The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ 27-20 preseason loss to Winnipeg

Mercifully, this year’s Saskatchewan Roughriders preseason has come to a close with a 27-20 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

For the second week in a row, the Riders’ offence struggled to find the end zone, managing their only major of the preseason in the game’s final minute. Meanwhile, the Bombers put together a couple of impressive drives early to give themselves a lead they did not relinquish.

The fact that this game was played at all in front of an — ahem — announced crowd of 26,293 at Mosaic Stadium was perhaps the most surprising outcome of the day considering how horrifically smoky it was just a few hours before game time. Even if the league’s implementation of the air quality rule has been questionable at best, it would have been hard to ignore Friday’s conditions.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ preseason finale.

The Good

While it wasn’t a banner preseason for the offence, there was some good to be found on this evening at Mosaic Stadium.

Based on the preseason, it appears that head coach Corey Mace is planning on starting three Canadian receivers, as we saw them employ that strategy through both games against Winnipeg.

It’s a plan that make sense with Canucks like Kian Schaffer-Baker and Samuel Emilus both expected to start and be important contributors for the offence. Being able to start a third Canadian pass catcher would help with ratio flexibility elsewhere or could give Saskatchewan the chance to start more than the minimum seven Canadians.

One guy who made his case to be the third starter was Regina native Mitch Picton. Other than an early drop, Picton was his usual reliable self with six catches for 77 yards.

However, a wrench could have been thrown into this potential plan by Joe Robustelli. The Stamford, Conn. native was the top receiver of the night for either team with 118 yards on six catches. Robustelli showed some toughness as well when he suffered a shoulder injury and returned just a few plays later.

Depth at the receiver position is always a good thing and the Riders look like they have it.

The Bad

If the Riders were hoping to find a running back to compliment assumed starter A.J. Ouellette, there might still be some work to do.

The American tailback did not dress for this game, giving Mario Anderson Jr. a full opportunity to show he’s capable of contributing on offence to lessen Ouellette’s load.

It was a rough night for Anderson Jr., who I believe only rushed for 20 yards on seven carries and a garbage time touchdown. I say “believe” because once again the CFL’s stats system isn’t working, as they’ve officially credited him with negative-69 yards.

Whatever his numbers were, Anderson didn’t get much going most of the night and had a fumble in the second quarter, which led to the Bombers third touchdown of the game.

Canadian Thomas Bertrand-Hudon might be the second-best running back on the team and we’ll see if the coaching staff agrees. While it makes sense to find an American to backup Ouellette, at a certain point effectiveness needs to win out.

The Dumb

As has been tradition lately, the theme for the Riders home preseason game was once again “community night.”

As the game is often the one before the start of the Mosaic festival where the city gathers to celebrate the different cultures that make up the city, those cultures are also celebrated at Mosaic Stadium.

Ahead of this game, we were treated to a bit of a Cricket exhibition on the field. On it’s own, this doesn’t seem too remarkable, that was until in-stadium host and local radio personality Mark Johnston decided to take a couple of swings.

Johnston may be a former Stadnek Invitational Golf Thingy (a fan-organized golf tournament for CFL Fans Fight Cancer) champion, but it appears he is not a natural born athlete as Johnston whiffed on both of his attempts.

Stick to golf, Mark.