And with that, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 2024 season came to a screeching halt.
The Green and White were no match for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the West Final. From the halfway point of the first quarter on, it was very clear that this was a game between a team with a championship pedigree and one that wasn’t ready for the big dance.
The score was close at times but you never got the feeling that the Riders could come all the way back. A one-possession game quickly got away from the visitors early in the second half as the Bombers cruised to a 38-22 win and booked tickets to their fifth straight Grey Cup.
Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ season-ending loss.
The Good
To be frank, there wasn’t much good in this game. The main positive takeaway is that the Riders were in the game to begin with. After two years out of the playoffs, this team had to make progress this season and clearly, they did it.
Make no mistake about it, there are no moral victories. I’m sure this loss stings for the team but sometimes you have to learn from defeat before you can win. The Riders were taught a lesson the hard way by the Bombers on Saturday evening.
The Bombers are who the Riders hope to be but given where the team was the last few years, that wasn’t going to happen in one season. The Riders now know they have a long way to go if they hope to reach the top of the mountain and stay there for a while.
I’m not going to say that the Riders are better off losing this game. An infamous column was once written arguing that the Auston Matthews-era Toronto Maple Leafs would have been better off losing their first playoff series to the Washington Capitals and we all know how things have gone for the Leafs since. Every season is sacred and you truly never know if you’ll get back or get another shot.
But, the Riders can learn and grow from this. It won’t be easy but they’ve turned the corner and now the hard part begins. Was this season more like 2012 or 2021? We’ll have to find out.
The Bad
All of the talk heading into this game was that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers would have to get the presumed Most Outstanding Player Brady Oliveira going in order to win.
In theory, that was true but the bulk of Oliveira’s 119-yard performance came while icing away a victory. For me, the game was always going to come down to whether the Roughriders could get enough pressure on Bombers’ quarterback Zach Collaros. If not, as he’s done many times before, Collaros would pick apart a Saskatchewan secondary that runs a lot of zone coverage.
Collaros has more or less made a career of shredding zone defences when he has time to do so. He had that and more in the West Final. The former Cincinnati Bearcat only ended up on the turf at Princes Auto Stadium on a few occasions and none of them came in the form of a sack. The Bombers’ offensive line deserves a lot of credit for keeping Collaros clean but the game plan and execution from the Riders wasn’t good enough either.
My colleague on the 3Down Green Cast, John Fraser, looked it up and Collaros hadn’t thrown a single playoff touchdown pass since the 2022 West Final. He had two of them in the first quarter and finished the night with four in total.
The main benefactor of Collaros’ game was receiver Kenny Lawler, who racked up 177 yards and three touchdowns on just four catches. That included some big ones on defensive back Amari Henderson, who has struggled at times this season.
All of Collaros’ success through the air, especially early on, meant that the Riders had to respect the passing game. That eventually opened up running lanes for Oliveria to rumble along the ground.
I know plenty of fans will be upset with Corey Mace’s decision to play so much zone, but that is who this team is. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with doing so but against a quarterback like Collaros, who’s been there and done that, you’ve got to get in his face. The Riders didn’t and they lost.
The Dumb
TSN cameras caught a moment you wouldn’t expect to see late in this game. Despite a blowout playoff win, it seems at least a few Bomber fans weren’t happy.
Shouldn’t somebody be smiling pic.twitter.com/8waKIjACuL
— Morley Scott (@Morley_Scott) November 10, 2024
I understand why the Rider fan here isn’t smiling but Edmonton Elks play-by-play guy Morley Scott is right. Shouldn’t someone in this picture be happy?
One for Ted
It was an incredibly sad day for those of us who cover or have covered this league. This morning, we learned of the passing of Winnipeg Sun sports editor Ted Wyman following a cancer diagnosis earlier this year.
I first met Ted over 10 years ago when I started covering the Riders and I can only echo the thoughts of others today that we lost one of the good ones. Whether you were new to the beat or a grizzled vet, Ted had time for you. He was always kind and worth spending time with in the press box or elsewhere.
You’ll be missed, Ted. My next beer is for you.
