the Montreal 34. In both instances, there was no reason to not try and convert on short yardage. Turning even one of those field goal attempts into a touchdown would have made a big difference in this game.
The football gods shine on those who play to win. Mace made a deal with the devil on Friday night.
The Dumb
It was “Prairie Proud” night at Mosaic Stadium — which was more or less a different way of saying it was country night.
As we saw last year, there was a kids’ rodeo at half-time. You may remember that’s when we saw a sheep get loose on the field. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen this time. Perhaps that’s why the Riders ended up losing.
Anyway, it was an awkward event, as most of the kids who were getting on these sheep to try and ride them were not enjoying the experience. They either didn’t want to get on at all or were unhappy after falling off. I’m not sure it went over all that well.
