Montreal also prevented Saskatchewan from picking up the Canadian football hat-trick at Mosaic Stadium, leaving the host province with only wins in the Grey Cup and the CJFL’s Canadian Bowl.

While the score was relatively close for most of the game, the Carabins’ offence was simply too much for the Huskies to overcome. Montreal slowly took over the game throughout the second half.

The Huskies have now lost seven straight Vanier Cups. The win is Montreal’s third in school history.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the 60th Vanier Cup in Regina.

The Good

Freshman quarterbacks aren’t supposed to lead their teams to championships in university/college football, but that’s exactly what Montreal’s Pepe Gonzalez has done.

The Mexican-born, Quebec-raised pivot had himself a game in his very first Vanier Cup appearance. The 20-year-old finished the game 27-for-33 for 344 yards and three touchdowns, earning himself well-deserved MVP honours.

It’s safe to say that quarterback play was one of the biggest differences in this game. Gonzalez, who admitted he was a little nervous before the game, eventually settled in and was able to hit a few long passes to open up the Huskies’ defence. No disrespect to Huskies backup quarterback Jake Farrell, who did all he could to get the Huskies to this point after being thrust into the starting job under tough circumstances, but it’s clear that Gonzalez is just on another level.

I’m willing to bet this won’t be the last time we see him under centre at Mosaic Stadium.

The Bad

If you follow me throughout the CFL season, you know that I don’t like writing about officiating. But it’s pretty difficult not to discuss the stripes after this game.

In the final two minutes of the second quarter, Gonzalez converted a big second-down throw, or at least so we thought. Flags flew as it appeared that he had thrown the ball a good two yards past the line of scrimmage. The penalty should have given the Huskies another chance to stop the Montreal offence, get the ball back, and score before the end of the half.

Except it didn’t.

Inexplicably, the flag was picked up even though just about everyone watching in stadium and at home believed that Gonzalez was well past the line of scrimmage. The Carabins would get a first down and eventually score three more points before the end of the half.

In the end, the bad call didn’t end up costing the Huskies. The Carabins were simply the better team in the second half and were fully deserving of the win, but you hate to see something like that happen in the biggest game of the year in front of U Sports’ biggest audience.

The Dumb

They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and it seems that the Vanier Cup writers were inspired by last week’s Grey Cup.

In that game, you’ll remember the Riders had an early interception and opened the scoring with a rouge. The Riders would eventually pick up the win and take home their fifth Grey Cup in team history.

On Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium, it was Montreal who opened the scoring on the opening kick-off with a rouge. The very first play from scrimmage after that, Farrell tried to force one into double coverage, only to get picked off by Montreal. In the end, it was the Carabins taking home university football’s biggest prize.

I guess the moral of the story is to win football championships in Canada in 2025, all you needed was an early interception and a rouge.

The post The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Montreal Carabins’ Vanier Cup win over Saskatchewan appeared first on 3DownNation.

Through just about three quarters, it felt like the Riders were in the driver’s seat only to have their offence once again get stuck in neutral, allowing the Alouettes to hang around and scratch and claw their way back into the game.

As they’ve done time and time again this season, they found a way to hang on for the 25-17 win over the Montreal Alouettes and, for the fifth time in team history, a new banner will hang at Mosaic Stadium.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ Grey Cup victory at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.

The Good

When the lights shined the brightest, the Saskatchewan Roughriders had perhaps their best performance of the season.

Outside of the first few minutes, the Riders saved their best for the biggest game of the year. Trevor Harris was named the game’s Most Valuable Player after throwing for 302 yards. Though he didn’t find the end zone, Harris was efficient and kept the ball moving downfield setting up running back A.J. Ouellette and short-yardage quarterback Tommy Stevens for all three of his team’s touchdowns. Ouellette capped off his bounce back season with 83 yards on 17 carries.

After missing much of the season due to injury, it was Canadian receiver Samel Emilus who had the biggest night of all, hauling in 10 catches (two shy of tying a Grey Cup record) for 108 yards, including a circus 31-yard catch along the sideline in the later stages of the game. Without their leading receiver KeeSean Johnson, the Riders needed someone else to step up and this week it was Emilus who led the charge.

The defence did its job, too, making life miserable enough for Montreal quarterback Davis Alexander, who once again re-aggravated his hamstring injury that has been an issue for him much of the season. He threw three interceptions but it was defensive back Tevaughn Campbell who made the play that may have saved Saskatchewan’s season when he forced a late fumble from Alouettes’ short-yardage quarterback Shea Patterson at the one-yard line, giving the Riders the ball back at their own 20.

It was a total team effort from the Green and White in Winnipeg and that’s why they’re headed home with the trophy.

The Bad

When I first came up with this format for my column a few years ago, there was one flaw that I didn’t consider: how do I realistically write about things that don’t go well in a Grey Cup victory? Or, for that matter, the good in a Grey Cup loss?

Could I write about how the team allowed the Alouettes to hang around, making what looked like a sure thing far more interesting than it needed to be? Sure.

Could I write about how Trevor Harris got away with a potential game-changing interception? Was the offence a little slow out of the gate?

Or perhaps that outside of his interception and forced fumble, it was also a rough night for defensive back Tevaughn Campbell at times?

Brett Lauther, the team’s kicker, also missed a field goal that would have iced the game far earlier.

These are all things we could talk about.

I could probably even talk about how I think Ouellette should have been named the game’s MVP instead of Trevor Harris.

But when you win a championship, it doesn’t really matter. The final game is the ultimate results-over-process game. The Riders won the ring and that’s all that matters.

The Dumb

A nice feature in the press box at Princess Auto Stadium is a live feed of head referee Andre Proulx’s microphone. Of course, the main purpose of the feed is to allow the media to hear the calls in what’s generally a rocking stadium.

However, on Sunday evening we were treated to two different versions of the national anthem before the game. As local Métis country singer Catie St. Germain performed O Canada, Proulx’s mic was mistakenly on and the sound of his singing filled the press box. This was clearly not supposed to happen, but it was still great nonetheless.

As for the performance itself? Well, let’s just say that Proulx is a much better official than he is a singer.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders defeated the Montreal Alouettes in the 112th Grey Cup at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg by a score of 25-17.

Trevor Harris was named Most Valuable Player after he completed 23-of-27 pass attempts for 302 yards, winning his first Grey Cup as a starter. Samuel Emilus was named Most Valuable Canadian after he made 10 catches for 108 yards, finishing only two receptions shy of tying the Grey Cup record.

The post The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 25-17 Grey Cup win over Montreal appeared first on 3DownNation.

The event is always one of the highlights of Grey Cup week as it provides a window into what’s going on at the league level in any given year.

With it being his first State of the League address, we also got a chance to see how Johnston plans on handling the event. I think it’s safe to say he plans on taking a more traditional approach than his predecessor, which is probably a good thing.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the CFL’s state of the league address.

The Good

We all have moments in our life where we look back and decide that we’d do something differently if given the chance.

It’s safe to say Johnston had one of those moments earlier this year when he announced significant rule changes that will come into effect over the next couple of seasons. When asked if he could guarantee the league will never switch to four downs, he chose not to do so, suggesting (fairly, I think) he would never offer guarantees.

Could he have worded his statement differently? Probably, however, on essentially an infinite timeline, it’s impossible to say for sure that it would never happen.

In his opening remarks and when asked about it later, Johnston was very clear this time around that at least under his watch, the CFL would remain a three-down league with a 65-yard wide field, 12 players on the field, and feature larger end zones.

It wasn’t all perfect from Johnston when it came to the rule changes — I don’t think he effectively acknowledged those who are against them. Asking those fans to at least give the changes a chance seemed like an easy thing to include.

Overall, though, Johnston did what any good leader should do when they’ve made an error: admit the mistake and show you’ve learned from it. Will his answer put some fans at ease? Only time will tell.

The Bad

Listening to Johnston speak throughout the morning, it became abundantly clear when the commissioner was looking forward to answering a question and when he wasn’t.

The answers to questions for which Johnston was clearly prepped and excited to answer were generally thoughtful and quite transparent. These are qualities that Johnston hoped to bring to the role and the league in general.

A good example of this was when he was asked about the possibility of the league one day disclosing player salaries as a way to encourage fan engagement. Johnston said that this was something that would be coming up during the offseason’s general meeting and that the agenda for said meeting would be made public.

On the other hand, some of the more difficult questions surrounding some of the issues facing the league received a pretty obvious non-answer.

Perhaps the most non-non-answer came when Johnston was asked by 3DownNation’s J.C. Abbott about the football operations cap. Both of this year’s Grey Cup head coaches emphatically suggested the league axe the cap, so it was topical.

Johnston was specifically asked about small, underpaid coaching staffs having to now adapt to new rules, which was an entirely fair question and Johnston danced around it by suggesting how great the changes could be and that coaches are excited for them. What he said was fine, but it had nothing to do with the question asked.

If the cap is staying and there aren’t any big changes coming on the horizon, then that’s fine. It would have been better to just say so rather than give an answer that you’d expect to hear from a politician — not someone who has spent much of his short tenure as commissioner preaching transparency.

The Dumb

Given Johnston’s more straight-forward approach to the event and more professional style than Randy Ambrosie, his predecessor who liked to fill time with stunts and overlong answers, the availability didn’t offer up many moments of levity.

It wasn’t until the question and answer period was nearly over when Johnston started taking some questions in French, which he did quite well comprehending, that Johnston got his first laugh.

When asked about the future prospects of the the CFL expanding to Quebec City, Johnston said he was thankful that the question was asked slowly, which helped his understand.

It was a light-hearted moment that showed the Johnston’s ability to have some fun at his own expense. Hopefully there are more of these moments in the future.

The post The good, the bad, and the dumb of CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston’s State of the League address appeared first on 3DownNation.

Down four points with just over a minute to play, Trevor Harris led his team on what felt like an improbable 76-yard drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Tommy Nield, a name that will now live in Riders infamy forever.

Saskatchewan’s 24-21 win over the B.C. Lions was hardly a masterpiece — in all honesty, the Riders probably could have and should have lost the game. However, that’s Roughrider football — things rarely go according to plan, which can drive fans crazy, but it also means Riderville is never dull.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders West Final win.

The Good

The Riders didn’t have much to hang their hat on in this game. Their best player was running back A.J. Ouellette, who rushed 17 times for 113 yards, but even he had an inopportune fumble when he got a little greedy on his second hurdle attempt of the game in the third quarter.

The best part of this matchup for the Riders was their mental toughness. It wasn’t their night in just about any aspect of the game but they battled to the end and found a way.

It was a particularly difficult night for quarterback Trevor Harris, who found himself momentarily staring down another year without a trip to the Grey Cup. He then pulled off the elusive game-winning drive that he’s been looking for since he came to the CFL.

I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to suggest that Harris needed that drive to change the narrative of his career. The big one has always eluded him. He’s not the Nathan Rourke-type who has all the tools to put a team on his back and win a game by himself. Harris needs everything to line up for him and on his team’s final drive it finally did, all these years later.

As always, at the end of the night Harris’ numbers look good on paper. He went 26-for-38 for 305 yards and two touchdowns, but if the Riders don’t come away with a major on their final possession, it’s just another big loss on Harris’ resumé.

This team has been through the wringer time and time again, and on this night it paid off as they were able to pull it off one more time.

The Bad

Frankly, there’s a lot of bad to go around in this game.

Even though the defence held a supercharged Lions offence to 21 points, it should have been fewer points considering how many second-and-longs the Lions converted. Many of them came as Rourke faced only a three-man rush, which gave him all of the time in the world. There was also a huge bust on Keon Hatcher’s touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

The offence was ineffective most of the night, the receivers had a serious case of the drops, and offensive coordinator Marc Mueller still should have used his best player more.

With that said, the worst mistake of the game came late in the fourth quarter from head coach Corey Mace when he opted to kick a 12-yard field goal to make a one-possession game a, well, one-possession game.

I know, I know — the Riders ended up winning thanks in part to those three points, but it was a huge risk to let Rourke get back on to the field with improved field position.

To the defence’s credit, they stepped up big and made not one but two stops to get the ball back for the offence.

The ironic part is Saskatchewan’s only other touchdown of the game came on a third-down at B.C.’s three-yard line in the third quarter.

Sometimes good decisions don’t work out and sometimes bad ones do — and it was the latter for the Riders in this case.

The Dumb

Have you ever experienced a weird case of déjà vu? The Riders sure did in this game.

You might remember early last season when these two teams played at Mosaic Stadium when A.J. Allen snagged an interception after it bounced off a Lions receiver, then a teammate inadvertently kicked it up in the air?

On Saturday night at Mosaic Stadium, it basically happened again. This time it was Marcus Sayles who was the beneficiary of the circus act.

It was three times at least.

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— JM =^) (@jm539581.bsky.social) November 8, 2025 at 7:26 PM

Not only was this the weirdest play of the game, it was also a big one for the Green and White as the Lions were threatening to score following the Ouellette fumble, which had occurred a few plays prior.

It goes to show as important as skill and coaching are in football, so is luck.

The post The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 24-21 West Final win over B.C. appeared first on 3DownNation.

The Green and White played their second straight game that didn’t mean anything in the standings against an opponent that had a lot to play for. In this case, the Lions needed a win in order to host next week’s West Semi-Final. A loss would have sent the Leos to Montreal for the East Semi-Final as the CFL’s crossover team.

After playing most of their starters for part of the first half, the second half of this game featured mostly the rest of the roster — especially on offence. As such, it’s again an encouraging sign for this team that they weren’t embarrassed by their opponents despite leaving a number of their best players on the bench.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ sixth loss of the season.

The Good

It appears that a week off did quarterback Trevor Harris good.

The team’s starting pivot and Most Outstanding Player nominee returned to the lineup after sitting out all of last week’s game in Winnipeg.

Harris’ most recent starts left a fair bit to be desired. If you looked at just the numbers, the veteran seemed fine but the eye test questioned whether something was wrong with Harris either physically or mentally. The touch he showed for most of the year just wasn’t there. Harris can’t throw fastballs anymore, but he knows where to put the ball to keep himself out of trouble. For a few games, Harris seemed to struggle to find his release point.

The 39-year-old has also struggled coming off the team’s previous bye weeks this year.

On Saturday against B.C., Harris looked sharp in his quarter-and-a-half of play, completing 10-of-11 pass attempts for 112 yards to help the Riders put 10 points on the board on their first two possessions — something else that’s been a struggle this season.

Harris’ throws were on time and in the right spots, which is an encouraging sign for the Riders as they head into the West Final in two weeks.

The Bad

If you’re a regular to this column, you know that I don’t particularly like discussing officiating but something happened in this game that has to be discussed.

In the third quarter, Lions receiver Keon Hatcher appeared to have fumbled millimetres before the goal line. The ball was recovered by Saskatchewan defensive back Tevaughn Campbell, who was off to the races for a 107-yard touchdown.

As with all potential scoring plays, the play was automatically reviewed, which seemed fair because Hatcher was extremely close to breaking the plane before fumbling the ball. Perhaps he was in.

The ruling on the field was that Hatcher did not break the plane but the whistle was blown early, so the Riders were awarded the ball on the three-yard line. In the stadium, you couldn’t hear a whistle but it was audible on the broadcast.

By the letter of the law, the play was properly called by the replay centre but whatever happened to letting plays finish before whistling them dead? There was no need for the play to be blown there.

It’s an unfortunate outcome for the Riders, as it made a difference in the game but like any officiating decision, it wasn’t the ultimate decider. There was still plenty of time in this game for the Riders to make more plays — and they didn’t.

The Dumb 

It’s safe to say that new Riders kicker Micheal Hughes has a big leg.

The American was signed on October 7 and made his debut this week against the Lions. He connected on both of his field goal attempts, including a 42-yarder that would have been good from at least 60 yards.

Hughes showed off his leg following Saskatchewan’s first touchdown when he pounded the kickoff through the uprights into the end zone for a rouge. Most kickoffs in the CFL land between the 10 and five-yard line.

If one gets into the end zone, it’s usually a windy day — which, oddly enough, it wasn’t on Saturday night in Regina.

Kicking through the uprights on a kickoff is a feat so rare in the CFL that it feels like an extra reward is in order when it happens.

The post The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 27-21 loss to B.C. appeared first on 3DownNation.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders made the smart decision not to play a number of their starters, including quarterback Trevor Harris, running back A.J. Ouellette, and defensive lineman Micah Johnson, amongst many others.

That decision turned out to be even better given how it turned out to be a wet night at Princess Auto Stadium.

With all of that in mind, basically everyone expected the Blue Bombers to win this game and win it fairly easily, though some of us did expect the Riders to cover the 5.5-point spread offered up by oddsmakers.

Frankly, had head coach Corey Mace not turned to third-string quarterback Jack Coan in the fourth quarter, the Riders may have been able to hang on for the win. With that said, it was still the right call to give Coan the ball as you don’t get too many real-world situations to test your third-string quarterback in a game where the outcome doesn’t matter.

I’ll leave what this win says about the current state of the Bombers to my colleague John Hodge. From a Riders perspective, even if they lost, they know they can still be competitive should a rash of injuries hit this team in the West Final.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of Saskatchewan’s fifth loss of the season.

The Good

We saw something rarely seen from the Green and White to open this game: aggressiveness on their very first possession.

After recovering a Trey Vaval fumble on the opening kickoff, the Riders took possession at the Winnipeg 43-yard line. Far too often this season, we’ve seen offensive coordinator Marc Mueller follow up a big game-changing turnover with a run up the gut for maybe a yard or two, followed up by either an incompletion or a short pass that ends up short of a first down, leading to the Riders punting the ball right back.

Not this time.

On their very first play from scrimmage, with backup quarterback Jake Maier in nonetheless, Mueller dialled up a flea flicker deep-shot for receiver Joe Robustelli. The pass wasn’t completed but the Bombers were called for pass interference on the play, setting up a one-yard sneak from Coan for an early 6-0 lead.

The points were a bonus in this game but as TSN’s Luke Willson pointed out on the broadcast, whoever the Riders face in the West Final will now have to think about it for a second before selling out to stop the run on first down in such a situation.

I’m also a big fan of taking a shot down the field following a turnover as hitting such a play can easily change the game for your team. The play also sent the message that the Riders were in Winnipeg to play and not just go through the motions.

The Bad

The outcome of this game didn’t matter from a Riders perspective, but the habits did.

If there was one troubling sign for Saskatchewan in this one, it was the number of poorly-timed penalties they took.

In total, the Riders were flagged eight times for 65 yards and while that yardage is a little low for the number of flags, what’s more concerning is when these penalties occurred.

On the Bombers’ first offensive possession, C.J. Reavis was flagged for pass interference on a second down that would have gotten the defence off the field. The extended drive led to the lone Blue Bombers touchdown of the game. Another pass interference call in the third quarter also came on second down, but that one proved to be less damaging.

Half of the eight accepted flags came on either a Blue Bombers second or third down, including a pyramiding call on a successful field goal from Sergio Castillo, which allowed the Bombers to continue their drive and drain the clock instead of giving the offence 30 to 40 seconds following the kickoff.

On offence, a holding call with just over two minutes to go in the first half wiped out a solid nine-yard gain from Mario Anderson Jr. on first down and eventually led to a two-and-out.

Penalties are going to happen throughout a football game. The goal is to try and limit their damage and the Riders could have done a better job of that on Friday night.

The Dumb 

There’s no doubt that CFL players are incredibly athletic, but sometimes we need a little reminder that despite their superhuman abilities, they are in fact human as well.

In the fourth quarter, strong-side linebacker Antoine Brooks Jr. attempted a backflip after a Zach Collaros pass fell incomplete. The former Maryland Terp didn’t exactly stick the landing but managed to maintain his balance and not make a complete fool of himself.

In that same quarter, quarterback Jack Coan took off for a nine-yard gain on a first-down play. Once Coan’s space started to run out, he decided it was time to hit the deck. I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing Coan didn’t play much baseball as a kid or if he did, he might have been a pitcher because the head-first slide was pretty awkward.

I’m sure when the team reviews the film both of these moments will bring a few laughs to the room. All in good fun, of course.

The post The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 17-16 loss to Winnipeg appeared first on 3DownNation.

This is not only a sigh of relief for the Riders, but perhaps some other teams in the West who’ve grown tired of trying to get to the Grey Cup through Winnipeg.

Much like the previous three games, this one wasn’t a masterpiece by any stretch. The offence, while a little sharper overall, didn’t light it up. There were a few too many penalties, and the defence had their moments too, but in the end, they don’t ask how — especially in October and November.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ 12th win of the season.

The Good

On a night when receiver Samuel Emilus put up 143 yards through the air, and Joe Robustelli provided a much-needed security blanket for quarterback Trevor Harris in his return to the lineup, the biggest and best story for the Riders was their kicker.

I’m not breaking any news here in suggesting it’s been a difficult season for Brett Lauther. It’s safe to say it’s been his worst season in the CFL. We’ve seen the Nova Scotia native have rough starts before, but generally, he’s found a way to come up big down the stretch when his team needed him.

Up until this week, Lauther hadn’t really had his get-right game. Perhaps this game against the Argos could be the one to get him going again.

After sitting out last week’s affair in Ottawa with a back injury, Lauther returned to the lineup this week and went a perfect five-for-five on his field goals. It provided his team with 15 points they badly needed in a game where touchdowns were hard to come by.

That week off not only did good things for Lauther physically, but perhaps mentally as well.

I don’t think we can declare Lauther back just yet, as he wasn’t asked to kick into a difficult wind on Friday evening — something he very well could have to do come the West Final on November 8 — but it’s a good first step.

The Bad

The flip side of a team’s kicker having a big night is that the offence ended up stalling out far more than they would have liked.

The Riders’ offence did move the ball better than they did last week against the Redblacks, as even field goal attempts weren’t in the cards in the nation’s capital. In all, the team put up 431 yards of net offence.

However, when you’re able to get beyond your opponents’ 40-yard line seven times — including six times beyond the 30 — you’d like to come away with more than two touchdowns. They were able to get away with field goals against a team that will miss the playoffs and was playing their third-string quarterback. Against Nathan Rourke or Zach Collaros, that might not work.

Some of it was execution, but some of it was decisions by the head coach as well. Lauther’s first attempt came on a long third-and-one at the Toronto 29-yard line. Another came on a third-and-two at the Toronto 36. Both of those are situations where the argument could be made to go for it and keep the drive going. You could even make the case for going for it on a third-and-four at the plus-29.

That’s not the say that any of the decisions were necessarily wrong, but come playoff time, this team will need more touchdowns than field goals. They’ll need a mixture of the right play calling, execution, and decision making to get there.

The Dumb

The history books will show that Corey Mace played defensive line in the CFL, but it appears the team’s head coach has some running back in him as well.

Once the game was over, defensive lineman Micah Johnson was poised to lead the way and complete the traditional Gatorade bath for his coach following an important win. We’ve seen coaches get drenched following their first career win, division clinchers, conference championships and, of course, championships.

However, Mace caught the attempted shower that was coming out of the corner of his eye and quickly shut it down with a near-perfect stiff arm to the big cooler. He looked like A.J. Ouellette tossing a defensive back to the side.

Johnson, knowing he had been thwarted, put the jug down with a big grin on his face and laughed.

One has to wonder how much Mace’s children are able to get away with, as his awareness is still as sharp as ever.

The post The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 27-19 win over Toronto appeared first on 3DownNation.

Okay, it was only three weeks, but the Riders ended their two-game losing streak in Ottawa thanks to a 20-13 win over the last-place Redblacks.

While the Green and White may have moved closer to clinching first place in the West Division and earning the right to host the Western Final in November, you can’t blame fans if they’re still not exactly thrilled with the state of their football team. The Riders won, but it wasn’t anything close to a performance that would win them a playoff game.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ 11th win of the season.

The Good

A week ago, the Riders’ defence held the team in it for much of the night in Edmonton, but eventually the walls gave way and it ended up being a rough result.

Against Ottawa, the defence did all of the work to ensure the Riders left the nation’s capital with a win.

Going forward, Ottawa has a lot of questions at quarterback. The defence took advantage of Dru Brown’s miscues with three interceptions, including one that SAM linebacker Antoine Brooks Jr. took 85-yards to the house to give the Riders a 14-0 lead. It was a lead they never surrendered.

They did it in a different fashion than we’ve seen from them, as well. They didn’t have the best game up front, but still managed to keep the Redblacks corralled.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the night was how the defence adjusted to the Redblacks inserting quarterback Dustin Crum into the lineup. Right away, you saw an energy shift from Ottawa, but they weathered the early storm and held Crum to just 99 yards passing. Perhaps more importantly, they limited him to eight yards along the ground.

When Crum gets those legs going in close games late, dangerous things tend to happen. Thanks to the defence, the Riders avoided falling victim to another Crumback.

The Bad

For the second week in a row, the Riders’ offence was stuck in the mud for much of the night. Take out an opening drive touchdown and one 66-yard splash play, and they didn’t do much of anything.

The most troubling thing remains the play of Trevor Harris, who struggled for the second week in a row. The quarterback finished the night with 341 yards passing, a touchdown and, most importantly after last week, no interceptions. However, he never really looked all that comfortable and was again struggling to find or hit his receivers consistently.

I think there’s some growing pains to receivers like Sam Emilus and Kian Schaffer-Baker coming back into the lineup. They are obviously talented players, but are trying to catch up to an offence that has played most of the season without them. But, that shouldn’t lead to this poor of a performance.

The puzzling part of the whole thing is their reluctance to use their best player, running back A.J. Ouellette, a whole lot more. The Ohio native had 18 carries in this one, but that was inflated by the team opting to use him in short-yardage without quarterback Tommy Stevens on the roster.

They should be able to generate more than 87 yards they managed after the first drive of the game and before the fourth quarter began.

The Harris fumble at the Ottawa five-yard line in the game’s final minutes was bad, but he was put in a bad spot by a play call that should have had the ball land firmly in the gut of Ouellette. Strangely enough, the running back ended up making perhaps the play of the game when he managed to chase down Redblacks’ defensive lineman Bryce Carter and saved a touchdown. Ottawa ultimately settled for a field goal, ensuring the Riders would remain a touchdown ahead.

I understand the desire to get Harris and the rest of the offence going, but sometimes you just gotta lean on who’s rolling. Lately, that’s been Ouellette.

The Dumb

I have to give credit to TSN analyst Paul LaPolice. A couple of years ago, the former CFL coach made his debut as a colour analyst late in the season after working with the panel for much of the year.

It wasn’t exactly a smooth transition, as I believe LaPolice struggled to find his character in the booth. We all know he knows the game, but being a good broadcaster requires more than that.

As time has gone on, LaPolice’s charisma has improved dramatically and I think we saw a great example of that during this broadcast when he was included in the read for a promo for an NCAA game on TSN+. With much vigour, LaPolice exclaimed that he wasn’t interested in watching curling, tennis, or hockey. He wants to watch football.

We’ll forgive LaPolice for throwing some unnecessary shade towards the great game of curling, because the read was fun and a welcome addition to the broadcast.

The post The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 20-13 win over Ottawa appeared first on 3DownNation.

After their loss to the Montreal Alouettes two weeks ago, the Riders saw the second-place Calgary Stampeders lose not once, but twice. A win would have left the Green and White six points clear of everyone else in the division with four games to go.

Instead, they put forward one of their worst efforts of the season and their most inexcusable loss of the campaign — a 27-25 defeat at the hands of the Edmonton Elks, where the score masks just how bad it was. It also marked the first time all season that the Riders have lost twice in a row.

Saskatchewan still control their own destiny when it comes to hosting the West Final, but they’ve kept the door open for the Stamps, Blue Bombers, and now even the Lions to possibly catch them.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ fourth loss of the season.

The Good

This felt like a game where the Riders’ defence was going to be able to pull off the victory. For much of the night, they were at the top of the leaderboard to appear in this space. However, some breakdowns in the fourth quarter took the shine off the unit.

Instead, the best part of the night for the Riders was running back A.J. Ouellette. The Ohio native continued his strong bounce-back season, proving the doubters (like me) wrong.

Ouellette rumbled for 115 yards and one touchdown on 19 carries, and it felt like he should have been used even more to wear down the Elks as the night went on.

As the rest of the offence sputtered, Ouellette managed to keep them on the field enough to ensure the defence got their rest. Thanks mostly to Ouellette’s efforts, the Riders managed to win the time-of-possession battle by nearly 10 minutes.

Weirdly enough, this was only his second time breaking the century mark this year. Considering the big back is second in the league in rushing, the lack of big single-game numbers speaks to his consistency.

The Bad

You could have made the case for just about everyone else to be included in this part of the column at one point or another.

Kicker Brett Lauther’s missed field goals finally caught up to the team on the scoreboard, the offence was silent for much of the night and lost a fumble in the red zone, and the defence held strong for over three quarters of the game but fell apart at the wrong time late. Even the officials had a rough night with a couple of early whistles that took points off the board for the Riders.

Despite all of that, the team found itself in a position to force overtime. In the end, they couldn’t overcome the play of quarterback Trevor Harris. His night was summed up perfectly by the failed two-point conversion that ended the game. Harris’ fade fell incomplete with no one in the area, and it might not have even been catchable if someone was.

Harris’ stat line certainly looks fine, as he finished 33-of-46 for 351 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions — more on those in a bit — but it was not an easy night at the office for the veteran pivot.

As has become the trend, Harris was slow out of the gate following the bye week. His first interception came on just his third pass attempt. We’ve seen a number of interceptions and near-interceptions early in games after the Riders’ weeks off.

The night didn’t get all that much better from there, as Harris struggled to find his touch. An unusually high number of passes either hit the rubber short of receivers or sailed over their heads throughout. Some questionable decision-making saw Harris try to force balls into two or even three-man coverage — all of which is odd to see from one of the league’s most consistently accurate quarterbacks.

Everyone is allowed to have an off-night throughout the season, so I don’t think there’s any reason to be concerned about Harris for the rest of the year. However, should the Riders get one more bye in the postseason, he’ll have to be better to start the West Final because that game won’t be against the Edmonton Elks.

The Dumb

Speaking of Harris’ interceptions, it’s not too often you see a quarterback throw two interceptions on the same drive. The 39-year-old accomplished that on Saturday in Edmonton.

On the third pass attempt of the game, Harris was picked off by Elks’ defensive back Kenneth Logan Jr., who proceeded to return the interception 10 yards before Riders’ receiver Ajou Ajou knocked the ball loose. It was recovered by Riders’ offensive lineman Daniel Johnson, giving the QB a clean slate.

Two plays later, Harris threw another pass into the arms of Elks’ linebacker Brock Mogensen.

I’m sure Harris would have a little more fun with this had the Riders found a way to win. It was still a weird moment and nonetheless sealed its place in this space instantaneously.

The post The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 27-25 loss to Edmonton appeared first on 3DownNation.

Coming into this week’s matchup with the Montreal Alouettes, everything pointed towards a potential trap game for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. They were coming off back-to-back emotional wins over their biggest rival, and they had a bye week on the horizon. The potential for the trap grew even larger as the Regina area dealt with an unusual amount of rain on Friday and much of the day Saturday. To make matters even worse, three of their starters in defensive backs Tevaughn Campbell and Marcus Sayles, along with receiver Joe Robustelli, were all removed from the lineup prior to the game. Oh, and then thanks to losses by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Edmonton Elks, the Riders had already officially clinched a playoff spot.

Should this 48-31 loss set off any alarm bells in Saskatchewan? Not really, they aren’t the first team to lose in this kind of situation, and they certainly won’t be the last. The Riders are still 10-3 and control their destiny in their mission to host this year’s West Final.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ third loss of the season.

The Good

Perhaps the best part of the evening for the Riders and their fans was that, eventually, the weather did let up. After an endless stream of rain and thunderstorms over the last day and a half in Regina, the rain stopped and led to a little over half of this game being relatively dry.

On the field, there were a few bright spots for the Green and White, with perhaps the brightest coming from receiver Ajou Ajou.

More often than not, when a player returns from an NFL training camp mid-season, they tend to struggle. In just his third game since returning to Saskatchewan, Ajou appears to have found his groove, as he was targeted 11 times with 9 completions for 95 yards.

Any time you can basically pick up a first down every time you catch a ball, you’ve had a pretty good night. Considering that it feels like the Riders could be changing their ratio soon with the pending returns of Kian Shaffer-Baker and Sam Emilius, Ajou being able to support those two as a third serious Canadian receiving threat would be a big help for this team.

The Bad

I don’t have to say it because it was that obvious, but it was not a banner night for the Riders’ defence.

Considering the number of starters Corey Mace’s unit was missing on the back end, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to many that the secondary had a rough night. None rougher than Kerfalla Exume, who started on the corner in place of Campbell. I don’t need to get into his night much more than that — most of you watched the game, and the man has been through enough.

What is surprising — and maybe concerning — is how rough a night it was for a defensive line that was eating their opponents alive for the last number of weeks. After punishing opposition quarterbacks for the last six games, they were barely able to get a finger on the Als quarterback, McLeod Bethel-Thompson. They also got gashed along the ground to the tune of 152 yards rushing.

Nothing sums up their issues with stopping the run better than a 12-yard run from Bethel-Thompson on a second-and-10 in the second quarter to keep a drive alive. Considering the DNA of a Mace defence is stopping the run, this won’t sit well with their coach.

The defensive front was bound to have a quiet game eventually. Unfortunately for them, it came on a night when they were really needed to help a depleted secondary.

The Dumb

There may not be a group of organizations that desire nothing but positive spin all the time, even in big defeats, more than professional sports teams.

The Riders had a bad night. Over the course of an 18-game regular season, those are going to happen. Sometimes teams should just let that be.

In an attempt to end the night on a positive note, the Riders’ public address announcer was tasked with discussing the fact that the team had clinched a playoff spot and the battle for a home playoff game was on, thanks to previous results over the course of the weekend, in hopes of perhaps drawing one last cheer out of the crowd.

Instead, the announcement was met with extreme indifference as Mosaic Stadium fell quiet after time expired. The awkward silence was pretty funny.

There are times when a dose of positivity during tough times can be helpful. Apparently, for Rider Nation, this was not one of those times.

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