Well, that was certainly a roller coaster of emotions.
On a weekend where the CFL went completely off the rails, the Riders and Stampeders kept the trend going on Saturday evening with the third all-time great finish in as many games. It might even have been the most insane finish of the week — though they are facing some stiff competition.
Even though the Riders were defeated 33-31, it wasn’t their worst loss of the night. Quarterback Trevor Harris left the game in the fourth quarter after getting rolled up by Calgary’s Derek Wiggan. He had to be carted off the field with what looks to be a serious, long-term injury.
The questions surrounding the Riders going forward will be about Harris’ health and how they’ll perform without him. For now, here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ second loss of the season.
The bad
Unfortunately, we have to start here.
The offence looked inept for most of the night. The coaching staff made some questionable decisions. The defence couldn’t generate much pressure until late in the game and didn’t make the splash play they desperately needed on the game’s final drive.
All those things would generally be big talking points following a game where the loss was truly a team effort. But they don’t really matter right now.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it, Harris’ apparent knee injury was by far the worst thing to happen to the team on Saturday at Mosaic Stadium.
With no disrespect toward any of the other quarterbacks on the roster, the Riders’ chances of winning games and making some noise in the playoffs drop significantly without Harris in the lineup.
In the CFL — and football at large — you need good play from your quarterback to win. Only time will tell if the Riders will be able to get that without Harris.
The Good
Strangely enough, the good news for the Riders coming out of this game is there’s no doubt this team is mentally tough.
When Harris went down awkwardly at the end of that play, the air was instantly sucked out of the building. Both benches knew it. This wasn’t good. You could hear a pin drop in a stadium with 28,842 fans in it.
In these kinds of situations, we’ve seen plenty of teams fall apart. The Riders did not.
Saskatchewan easily could have packed it in when Brett Lauther missed a questionable 54-yard field goal attempt that the Stampeders returned deep into Rider territory, eventually leading to a touchdown and a nine-point Calgary lead with just over five minutes to go.
Instead, the home team and Mason Fine dug deep, responding with a field goal and touchdown of their own. Yes, the touchdown was stupidly lucky, but they don’t ask how.
Rene Paredes ultimately hit the game-winning field goal with no time left on the clock, but the Riders had no business giving themselves a chance to win. They just about pulled it off.
Saskatchewan isn’t the most skilled team in the league, but I don’t think anyone can question their heart and determination.
Bonus Good
I don’t think it would be fair to Mario Alford if I didn’t mention his two punt return touchdowns, which ultimately allowed the Riders to even have a chance at some late-game heroics.
In not even two full seasons in green and white, Alford is now the Riders’ all-time leader in kick return touchdowns with six. A truly incredible run in such a short period.
The Dumb
Is this actually dumb or bad? I don’t know. It’s definitely absurd either way.
We’re now through six weeks of the CFL regular season and it’s mid-July. Commissioner Randy Ambrosie said that the stats system would be fixed by the end of June when he suggested the rollout of the new system had not been a failure.
Well, if you can believe it or not, the public system is still not fixed and the internal system that media members have access to is also broken.
As you can see, given the number of times the Riders apparently turned over the football, it’s remarkable they were even in the game.
We saw similar numbers in the earlier game between Winnipeg and Ottawa on Saturday. I don’t even know what numbers are being inserted into this column right now. Early on, I suspected yardage totals but the numbers are now far too high for that.
Are the rest of the stats right? I have no idea. I guess we might as well just start making up our own at this point.
Simply put, this remains a stain on the league. It’s too bad we have to keep talking about this after one of the best weeks we’ve seen in the CFL in quite some time.
