Photo: Matt Johnson/3DownNation. All rights reserved.
For the first time since 1991, Saskatoon’s Griffiths Stadium played host to a CFL game as the Saskatchewan Roughriders faced the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in their final preseason game of 2026.
Saskatoonians waited 35 years to see the Green and White play a game in their city and they were treated to a 31-27 win for the home side against their Manitoba rivals in a game that would have been a good contest for the regular-season — let alone the preseason.
Daniel Wiebe, a University of Saskatchewan product, provided the cherry on top by catching what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown with 42 seconds to go.
The Riders will now have to wait as their next game isn’t until June 13, thanks to byes in the final week of the preseason and the first week of the regular-season.
Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ preseason finale.
The Good
Head coach Corey Mace should be feeling pretty good about his quarterback room heading into the regular-season.
The team’s undisputed starting quarterback Trevor Harris started the game and wasted no time putting together a five-play, 82-yard touchdown drive on his first and only possession of the game. Harris being ready to go should come as no surprise, but after some mixed results in last week’s game against the Calgary Stampeders, the team should be feeling more comfortable with the pivots behind Harris.
After another slow start that saw Jack Coan throw an early interception, the Notre Dame product rebounded nicely after giving way to veteran Tommy Stevens for a drive. Perhaps having a chance to cool down following the interception allowed Coan to clear his head as he followed it up with a 10-for-18 performance for 100 yards and a touchdown.
While Coan looked far more comfortable than he did last week, two drives stood out in particular. Midway through the second quarter, Coan was tasked with beginning a drive at his own two-yard line. The drive ended in a punt but the Riders got out of trouble and the Bombers had to start the following drive at their own 40.
After halftime, Coan marched the offence down the field for an eight-play, 53-yard touchdown drive.
Following that drive, Brayden Schager entered the game and though he appeared noticeably less experienced than Coan at times — thanks in part to being under a lot of pressure, which we’ll get to in a moment — the former Rainbow Warrior eventually got his legs under him and showed the signs of potential we saw one week ago, orchestrating two drives in the game’s final minutes to secure the win.
At this point, I’m not entirely convinced either guy is ready to step in for Harris long-term, but in the short-term the Riders should be in decent shape.
The Bad
A staple of Saskatchewan’s offence over the last couple of years has been their offensive line. It’s a unit that’s faced a lot of adversity and change due to injury but managed to continue doing its job.
I don’t think there’s any reason to panic about the team’s starting unit as the group did look good early. As the game wore on, the blocking got more and more shaky.
Throughout much of the third quarter, Winnipeg was having its way with the Riders’ front, giving Schager little time to compute what was going on in front of him. Schager even took a pretty gruesome face-mask that violently twisted his head and forced him to leave the game momentarily on a hit where he had little to no time to react.
The protection did eventually adjust and improve later in the second half, but we saw enough to wonder about some players who are likely to see the field at some point this season.
The Dumb
What we get on CFL+ during halftime seems to be different every game.
Watching Friday night’s game in Ottawa, it was promotional filler the entire time. In this game, we were taken inside the stadium and got to see what the fans saw: a performance by the dance team, the pep band, and finally a race to determine the fastest mascot in Saskatchewan.
The race featured mascots from prominent teams from various teams across the province, including the Riders’ Gainer, the University of Saskatchewan’s Howler, and the University of Regina’s Rampage.
Gainer won the race going away, which doesn’t feel all that believable to me. Both Howler and Rampage look more like athletes given their animal likenesses and overall physique. To borrow a wrestling term — since everything is wrestling, the race felt like a work, meaning the outcome was pre-determined.
This is fine but either Howler or Rampage should have been selected to win the race as either would have drawn a strong reaction from the crowd, which is the whole point.
I have to give some bonus points to Regina Pats’ mascot K-9, who fell way back and sold his character, which is a rather robust dog, very well.
