Saskatchewan Roughriders look to bounce back from first loss

The Saskatchewan Roughriders knew there would be losses along the way in the CFL season.

Now, head coach Corey Mace hopes the recent one to the Calgary Stampeders can be a positive for the club.

“That deflated — I don’t want to say our ego — but that was a tough one for everybody to swallow,” Mace said.

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“It’s early in the year and you kind of want to get that one out of the way. With how they practiced today, I think they understood what we need to do.”

The Riders saw their perfect 4-0 record get trampled on by the Stamps on Saturday at Mosaic Stadium. The game had to be rescheduled from Friday night due to smoke, meaning Calgary had to scramble to find a place to stay overnight in Regina.

That proved to not be an issue, as Calgary cruised for a 24-10 win over the Riders.

“I thought we definitely got out-physicaled and then with that, you start reeling and your mental focus goes. Unfortunately, all of that was kind of stacked on top of us this last game,” Mace said.

“I don’t want to take credit away from Calgary — they are a really good football team, are coached well and play hard — but we have to be better if we want to match anyone in this league.”

One player who agreed with the physicality assessment by Mace is centre Logan Ferland.

“You could see it right off the hop, it was like we weren’t there and who we normally are,” Ferland said.

In the game against Calgary, the Riders only mustered 16 rushing yards and allowed three sacks — something Ferland said the offensive line took personally.

“We have no stats (as offensive linemen). We take great pride in that and obviously we need to get a lot better,” Ferland said.

On Tuesday, the pads were out in a fairly physical practice when it came to the battles between the offensive and defensive lines.

“We love it, especially after that (loss), get some frustration out,” Ferland said.

“That’s what we love — we love to see it go on film and have a good time watching film because of it.”

The Riders will look to bounce back this week on Saturday against a B.C Lions team that has a lot of positive momentum. The Lions have put together back-to-back wins with Nathan Rourke back at quarterback after missing two games — one of those a 37-18 win by the Riders at Mosaic Stadium. Kickoff for the game in B.C. on Saturday is set for 5 p.m. Saskatchewan time.

“We’re expecting to see a different quarterback than we saw last time, they got a couple pieces back on defence that we can expect to see and they’ve established a heck of a run game too,” Mace said. “They are a dangerous team.”

Wide receiver Sam Emilus (foot) was listed as a full participant in practice but wasn’t with the first team for their drills. Defensive backs Rolan Milligan Jr. (back) and Marcus Sayles (hip) didn’t participate in practice while Tevaughn Campbell, who missed last week with a groin injury, was listed as limited.

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