REGINA — It was a first half to remember for the Calgary Stampeders on Saturday afternoon and one the Saskatchewan Roughriders would most definitely like to forget.
The Stamps put together a dominant showing on both sides of the ball in the opening 30 minutes at Mosaic Stadium, building a 17-3 edge that could have been far greater before going on to a 24-10 victory.
It was the culmination of a bizarre weekend for both teams, as the game was originally scheduled for Friday night, but after a nearly four-hour delay due to air quality issues, the contest was postponed and pushed back to Saturday afternoon. In the end, that appeared to play in favour of the Stampeders, who racked up 367 yards of offence in the first half while holding the Riders to 95. Things got better after the break, but a lack of consistency saw to it there would be no comeback.
“That was a tough one to stomach,” head coach Corey Mace said on the Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network post-game show. “Offensively, I thought we couldn’t get things rolling early. Even after, I think defensively, we had a couple turnovers, but some of them were really saving our drive on defence. Then we struggled to move it offensively until the second half… it wasn’t complimentary football.”
The most dramatic case in point came at the start of the second half. Joe Robustelli — who had a career game with 11 catches for 191 yards — scored a touchdown on the Riders’ first series, but on the very next offensive play, Calgary’s Damien Alford went 81 yards for his second major of the game.
Neither team would find the end zone again, even though the Riders had two more cracks in the red zone and came up short on a pair of third-down gambles.
While things improved on their side of the ball after halftime, Robustelli naturally would have liked to have seen a better all-around effort from start to finish, especially in the first half.
“We definitely felt that we were starting slow,” he said. “They pretty much ran what we thought they were going to run but we were beating ourselves up and weren’t executing the way we were supposed to. At halftime, we went in the locker room and looked at ourselves and were like: ‘Listen, we need to pick this up. It’s not going the way it should be.”
Quarterback Trevor Harris — who returned to the line-up after missing the previous game against B.C. — especially found his game in the second half, finishing 36-of-44 for 425 yards after putting up 98 yards in the first half.
Unfortunately for Saskatchewan, Vernon Adams Jr. was as good and then some for Calgary, racking up 295 yards passing in the first half and finishing with 428 total. And that was despite turnovers on the Stampeders’ first two series of the game.
“Honestly, I felt like we came out on fire,” strong-side linebacker C.J. Reavis, who had an interception, fumble recovery and six tackles on the day, said. “I thought we were going to come out and keep on going on that. We got to do a better job of finishing our games, really keeping our foot on people’s necks the whole time and not letting up.”
While his crew was able to get a handle on Adams Jr. in the second half, Mace couldn’t help but be in a bit of awe of the veteran quarterback with how things were going at the start of the contest.
“I thought he had one of those V.A. games when he was on,” Mace said. “I know the couple turnovers that he had early, he was able to bounce back from that and consistently marched down the field. I know what the score was, but that easily could have got way more out of hand, to be honest with you.”
Both teams are now 4-1 on the campaign and tied for top spot in the West Division. The Roughriders are back in action on Saturday, July 19 when the Green and White travel to B.C. to face the Lions, the Stampeders return to action on Friday, July 18 when they travel to Winnipeg and take on the Bombers.
