Before the season began, many fans across the Canadian Football League expected quarterbacks to be the story when the Saskatchewan Roughriders met the Montreal Alouettes.
Even though the Riders Trevor Harris and the Alouettes Cody Fajardo did not suit up on Friday, quarterbacks were the main headlines on both sides.
Montreal’s Caleb Evans led the Alouettes to a convincing win 41-12. The Alouettes quarterback had 149 passing yards, 66 rushing yards with two rushing touchdowns, a passing touchdown and an interception.
For Saskatchewan, injuries at quarterback were the story, with Mason Fine going down with an injury in the second quarter.
Jake Dolegala stepped in for Fine but couldn’t turn the tide for the Roughriders.
Last week, Saskatchewan found success limiting Ottawa quarterback Dustin Crum to 21 yards, but Evans rattled off a 27-yard run on the Alouettes opening possession. The Montreal quarterback would finish off the drive with a two-yard rushing touchdown.
Fine moved the ball downfield before the green and white’s offence stalled at the Alouettes 45-yard line. The Roughriders recovered the ball with excellent field position after the defence forced a quick two-and-out.
The Roughriders had to settle for a 32-yard field goal from Brett Lauther.
In the second quarter, running back Walter Fletcher turned a short screen pass from Evans into a 68-yard catch and run before he was tackled inside the Saskatchewan five-yard line.
Disaster struck the Roughriders in the second quarter when Fine injured his leg following a run by the quarterback. Dolegala was inserted behind the centre for the green and white. After completing a pass to Jerreth Sterns on his play of the game, Alouettes CB Kabion Ento stepped in front of Riders WR Samuel Emilus for the interception.
On the next play, Evans returned the favour to the Roughriders with his pass in the end zone picked off by Amari Henderson. The Roughriders defensive back elected to step outside the end zone with the football and returned it to the six-yard line.
Saskatchewan didn’t move the ball any further. After the ensuing punt and a no yards penalty, the Alouettes began the drive at the Roughriders 28-yard line. The green and white defence was able to hold their ground with a two-and-out, as David Cote kicked a field goal from 33 yards to give Montreal a two-touchdown lead to end the first half.
The big play continued to burn the Roughriders in the second half. The Alouettes extended their lead to 24-3 early in the third quarter when Evans connected with Austin Mack on a pass over the outstretched fingertips of Roughriders linebacker Micah Teitz. Mack would turn upfield and run it for a touchdown.
Montreal extended their lead on a drive that was aided by a pair of penalties by Roughriders CB Nic Marshall, he was called on a questionable pass interference call for 17 yards. Upset with the call, Marshall took a 10 yard misconduct penalty on the next play. Alouettes running back Jeshrun Antwi ran in a 19-yard touchdown to push the Montreal advantage to 31-3.
Following another Lauther field goal, the Alouettes defence got in the action with a touchdown of their own. Tyrice Beverette recovered the loose ball caused by an Avery Ellis and ran it back for another touchdown.
With the score well out of hand, the Roughriders were able to find the end zone after Dolegala snuck it in from the one-yard line.
Cote finished off the scoring with a late field goal to make the final 41-12.
To end the night, Dolegala was 11 for 20 with 107 passing yards and an interception.
Following the game, Dickenson spoke with 620 CKRM’s Luc Mullinder and said the indications are Fine suffered a pulled hamstring and could be out for 2-3 weeks.
The Riders head coach said the team were in tough with the quick turnaround from Sunday’s game.
“I think we were as prepared as we could be on a short week.”
Dickenson added it just came down to the basics on Friday night.
“It’s just Football 101, and when you can smash people and you can fire off the football and knock the other team back, you’re going to have success. That was just physical beating right there. We’ll have to look at that and make some adjustments and maybe make some changes, but the reality is it was a bad day, we feel like we still have a good team, but we have to improve, we got to improve this next week.
With the Roughriders next game not coming until Sunday, August 20 against the BC Lions, the Roughriders head coach will be looking to take advantage of more preparation time before their next matchup by going over the film of Friday night’s loss.
“We’re definitely going to watch this game, and we’re definitely going to make some corrections, we’re going to show the film to the guys in a couple of days, here’s how we can get better, here’s what we demand and here’s what we can expect in terms of getting better. So were not going to throw the film away, there’s too much you can learn from it.”
Dickenson said the Roughriders will require a full team effort to be better for their next game versus BC.
“It’s on all of us, players and coaches to get better, the only way you get better is to have honest conservations, look in the mirror, and make a commitment to do something a little bit differently.”
Safety Derrick Moncrief didn’t want to use the one practice this week as an excuse for Friday’s loss.
“We got to be ready to play football, it doesn’t matter.”
With the loss, Saskatchewan falls below .500 (4-5), while Montreal (5-3) is now two points back of Toronto for top spot in the CFL Eastern Division.
Before the Roughriders will get an extended break before their next game, a week from Sunday, at home against the Lions. Following that matchup, the Roughriders will have their second bye week of the season and will be off two weeks before they host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Labour Day Classic.
