You do not lose many games in the CFL giving up only 19 points.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders 19-6 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Banjo Bowl on Sept. 12 reflected a good game by the defence and a long frustrating afternoon for the offence.
Riders head coach Corey Mace said to Taylor Shire of the Regina Leader-Post that usually the second game of a back to back series is lower scoring as each team knows the opposing team well. Mace said it is like a chess match going back and forth.
I thought the Riders four sacks in the first half, especially the consecutive sacks in the second quarter ending a Winnipeg drive that could have put them up two touchdowns, stopped Winnipeg’s momentum for the first half.
Mace told me he “thought we did a good job of getting pressure… similar to last week.” He said sacks do not totally tell the truth about pressure.
He continued that Winnipeg “started getting the ball out quick, you know, their screen passes were up tonight and a couple of draws in passing situations.”
On why Brady Oliveira had a better game, he said the Bombers were running similar plays to the Labour Day Classic but Oliveira was breaking tackles. Mace expected on reviewing the film that the Riders needed to be better at tackling. He added that on one play there was a mental error on the field where players “weren’t where they were supposed to be.”
Riders defensive lineman Caleb Sanders said the defensive line did a better job in the Banjo Bowl of just getting sacks. He said the line was sound on their gaps. He said one thing the Rider defensive line does well is rush as a unit.
I agree with his comments on “just getting sacks” and rushing as a unit. In the Labour Day Classic too often Collaros was able to dodge the rush. In the Banjo Bowl the Rider rushers were not leaving gaps.
Sanders had a sack when he was unblocked. He said being unblocked sometimes happens. I admired that as he closed on Collaros he was under control not leaving Collaros any chance to evade him.
There will always be things an offence or defence can do better but overall the Rider defence was strong in the Banjo Bowl.
On offence Trevor Harris said they were not able to get into rhythm and there “were a multitude of thing…. minor details that are major details in our offence that we were not doing.”
He told Shire they did not make the plays as players that were there for them.
Harris acknowledged that the Bomber defence played a great game.
Despite all of the problems there was a moment in the third quarter when the offence had a chance to turn the game around. The Riders were second and eight from the Bomber 18 when Harris tried to hit Dhel Duncan-Busby going into the end zone but the pass was incomplete.
Harris told me that he “tried to give him a chance on a go route, on a stutter go and unfortunately we did not come down with it.”
I thought the referees missed some obvious calls on Winnipeg that impacted the game. There was a pass rush where Harris was driven into the ground. On the play before the missed throw to Duncan-Busby the facemask of Rider quarterback Tommy Stevens was clearly grabbed. There was also a pass interference call on Duncan-Busby missed.
There was at least one scene on the telecast when Harris was talking to the referee after a missed call.
I asked him if he had a high level of frustration on non-penalty calls in this game. There was a long pause and he said “I’ll refrain from comment …. but that’s not why we lost …. we look internally.”
I will say that in a close game referees make a difference with mistakes and there were errors on penalties not called on the Bombers.
Moving forward Harris set up how the Riders will approach the rest of the season when he said that “the best version of this team you will see will be the last five weeks of the season … we’ll have a relentless work ethic.”
Mace’s said there was a “much needed bye week” ahead for the team that will “allow us to rest up, get ready to attack.”
Bill Selnes, who’s based in Melfort, has written about the Saskatchewan Roughriders since the late 1970s. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Football Reporters of Canada wing on Nov. 24, 2013.
