It wasn’t just the Winnipeg Blue Bombers victory that flattened the Riders, it was the lineup changes
Meaningless or not. Using their second- or third-stringers …
Playing against the CFL’s poorest team, who hadn’t won a road game all season …
They may be playoff-bound with their 9-8-1 record, but the Roughriders didn’t exactly look playoff-ready.
The Roughriders were evidently distraught because — mere moments before taking the field — they had lost their chance to earn a first-round playoff bye when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers kicked a last-play field goal to defeat the Montreal Alouettes 28-27. Numerous Roughriders admitted they had watched that game’s televised conclusion, which gave Winnipeg first place in the West and relegated Saskatchewan to second place.
It wasn’t just Winnipeg’s victory that flattened the Riders, moreso it was the pregame lineup changes.
There may have been some hints to the contrary, but the essence was their starters were going to see action. That’s how it looked on the depth chart distributed by the Roughriders one day before they played Calgary.
Then a mini-storm hit Montreal’s Molson Stadium late Saturday afternoon, a strong wind steered a shanked Alouettes punt out of bounds and set up a 51-yard field goal by Winnipeg’s Sergio Castillo that thrilled the Bombers but sunk the Riders.
Pffffftttt!
The roster tinkering told the team and the announced crowd of 22,709 this game was absolutely meaningless. Should we mention it was Fan Appreciation Night and the crowd was the smallest for a Riders game in the stadium’s seven-year history?
With only one week before the third-place B.C. Lions visit Mosaic Stadium for the West semifinal Nov. 2, it wasn’t a showing that inspired anyone to buy tickets. Such decisions are solely up to the ticket-buying public, but a Riders victory — or at least a concerted effort — would have more likely motivated the masses to visit Ticketmaster.
Unlike the Alouettes, who really had nothing worthwhile to play for other than pride and momentum, the Roughriders were surprisingly flat. They were so bad they let embattled Stampeders quarterback Jake Maier perform like an all-star by completing 19 of 26 passes for 293 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
“The timing of it honestly worked out pretty good for us, to make sure our guys were able to get a proper warmup with whatever scenario we found ourselves in,” Riders head coach Corey Mace said during his postgame media conference when asked by CJME’s Britton Gray about the late roster changes.
“So everybody understood the situation. We had no excuse tonight.”
The Roughriders were able to rest some tired and sore veterans, especially Harris, and evidently didn’t lose anyone to injury during Saturday’s contest. Those are positives. But the loss snapped a four-game winning streak, ending any momentum the Roughriders may have built heading into their first postseason appearance since 2022.
“I was hoping we would dig into it,” said Mace. “There was a lot of adversity for us today, so I was really looking for the response to be a little bit better.
“It turned out to be another lesson for us and keeping that in the forethought for us. As for momentum swings, that’s why we really wanted to press to obviously win the game.”
Mace, too, was disappointed in his team’s lacklustre performance. He understands. Maybe he can fix it.
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