WINNIPEG — The Saskatchewan Roughriders might not have had things go their way in the Canadian Football League West Final against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday night, but that did little to dampen the pride head coach Corey Mace had in his troops.
The Roughriders dropped a 38-22 decision at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg, bringing a season filled with ups and downs and all sorts of adversity to a disappointing close.
But Mace was able to look at the big picture in a postgame conversation with Luc Mullinder on CKRM Rider Radio, pointing to what the team went through just to get to the West Final as a positive sign.
“There’s no sense in beating a dead horse, we know we didn’t play our game tonight and that’s me, and that’s unfortunate,” Mace said when asked what he said to his players after the game. “ But I just shared how proud I am of these guys. The things we went through, the lot of injuries we went through, the losing streak, for them to continue to fight and love on each other and just believe in everything we tried to instil in our first year, it’s incredible.”
Mace was blunt in his assessment of the game, especially when it came to how the team performed defensively early, with a handful of big plays giving Winnipeg the lead and control of the contest quickly.
“There were a couple times early they jumped on us, we had a couple busts defensively, and one of those touchdowns I had a terrible, terrible call from myself,” Mace said. “It just puts a little bit of distress on us, and it kind of got out of hand fast. We pulled close, but we couldn’t control it and didn’t force any turnovers defensively.
“I thought special teams was unbelievable tonight,” he continued. “Offensively we didn’t get to the sixes until a little bit late, and defensively we didn’t do our job tonight so we didn’t really give ourselves a chance.”
Fact remains, a little over a month ago it seemed as if the Roughriders even getting into the playoffs would be a dicey proposition — but a spectacular late-season turnaround left Mace proud of his crew for what they accomplished.
“All the credit goes to the guys, man,” Mace said. “Being part of something for the first time, a vision of what it was we wanted to make this thing look like, for the guys to buy in all the way, to have their back against the wall multiple times this year and band together, it’s special.
“A lot of teams would fold in that situation, they did not. I’m just so extremely proud, that’s the number one thing I can walk away with, we never turned down.”
With the 2024 season now at an end, the business side of things will soon come into play. The Roughriders would like to keep everything together and take a similar run, something Mace is naturally in favour of.
“That’s the main thing, we felt like we had a lot of right guys in the room,” he said. “We’ll continue to build from the foundation we’ve established, which I think is a really good one. Today, it’s just tough, I just really wanted to see these guys next week.”
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