Rolan Milligan Jr. hit the nail on the head when asked why the Saskatchewan Roughriders fell to the Edmonton Elks in a pivotal matchup on Thursday night.
“Too many explosive plays given up,” he told reporters in Regina postgame. “That was the biggest difference.”
The margins were razor thin in the 36-34 scoreline, capped off by a 57-yard field goal by Elks’ Vincent Blanchard on the last play of the game.
Maybe the Riders would have won if Sam Emilus’ touchdown late in the fourth quarter wasn’t rescinded for offensive pass interference. Maybe they would have won if kicker Alex Hale hadn’t hooked a 46-yard attempt left two plays later. They probably would have won if Trevor Harris hadn’t underthrown Johnny Johnson in the end zone, causing the Riders to have to settle for a field goal with 1:46 remaining.
Maybe or probably so.
But Milligan, a defensive back, was more focused on what he and his group could have done better.
“Just miscommunication, misunderstanding our coverage bust-type stuff,” he said. “Nothing too crazy. Just easy fixes.”
Milligan and the Riders had better hope so. Because the way they allowed Elks quarterback Cody Fajardo not only control the game, but also seemingly connect with his receivers for massive gains with ease, truly was the difference on Thursday.
Fajardo threw for 510 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. He orchestrated a seven-play, 71-yard drive on Edmonton’s first possession to secure the first points of the game. It was full steam ahead from there.
As Milligan noted, it wasn’t just the long, clinical drives from Fajardo. It was the big bombs.
There was the 54-yard advance after a play-action pass to Kaion Julien-Grant in the first quarter. There was the 57-yard touchdown pass to Austin Mack, who burned Riders’ Josh Woods before scoring in the third quarter. There was also that momentum-zapping 81-yard launch to Mack in the fourth, which came right after the Riders found the end zone.
Defensive back Marcus Sayles was the culprit on that last one.
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“There were a couple plays where we busted, and we can’t have those,” Sayles told SportsCage’s Teagan Witko postgame. “In games like this, first for the West and going against a team that’s as good as they are, we’ve got to be a little bit more dialled in.”
One of these type of plays during a game would make a coach’s or defensive coordinator’s head spin. But three? Yikes.
“Just was a mental bust for us,” Roughriders coach Corey Mace told the Riders Broadcast Network postgame. “We’ve got guys running wide open. We’ve got to be tuned into the details, and we missed that on a few occasions.”
Mace added to reporters that, “You hate to give those up.”
What’s surely more annoying for Mace – and perplexing – is how strong the Riders defence had been before kickoff. They had the second-ranked defence in the CFL heading into Week 8, highlighted by how they stymied opponents’ passing plays.
Before Thursday, the Riders ranked first with 266.6 passing yards allowed on average and a league-best four touchdowns surrendered through the air. The former stat ballooned thanks to Fajardo’s 510 yards. The latter stat doubled.
Milligan put it all on his group with no excuses.
“We’ve just got to be better as a secondary,” he said. “The explosive plays ended up killing us.”
