The Saskatchewan Roughriders found out why the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have the top-ranked defence in the CFL Sunday night.
Playing in front of a sold-0ut Mosaic Stadium, the Bombers took control in the second half outscoring the green-and-white 16-0 to take a 23-8 victory as the Riders suffer their first loss of the 2021 campaign.
Quarterback Cody Fajardo had an awful night as he threw for 213 yards and three interceptioms. He made no excuses after the game.
“It was tough. It was probably the worst game I have played as a pro.” Fajardo said. “We were hoping something would pop, but everytime we got something going, something would happen. I didn’t put us in a good situation and I let us down and Rider Nation down.”
Head Coach Craig Dickenson wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything either as he tipped his hat to their Western Division rivals.
“That’s a team that is very physical on both sides of the ball and you can see why they are leading the league on defence.” Dickenson said. “I give them all the credit. They beat us across the board and they deserved to be winners tonight.”
Safety Mike Edem wasn’t going to give the Bombers as much credit as their head coach gave them, but he did give n honest assessment.
“They”re the first team to beat us so I’ll give them that.” Edem said when speaking to 620 CKRM’s Derek Taylor and Luc Mullinder after the game. “It’s not time to push the panic button. It is just time to hit the reset button.”
The Riders, now 3-1 on the season, will regroup and head to Winnipeg next Saturday to meet the Bombers in the annual September home-and-home between the two.
NOTES:
- Discipline was once again an issue for the Riders as they took 10 penalties
- After being perfect this season, Brett Lauther missed his first field goal of the year. He remains perfect on converts.
- Micah Johnson was a game-day scratch for the Riders. The defensive lineman had been hoping to go after suffering an ankle injury against Ottawa, but he could not get healthy enough
- The loss snapped a 10-game regular season home winning streak
