Despite forcing four turnovers, the Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-3) were unable to find the end zone on Saturday night as the BC Lions (5-1) defeated the Roughriders 19-9.
In his first start at quarterback in 2023, Roughriders Mason Fine had 284 passing yards with a pair of interceptions and no touchdowns.
Dane Evans led the Lions to the win with 219 passing yards with a touchdown and an interception.
It was a defensive start to the game on both sides. Saskatchewan’s pass rush had a strong start with a pair of sacks courtesy of Micah Johnson and Pete Robertson. Lions QB Vernon Adams Jr. was injured from the hit delivered by Robertson. Evans came in relief at quarterback for the Lions. Adams Jr. did not return to the game.
The Roughriders offence was unable to capitalize on the field of position. Saskatchewan had one drive stalled inside BC territory after a miscommunication between Fine and centre Logan Bandy on a shotgun snap.
A controversial call late in the first quarter swung in favour of the Lions. Demarcus Christmas had sacked Evans inside the Lions endzone, earning a safety for the green and white. However, Christmas was flagged for a high hit to Evans and was called for roughing the passer. Riders Head Coach Craig Dickenson challenged the call, but the command centre confirmed the call on the field.
Shortly after the penalty, Evans connected with Keon Hatcher on a 52-yard reception setting up the Lions deep in the Riders end. On the next play, Evans found Alex Hollins in the end zone for the first touchdown of the game.
The defence wasn’t the only unit to create a turnover for Saskatchewan. In the second quarter, punter Adam Korsak attempted an on-side punt recovered by the Lions CB Marcus Sayles. During the return, Riders guard Evan Johnson knocked the ball out of Sayles’s grasp. Long snapper Jorgen Hus recovered the fumble for Saskatchewan. For Hus, a member of the Roughriders since 2015, it was his first career fumble recovery.
Saskatchewan couldn’t find the end zone as they had to settle for a 25-yard field goal from Brett Lauther.
Pressure from the Roughriders defence continued to create turnovers in the second quarter. Larry Dean forced a fumble on a blitz recovered by Christmas. But with field position beginning in the Lion’s end, the Roughriders couldn’t generate any points from the fumble and were forced to punt.
In the second half, the secondary got in on the turnover action as Amari Henderson recorded his first career interception. Saskatchewan had to settle for a field goal for their efforts as Lauther connected from 44-yards.
BC responded on the following drive with a 31-yard field goal from Sean Whyte to restore their four-point advantage.
Saskatchewan attempted to jumpstart the offence late in the third quarter with a third-down gamble at their own 44-yard line, but Jamal Morrow was stopped short of the marker.
Much like the Roughriders, the Lions had to settle for three points off the turnover as Whyte extended the Lions lead to seven points with a 43-yard field goal.
The first interception came at unfortunate time for Fine with Garry Peters stepping in front of the pass intended for Samuel Emilus. The Lions drove down for another Whyte field goal pushing the Lions advantage to double digits.
Fine’s struggles continued on the ensuing possession with Jalon Edwards-Cooper intercepting a pass intended for Tevin Jones.
Saskatchewan’s special teams were able to create their second turnover of the game with Jayden Dalke knocking the ball out of Terry Williams as CJ Reavis recovered the loose ball. The Roughriders marched the ball downfield, but had to settle for Lauther’s third field goal of the day, as they trimmed their deficit back to seven with just under two minutes remaining.
The Roughriders attempted an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff, but the Lions recovered. Whyte finished off the Roughriders with a 41-yard field goal as the Lions claimed a 19-9 victory against the Roughriders.
Shawn Bane Jr. finished off the night with ten catches for 74 yards.
On defence, Dean had six tackles with a quarterback sack.
Rushing yards were hard to come by 0n both sides, Saskatchewan ended up with only 16 rushing yards while the Lions had 34 rushing yards on their side.
Bryan Cox Jr. left the game after getting his leg rolled up early in the contest.
Safety Jayden Dalke and wide receiver Mitch Picton were also forced out of the game.
After the game, Dickenson said the defence gave the Roughriders a chance to win, but they were left on the field too long.
The Roughriders head coach felt Fine handled himself well on Saturday night, but said he was forced into a tough situation making his first start in 2023 against the top team in the Western Division.
“That’s a good defence with a lot of good football players and they’re very aggressive and they force the issue. ”
Looking back at the Roughriders gamble in third quarter, Dickenson explained to 620 CKRM’s Luc Mullinder his rationale in making the decison.
“I felt like our defence was hitting a wall and they were tired and I just didn’t want to give BC the ball back. I felt like we had a great play call but we didn’t execute.”
With the Riders down a touchdown with less than two minutes remaining, Dickenson felt with no timeouts left, the onside kick was the green and white’s best option in the dying moments of the game.
“If you don’t have any timeouts, you’re in big trouble even if they get one first down.”
Dickenson didn’t have any injury updates on his team following the contest but is already prepared for changes next week when they Riders head to Halifax.
“We’re going have to look at our roster and figure out our best 45 moving forward, it won’t look the same next week.”
Dean gave credit to defensive coordinator Jason Shivers for calling a great game on Saskatchewan’s side.
The veteran linebacker believes in the camaraderie inside of the Roughriders locker room is something that can help the team.
“We were all together and we stuck together until the clock hit triple zero and I think that’s one of the things I’m proud of, is how close-knit our group is, our never-say-die attitude, I know it sounds cliché, but I truly believe that’s what we have inside of our locker room.”
Even with the struggles on offence, Dean says the defence has to maintain their own focus.
“We get paid to play defence, we don’t get paid to play offence, we don’t get paid to make any of those decisions, we get paid to play defence and that’s what we got to do.”
From the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, the Roughriders will return to action next Saturday when they meet the Toronto Argonauts for the second straight year in Touchdown Atlantic.
Coverage on 620 CKRM begins with Countdown to Kickoff at 11:00, the opening kickoff from Halifax at 2:00.
