Rod Pedersen
CFL.ca
Things just got a whole lot more interesting in the CFL’s Wild, Wild West. And the Saskatchewan Roughriders have also shot themselves in the foot with regards to their hopes of finishing in first-place for the first time since 1976.
The Riders were hoping to follow their uplifting 23-20 win at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium two weeks ago with a second straight West Division road win but it didn’t happen.
Friday night in Vancouver, Wally Buono’s Lions had a plan for the Riders every which way they turned as B.C. eked out a 19-16 victory before a season-high crowd of over 31,000 fans.
It was the third meeting of the season between the West Division rivals with the home team emerging as the winner in the prior two meetings. The trend continued Friday as the Lions were the more impressive team in a game they labeled as “must-win”. Offensively, Lions quarterback Buck Pierce was pounded to the turf relentlessly by the Rider defense but he kept getting up and coming back for more. By the second half, Pierce’s white football pants were drenched in his own blood but he would not come out of the game.
Defensively B.C. was staunch and stingy, not giving up anything deep, while applying continuous pressure on Rider quarterback Darian Durant. The Riders staged a late rally with a touchdown pass to Andy Fantuz and a successful two-point convert pass to Gerran Walker to tie the game at 16-16 with two minutes to go. However Pierce marched the ball far enough downfield to allow rookie kicker Sean Whyte to hit a game-winning 33-yard field goal with five seconds left for the win.
“We knew we could move the ball on these guys but for some reason we couldn’t in this game,” said Durant. “We wanted to get Wes Cates going early but they controlled him. That put us in 2nd-and-long situations and when that happens, a defense can pin their ears back and come after me and that’s what they did.”
For 55 minutes of the game the Rider offense looked befuddled. And now with five games left to play and a 7-5 record the Riders have slipped out of first-place for the first time all season. Calgary’s out front at 8-6 while Edmonton and B.C. are a game behind at 6-7.
“This loss was devastating in so many ways,” said coach Ken Miller after the game. “It means these guys are up 2-1 on us in the season series so we’ve lost the tie-breaker against two teams in our own division already (Edmonton being the other) and now we’re slipped out of first. We were hoping to separate ourselves from the pack tonight but instead we’re stuck right there in there in the middle.”
On the positive side, the Rider defense continued to exert its dominance and limited the Lions to fewer than 20 points. Allowing the Lions to drive the ball with two minutes to go was unfortunate, but the Rider “D” had basically done all it could all game long. The special teams were also strong, as kicker Luca Congi made both his field goal attempts from 49 and 47 yards.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the Riders finally return home to face the 3-10 Toronto Argonauts on Saturday night at Mosaic Stadium. The Riders claimed a narrow victory in Toronto in Week #2 and Bart Andrus’s Argos have amounted to little more than a free spot on the bingo card for CFL teams all season long.
“They’ll be tough, you can bet on that,” said Miller. “Their defense has been particularly strong and considering the way we struggled to move the ball and score points against the Lions, Toronto will be trying to do a lot of things along the same lines.”
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