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The Saskatchewan Roughriders were rolling in the return of Andy Fantuz to Mosaic Stadium, that was until the fourth quarter hit and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats came storming back for a 35-34 win on Saturday afternoon.  The Riders had a 19-point lead heading into the fourth before the Ti-Cats scored 21 points in the final frame to come-from-behind.

"You've just got to finish," said a dejected Darian Durant after the loss, which dropped their record to 3-2 on the season.  "You get a team down at home, you've just got to finish by any means, and we didn't do that."

This is the second straight week that the Green & White have blown a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter after they blew a 17-point lead against the Calgary Stampeders last week and lost 41-38 in overtime.  

"There's one or two plays that changed that game and we've just got to make sure that from here on out, we continue to do what we've got to do to get leads and hold leads," head coach Corey Chamblin told the media during his post-game conference.

"It's not like we went and got careless, or the guys put on the brakes, we were still full throttle on that.  That's just the way it is sometimes.  We've had two losses like that and that's just football."

The game started off great for the Riders as they finished off a 10-play, 62 yard opening drive with a one-yard dive by Kory Sheets into the end zone to go up 7-0 just 4:45 into the game.  The touchdown gave Sheets a score in five straight games to start the season.  Sheets finished with only 10 carries for 45 yards though.

Saskatchewan's offence couldn't find much traction after that in the opening frame as they struggled to get anything going.  Durant threw an interception to halfback Bo Smith at Hamilton's 33-yard line on their only solid drive after their opening score.  

The Riders took a 7-3 lead into the second quarter and the offence started to move the ball more as the first half went on, picking up a pair of field goals from kicker Chris Milo (47 and 13 yards) to lead 13-4 heading into halftime.

The Riders got into field goal range on their first drive of the second half, but Milo couldn't connect from long range, missing a 51-yard attempt, but he did pick up the single point for a 14-7 Saskatchewan lead.  That lead would be short lived though as Hamilton quarterback Henry Burris found his groove and hit wide receiver Chris Williams on a 21-yard pass and run for the Ti-Cats first touchdown of the game, tying things up at 14-14.

The tie didn't last long either, as Durant connected with wide receiver Taj Smith on a quick pass that he took 74-yards for his first CFL touchdown, on his first CFL catch, to restore the seven-point lead at 21-14.  The Riders offence started to roll from there scoring on their next two positions, including a 33-yard FG from Milo and a 20-yard TD pass from Durant to Jock Sanders, to lead 32-14 after three quarters.

The game fell apart for Saskatchewan after that as the defence was unable to stop the passing attack of the Tiger-Cats.

Burris hit wide receiver Onrea Jones wide open in the end zone for a 10-yard major on their first drive of the quarter.  Durant fumbled on the Riders next drive and Burris quickly hit slotback Dave Stala for a 16-yard touchdown to cut Saskatchewan's lead to five-points with 9:50 to play.

The Riders went two-and-out on their next drive and that set up a nine-play, 75-yard scoring drive for the Ti-Cats that gave them a 34-33 lead on another Burris-to-Jones TD.

Saskatchewan got into field goal range with 1:41 to play, but Milo missed a 48-yard attempt that went wide right to essentially seal the win for Hamilton.   The offence got the ball back one more time, but Durant missed on three straight passes to Getzlaf to turn the ball over on downs.

Durant finished the game, 24-for-39 passing with 380 yards and two touchdowns, but he also had a pair of costly turnovers.  Henry Burris continued his strong start to the 2012 campaign with a 28-for-38 day, going for 355 yards passing and four touchdowns.

Fantuz had just two catches for 39 yards in his first game back in Regina since leaving the Roughriders in the offseason.  Williams led the Hamilton receiving core with nine catches for 101 yards.  Slotback Weston Dressler was Durant's top target, catching nine passes for a game-high 121 yards.  Getzlaf had four catches for 51 yards, but also had a couple of big drops, including one in the end zone.

"We had opportunities to make plays out there and we've got to do them," explained Getzlaf after the game.  "I had another two or three opportunities where I could have made a big play and it came down to it and I didn't do it.  You've got to make those plays if you want to win football games."

Getzlaf says this loss feels worse than the one last week in Calgary, "We've got a week here to get our minds right and try to come back with a better focus."

The Riders will have plenty of time to think about their latest blown lead as they head into their bye week this week.  Durant said he will be sticking around for the bye, while other players will head home for some time away from the game.  The team returns to game action on August 10th when they head to Edmonton.