Saskatchewan Roughriders get torched by Alouettes in burn-the-tape game (& eight other thoughts)

The Saskatchewan Roughriders fell to the Montreal Alouettes 48-31 at Mosaic Stadium in Regina on Saturday night.

I thought about writing this whole piece without using the letter “D” because the Riders didn’t have any D either, but to tell the story of this game without the word “dominated” just wouldn’t have felt right.

Here are the rest of my thoughts on the night that started poorly, then got worse, and never really improved.

Out of the Philpot into the fire

The big story of this game was the play of the two inexperienced corners. Kerfalla Exume and Benny Sapp filled in for two of the Riders’ best DBs in Tevaughn Campbell and Marcus Sayles, and Montreal tested them early. The pair failed, and from there the Alouettes were off and running.

I have my doubts about McLeod Bethel-Thompson as an every-week starting QB, but he is good enough to take advantage of that level of mismatch with Tyson Philpot and Austin Mack out there. 

Philpot, in particular, put up a career-high with 238 yards receiving on 9 receptions. Saskatchewan tried to help out over the top, but the former Calgary Dino went with the unpredictable move of “running any other route,” and Saskatchewan couldn’t adjust. The new DBs were the glaringly obvious problem, but they certainly weren’t the only problem for the Riders in this game.

D-line declined

The inexperienced DBs were picked apart, and they struggled; there is no questioning that. But, it’s not like the rest of the defence was a mighty fortress, and those two on the outside were the small hole that Luke could shoot through to blow up the Death Star.

The pass rush was non-existent in this game. They couldn’t get to Bethel-Thompson at all, and it is not like the veteran QB is Vernon Adams out there. They even let him beat them for a first-down run on second-and-10 early in the game.

So much of what the defence has been able to do this year comes from their ability to get to the QB while just rushing four. On a night where they really couldn’t afford any extra holes in the secondary, they needed the big guys to help out, and they couldn’t. 

Great Scott

So, the secondary couldn’t cover, and the D-Line couldn’t get to the passer, but at least they couldn’t stop the run either.

Stevie Scott III gashed them for 19 carries and 125 yards after Travis Theis left on the first play of the game. The Riders’ defence has been very good against the run this season, so allowing the first 100-yard rushing performance of the season for Montreal seemed a little out of character. Just a bad night for everyone all around. 

Just… why?

So, you’ve probably picked up on this already, but I wasn’t a fan of how the defence played in this game. Which is why I was surprised to see the Riders decide to punt on third-and-five early in the fourth quarter.

The Riders were down by two scores and had the ball at their 52-yard line, and yet Corey Mace still decided to punt the ball back to the Alouettes. Two plays later, former Rider Shea Patterson snuck in for his second TD of the day, and that was it. 

I will never understand the thought process there. We found out after the punt that Saskatchewan was going to be without Shane Ray and C.J. Reavis for the remainder of the game. So a defence that couldn’t stop a thing all game was going to be without two of their most important players, and the Riders decided to put it on THAT unit to make a big play. I know it wasn’t a banner day for the offence, but between Trevor Harris, A.J. Ouellette, and the skilled pass catchers, the Riders surely could have come up with something for five yards.

I hated everything about the decision, and it came back to bite them instantly. 

Silver linings

It wasn’t all bad for the Riders. It was 99 percent bad, but it wasn’t all bad.

Ajou Ajou had another really strong performance in the receiving game, leading the Riders with 8 receptions and 95 yards. And this was another good game from A.J. Ouellette, who had 16 carries and 90 yards while finding his way into the endzone. It wasn’t nearly enough, but most of that came while you could convince yourself Saskatchewan still had a chance to win this game. 

All brakes, no gas

I want to start this by saying, full credit to Montreal for the performance they had. They are still a fantastic roster and played a heck of a football team. But the Riders looked like a team that knew they had a bit of a cushion built up for the top spot in the West.

They didn’t match the desperation and urgency of the Alouettes for one moment of this game. To hear some of the comments after the game say, “We still control our own destiny,” it starts to come together a bit. Coming off a couple of big performances in rivalry games, the Riders had a letdown and faced a team that was desperate and ready to pounce. 

From bad to worse

One thing that is very concerning coming out of this are the injuries that are starting to mount. The receiving room has been banged up all year, but now that is starting to become an issue on the defensive side.

Obviously, missing Campbell or Sayles set them back in this game, but then they lost Ray and Reavis during the game, and Malik Carney was slow to get up after a play in the fourth quarter. This is largely a game that you can burn the tape of, but there could be some marks from this game that last for a while. 

Final thoughts

Big picture, this isn’t a panic button game or anything like that. I don’t believe the pass rush all of a sudden sucks. I don’t think they are now a defence you can run all over. And I’m fairly confident this is the worst game this secondary will play all season long. 

The issue, however, is that the aforementioned cushion the Riders had is likely now gone. Saskatchewan is off next week and doesn’t play until the final game of Week 17. In that time, the Stampeders will play the Lions and the Alouettes. Assuming no catastrophic injuries, Calgary will be favoured in both of those games, and if they take care of business, the next time the Riders take the field, they will find themselves tied for top spot in the West. 

Now, a lot of the reasons for optimism after last week remain. Maybe their floor for bad performances is a little lower than we thought, but they are still a great team. And, if they win out, they will still host the West Final. All this game did was take away most of the margin for error this group had.

So, Rider Nation can look forward to September 27 and a date with the Edmonton Elks and hope that it falls into the “well, it can’t be worse than this” territory.