Photo: Tanner Piper/3DownNation. All rights reserved.
As the Saskatchewan Roughriders revealed their 2025 Grey Cup championship banner, the home team decided to relive one of last season’s greatest hits as they beat the B.C. Lions 31-27 in a game that felt an awful lot like the last time these teams met.
Quarterback Trevor Harris led his team on a three-plus minute drive in the game’s closing minutes leading to a touchdown from receiver Sam Emilus with 42 seconds on the clock sending the 30,168 in attendance home happy. The play was perhaps a little prettier than the ball Tommy Nield hauled in last year but the back-and-forth nature of the second-half was eerily similar to last year’s Western Final.
Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ first win of the season.
The Good
When the dust had settled in the offseason, the Riders were able to keep most of their starting offence from a year ago together at the cost of losing a number of pieces on defence.
So, it’s probably fair to suggest that Marc Mueller’s group might have to do some heavy lifting for this team over the first few weeks of the season as the defence figures out its new identity. With most of the starters returning, you’d also hope the offence would hit the ground running and they did that against the Lions.
Harris led the Green and White on three straight scoring drives to open the game, including two touchdowns on their first two possessions. It was a particularly big day for Emilus, who followed up his Grey Cup top Canadian award-winning performance with a 91-yard, three touchdown game against the Lions. Both KeeSean Johnson and Kian Schaffer-Baker cracked the century mark in receiving yards as well.
Oh, and if anyone was concerned about Harris now being over the age of 40, I don’t think anyone was, he put those fears to bed by completing 30 of his 36 attempts for 417 yards and three touchdowns.
From start to finish, you couldn’t ask for much more from the offence on Saturday night.
The Bad
In the first game of the regular season, you’re going to expect a few kinks to get worked out. The secondary dropped at least three surefire interceptions, including an easy pick-six from Tevaughn Campbell. Kicker Alex Hale missed a field goal that could have made the end of the game a little more relaxing.
The running game wasn’t firing on all cylinders. We even saw the offence go through their trademarked mid-game lull that allowed the Lions to get off the mat and make a game of it, even holding the lead late in the fourth quarter.
All of that is worth keeping an eye on, but the first game is the first game and nothing is polished yet.
Easily the worst thing that happened this week was the injury to star defensive back Rolan Milligan Jr.
In the second quarter, Milligan Jr. appeared to injure his shoulder tackling Lions’ receiver Justin McInnis on a 28-yard pass from Nathan Rourke. Nothing about the play seemed overly bad but Milligan didn’t get up and immediately signalled for help from the ground after the hit.
Milligan Jr. then came out after half-time with his right shoulder wrapped and in a sling.
Last season, the Riders had decent luck when it came to major injuries. 2026 isn’t off to a great start in that regard.
The Dumb
As mentioned, the Riders finally got to reveal their 2025 championship banner — that’s more of a sign in the stands but whatever — and celebrate the team’s fifth championship with the fans one last time before closing the book on last year for good.
The pre-game ceremony featured former Riders and Saskatchewanians Jorgen Hus and Mitch Picton, both of whom retired in the offseason, and Dohnte Meyers who signed with the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals in the offseason pumping up the crowd and sharing a few words.
Once they were done, the pyro fired and the tarp dropped — eventually with a little help from the trio after it got stuck. Then both Hus and Picton celebrated the best way they knew how — by cracking a couple of beers and shotgunning them in the crowd, much to the enjoyment of everyone around them.
It was a very Saskatchewan moment.
