Offence dries up for Riders in low-scoring Banjo Bowl loss to Blue Bombers

A frustrated Trevor Harris felt there were plays left on the table Saturday in Winnipeg after a lock down, defensive battle in the 22nd edition of the Banjo Bowl against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“This one kind of pisses you off as a player,” Harris said. “I feel like we missed an opportunity today.”

Offensive production was a struggle all afternoon long for the Roughriders, as Winnipeg kept Saskatchewan out of the end zone and held Harris and company in check as part of a 19-6 loss at Princess Auto Stadium.

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“We didn’t establish a rhythm, didn’t stay on the field and minor details that are major details in our offence that we weren’t doing to be able to help us stay on the field,” Harris said.

Harris and his unit struggled to move the ball down the field all day, with the veteran pivot limited to just 231 yards passing and an interception with 24 completions on 45 attempts.

Saskatchewan mustered only 283 yards of offence and turned over the ball five times on Saturday, with the Roughriders unable to score on their lone trip to the red zone.

Head coach Corey Mace said they weren’t able to generate any momentum with Winnipeg shutting down drive after drive.

“We couldn’t quite find our footing the way that we wanted offensively and it made it tough,” Mace said.

In his return from injury, Blue Bombers linebacker Redha Kramdi was all over the field Saturday as he caused a forced fumble, an interception and three tackles to silence Saskatchewan’s offence.

After a scoreless opening quarter, former Roughriders receiver Tommy Nield scored the lone touchdown of the day in the second quarter to put Winnipeg ahead 7-0.

From there, the Blue Bombers got four field goals from Sergio Castillo while the defence stymied any long drives by the visitors.

A lone bright spot for Saskatchewan in the loss was the play of their defence, which pressured the Blue Bombers into five sacks, including four on Winnipeg starter Zach Collaros.

Caleb Sanders got to Collaros in the first quarter and said despite the loss, he thought the defence did a good job at causing havoc in the backfield.

“As a (defensive) line this week, I thought we did a better job of actually just getting the sacks rather than just getting a lot of pressures,” Sanders said.

In the third quarter, Collaros left the game and did not return after attempting to make a tackle following an interception thrown to Saskatchewan’s Seyi Oladipo Jr.

Saskatchewan’s lone points of the afternoon came off the foot of rookie kicker Dawson Hodge, who went 2-for-2 in his CFL debut in place of Alex Hale with made field goals from 33 and 26 yards.

Linebacker Jameer Thurman led Saskatchewan defensively in the loss with eight tackles, including a first half play to register the 600th tackle of his CFL career.

The Blue Bombers won the run battle with Brady Oliveira hitting 1,000 yards rushing on the season and putting up 100 yards on the ground compared to Quali Conley’s 35 yards for Saskatchewan.

“(Oliveira) did a good job breaking some tackles,” Mace said. “I think some of our tackling, probably when I get to the film, we’ll look at it and say that we got to be a little bit better there.”

While the Banjo Bowl rematch did not go as planned, Harris won’t be losing any sleep on the final result.

“For us to sulk over this or let this be a cloud or linger over us for longer than it should would be a detriment,” Harris said.

“It’s not what we should do. We need to watch the film, learn, get better from this and get ready to come back and play B.C. after the bye.”

Saskatchewan’s record dropped to 8-5 on the season with the loss as they now head into a bye week with five regular season games left on their schedule.

“We’re in a good spot,” Sanders said.

“Obviously, there are some games we want back, but I know for the most part we’re right where we want to be. We know that every game here now is winnable, but just like every week it’s a competitive league. Every week we got to bring our best game if we want to win.”

With the stretch drive ahead, Harris is confident the team’s best football of the season will be played over the next month and a half before playoffs.

“Everything we want to do is directly in front of us,” Harris said. “Come back ready to work and put the best version of the 2026 Saskatchewan Roughriders on the field. That’s exactly what’s going to happen.”

The Roughriders now head into the bye week with their next game on Sept. 25 visiting the B.C. Lions.

Read more:

• Rookie Belsher breaks through to help Huskies to 44-24 victory in homecoming game
• ‘He loved the game’: Sask. hockey icon Melrose remembered by cousin, NHL great Clark
• Saskatchewan Rush to pick 10th in NLL dispersal draft after franchises fold