The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost their fifth straight game on Saturday afternoon, losing 17-10 to the Calgary Stampeders at Mosaic Stadium. The loss drops their record to 3-5 on the year and puts them in last in the CFL's West Division.
"We just have to be better," Darian Durant bluntly stated after the game.
The Riders quarterback delayed his post-game talk with the media to meet with his receivers and says that sums up what he said to them. "We've got to make plays, we're the playmakers on this team," explained a clearly frustrated Durant. "One of the things I said was we were in the Grey Cup with, I feel, less talent then we have now, and that's not taking anything away from anybody, but I feel like we're too good to be scoring ten points and not taking full advantage of our opportunities."
Durant finished the game 17-of-29 passing for 179 yards and two turnovers. He also rushed six times for 72 yards on the day, but he says that wasn't enough, "I'm frustrated that we're losing, that's natural, but we just have to make plays and we just have to be better."
Slotback Chris Getzlaf says the team needs to get back to being more consistent, "The biggest thing is we've had a turnover every game since our 3-0 start when we had zero turnovers, so protecting the ball is first and foremost, and points will just come. If you're able to protect the ball, then you gain field position. We've got to be able to consistently move the ball."
Getzlaf led all Riders receivers with six catches for 86 yards and was able to rebound from an early drop to have a solid second half.
It was windy day at Mosaic with gusts hitting up to 85 kilometres per hour throughout the game. The Stamps took advantage of having that wind at their backs early and built up a 14-0 lead in the first quarter with back-to-back touchdowns on their first two drives. Quarterback Kevin Glenn connected with wide receiver Joe West for a 34-yard touchdown and then he followed that up with another TD pass to Romby Bryant.
Saskatchewan was unable to answer as kicker Sandro DeAngelis missed a 49-yard field goal attempt to start the second quarter when the Riders finally got the wind behind them. They didn't move the ball much for the rest of the half and went into the break trailing 14-0.
The Riders defence was carved for 113 yards rushing by Calgary running back Jon Cornish in the first half and linebacker Shomari Williams says the team needs to start faster, "We just weren't able to do that today. I don't know if it was what they were doing, or we just couldn't make quick enough adjustments, but we just have to be better at what we're doing early on, and we can't give up 14 points early and expect the game to be easy."
Cornish finished the game with 159 yards rushing and the Stamps pounded out 185 total rushing yards in the win. Williams says Calgary wasn't doing anything special on the ground, "It was nothing that we couldn't stop, nothing that we haven't seen in practice, so we just have to do a better job, everybody on defence."
Calgary continued to move the ball to start the second half and finished off their opening drive with a 34-yard field goal by kicker Rene Paredes.
The Riders answered with their second turnover of the game on their next drive as Durant was sacked by Charleston Hughes and coughed up the ball. Hughes also caused Durant's first turnover of the game on a great individual play to interception a pass at the line in the second quarter.
Saskatchewn finally got on the board at the 7:16 mark of the fourth quarter when DeAngelis nailed a 37-yard field goal to make it 17-3 Calgary. After that, the defence forced the Stamps into a quick two-and-out and the Riders offence was able to move the ball again with Getzlaf picking up two big catches (26 and 30 yards) to put them at the three-yard line. Running back Kory Sheets finished off the drive with a TD run to pull Saskatchewan within a touchdown.
That would be as close as the Riders would get though as they were forced to punt on their next drive. They got the ball back with seven seconds left and 90 yards to go, but Durant's last second throw fell incomplete to end the game.
Head coach Corey Chamblin says the team needs to keep fighting to get out of their current five-game slide, "This team has to take the mentality that I am, that no matter how bad it is, you can win, and that's what we've got to get across to those guys. They can't go into the tank because they're down by seven points. They have to understand that it is just football and we can win the game.
"You can see guys in there with hung heads and some guys did their best and sometimes you have to do a little bit more. You have to have more than one or two guys doing their best and that's the biggest thing."
The Riders will have Sunday off before returning to practice on Monday to start getting ready for the Labour Day Classic coming up next weekend when the 2-6 Winnipeg Blue Bombers come to town.
Sat, Apr 20, 1:00 PM
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