The Saskatchewan Roughriders remain undefeated through four games of the CFL season, but the referees are still having a bigger impact on the box score than some of their players.
Discipline continued to be an issue in Saturday’s 37-18 victory over the B.C. Lions, as the Riders were flagged 10 times for 136 yards. That included a late fourth-quarter brawl that saw DaMarcus Fields, Shane Ray, and Micah Johnson all receive misconduct penalties compared to just one Lion, resulting in a net 25-yard loss for the home team.
“God, I was upset! Still am. I’m trying hard to let it go,” head coach Corey Mace said of the incident post-game, intentionally exaggerating the reaction to emphasize his point and draw laughter from the assembled media.
“I’m really trying to flush it, man. I’m just so upset about that, but we addressed it again.”
The Riders entered Week 4 having committed the third-most penalties (26) and surrendered the most penalty yardage (303) of any team in the CFL. Those numbers will only look worse after this game, despite the fact that Saskatchewan actually saw their discipline improve from an 18-penalty, 178-yard performance against Toronto in Week 3.
That has been a familiar problem for the Riders over the past few seasons. Their status as the most penalized team in the league contributed to several late-season collapses and led to the firing of former head coach Craig Dickenson. While things improved during Mace’s first year at the helm and their 107 accepted penalties ranked middle of the pack, the team still led the CFL with 23 unnecessary roughness penalties last year and was the only franchise to have multiple rough play disqualifications.
Mace has made that issue a point of emphasis, going so far as to call one training camp practice early this year and make his team run sprints after a couple of altercations. He knows that a lack of discipline could eventually come back to bite Saskatchewan at an inopportune time.
“I know so badly what this team wants, and we won’t get there if we do that. I’m not going to, and the staff is not going to, take our foot off the gas and try to impress that,” he stressed. “That is certainly an area we have to get better at. That was B.S., so I’m trying not to let it ruin the day.”
The Riders (4-0) will have some time to let the seriousness of that message sink in, as they head out on a bye this week. The team will return to action on Friday, July 11 when they host the Calgary Stampeders (2-1).
