The Saskatchewan Roughriders had absolutely no answer for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defence on Saturday afternoon in the Labour Day Classic rematch, and it was a result that left the Green and White with a bad taste in their mouth.
Saskatchewan committed a total of five turnovers — two fumbles, an interception and two turnovers on downs — in a 19-6 loss at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.
The Riders managed only 278 yards of total offence and were unable to score a touchdown, ending Trevor Harris’ season-long streak of having a TD pass in every game.
Just a rough game from every facet when on offence, and one that saw Riders coach Corey Mace gave credit where credit was due in his Rider Broadcast Network postgame interview.
“They did a great job,” Mace said. “Mixing up personnel groupings, it kind of makes it harder to dictate or predict what they're going to be in. They have a lot of guys who can play multiple positions, so they could present something one way and then they can end up in another thing.
“They've been a good defence for a while, and I know they've been trying to find their foot here, but they showed up.”
Harris felt that if the team could have found a way to get a series or two going, things could have been different,
“We didn't establish a rhythm, didn't stay on the field,” he said. “Minor details that are major details to our offence that we weren't doing to be able to help us stay on the field. This one pisses you off as a player. We missed an opportunity today. This will drive this unit to be better."
Almost all of Saskatchewan’s meagre yardage came through the air, with running back Quali Conley managing only 35 yards on the ground and the team 52 yards total rushing. That enabled Winnipeg to focus almost completely on shutting down Harris’ air attack, especially after he threw for 362 yards in the Labour Day Classic.
For the second game in a row, Dhel Duncan-Busby was Harris’ primary target. He caught seven of 16 passes for 80 yards.
While knowing exactly what Winnipeg was doing that caused so many issues for the offence will come from film study, the immediate reaction was an obvious one.
“They were dropping nine people and stuff like that, so it makes it kind of hard to throw the ball downfield, and they did a good job kind of clogging up the middle,” Duncan-Busby said. “We have to make sure that we do a little bit better on first downs and then that way we can open up our playbook a little bit more. Then that way they can't just drop a bunch of people.”
The third-year veteran also felt that Saskatchewan could have been a bit more aggressive on offence in the latter stages of the game, especially when they were trailing by 10 in the fourth quarter and desperately needed a touchdown to get back into it.
“We just got to attack the ball a little bit more,” he said. “I felt like towards the end, we were kind of looking for calls and stuff like that. But we got to understand the environment that we're playing in and just play through it, just fight through it. Just get to the ball and try to make plays.”
The offence certainly hasn’t been helped by the injury situation as of late, and Saskatchewan’s third bye week is coming at a good time. Mace hopes to see some players return after the break.
If that doesn’t happen, they’ll continue to lean on the players who helped them to wins in their games before Saturday's rematch.
“Hopefully, it’s playoff football we’re talking about where we’re going to need them,” Mace said. “To lose in this situation like this is (bad), but I thought some guys stepped up today and helped us in the back end.”
Saskatchewan falls to 8-5 and Winnipeg improves to 7-6 while also now holding the season-series tiebreaker.
The Roughriders are back in action on Friday, Sept. 25 when they travel to B.C. to face the Lions.
