Penalties, mistakes lead to 30-16 Riders loss to Lions

The Saskatchewan Roughriders couldn’t shake a number of miscues and costly penalties in B.C. as they lost to the Lions on Sunday night.

The 30-16 loss to the B.C. Lions (5-5) was Saskatchewan’s second in a row, dropping the team to a 6-4 season record.

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“I have to do a better job. This is two games in a row where I feel like similar situations (cost us) – costly penalties and not winning the turnover battle as a football team,” Riders head coach Corey Mace said. “We have to fix that and that’s the head coach’s job to make sure they truly understand that.”

Saskatchewan had a pair of touchdowns – a 49-yard catch-and-run by running back Quali Conley and a fumble recovery on a punt that linebacker Nick Wiebe returned to the end zone – called back due to penalties.

“We were on such a damn good trajectory early in the season. I think two weeks ago we were number one in the league in taking penalties, and now we’ve kind of shot ourselves in the foot,” Mace said. “We have to get back to doing it. It’s not just the yards, it’s how expensive they are and what it potentially takes off the board from your team.”

Safety Jaxon Ford had a rollercoaster of a game, as the safety was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty that allowed B.C. to get the ball down to the one-yard line. Running back Zander Horvath scored on the following play.

On the next drive, however, Ford picked off B.C. Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke. Saskatchewan then went on a 73-yard drive that ended with quarterback Trevor Harris connecting with Dhel Duncan-Busby for a 32-yard scoring strike.

Linebacker Josh Woods, who had a tackle and a pass knockdown in the contest, said he didn’t want to focus on just one player.

“I’m not going to pinpoint Jaxon. I think we all need to stick together and play together,” Woods said. “We will come closer as a unit. Across the board, we all need to be on the same page.”

Saskatchewan finished with seven penalties for 72 yards, while the Lions only committed two infractions for 20 yards. Wood said penalties can easily ruin the momentum a team builds during a game.

“All these things take away the good things we are doing,” Woods said. “Unfortunately, too many errors and missed assignments, and that’s why we had the result out there.”

Rourke threw for 255 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Jevon Cottoy and Keon Hatcher hauled in those touchdown passes.

Harris finished with 346 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. The veteran quarterback was visibly frustrated during the game, especially after his second interception.

“Just miscommunication type stuff that we will always keep in-house. I’ve got to make sure I don’t do that emotionally but when you’re invested like we are, you’re going to have some emotions fly out,” Harris said. “It’s stuff we have to make sure we talk about and make sure we hammer out and get better.”

Wide receiver Sam Emilus had seven catches for 66 yards in his return to the lineup. On the final offensive play of the game for Saskatchewan, he went into the air to try and haul in a catch, but landed hard on the ground. He walked off the field with the team’s trainers with him.

Riders kicker Alex Hale had another perfect outing, hitting on all three of his field goal attempts and his lone convert kick.

Lions kicker Sean Whyte also hit all three of his field goal attempts and all of his convert kicks.

Much like last week in the loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Harris took responsibility for the mistakes on the field.

“I have to make sure I am on the details on things I need to be harping on for us, and then penalties took us out of great situations, which is unfortunate. Penalties are points and to me that’s the story of the game. We came up empty in the red zone twice and we got field goals or turnovers. That’s unacceptable, and can’t happen. I think if we don’t have those, it’s a different story,” Harris said.

“The only thing guaranteed in pro football is adversity. We have a little adversity here, and that’s something I think will be a catalyst for us to find out who we are and who we want to be moving forward. That’s what I told the team after the game – keep leaning into this, because the harder we lean into this and the harder we work each and every day, the better we are going to be at turning this quarter and becoming the team we want to be.”

Harris said the Riders will need to make adjustments to get things back on track.

“Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result,” Harris said. “Obviously we know we have a formula and a formula that works, and we have guys in this locker room that are champions and guys who know how to fight and battle through adversity, and so the DNA of this locker room has a lot of parts. It’s just a matter of what you tinker with. If it’s scheme, personnel, or certain decision making, there’s tons of things we can look at and that’s exactly what we will do and we will push ourselves to exhaustion to get this thing right.”

Saskatchewan will take on the Toronto Argonauts (5-5) on Saturday.