The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 36-34 loss to Edmonton

Photo courtesy: CFL.ca

On an emotional night at Mosaic Stadium, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Elks put on a show that won’t soon be forgotten.

The two teams combined for a total of 974 yards of net offence, 70 points, and eight passing touchdowns. In the end, it was the Elks who had the last laugh as they walked off with a 36-34 win in front of 28,513 fans in Regina.

Considering the week it was in Saskatchewan following the crash that took the life of 22-year-old Bhishma Rajyaguru and linebacker Jayden Dalke, this game was a welcome distraction and an entertaining one at that, even though the game didn’t go the way the team or the home fans would have wanted. It’s also served as a good reminder that there are more important things in life than the results of a game of football.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the Riders’ second loss of the season.

The Good

On the field, one of the biggest stories of the week in Saskatchewan was whether the Riders would have the right game plan to contain the Elks’, and perhaps the league’s, best player currently: running back Justin Rankin.

The answer turned out to be a resounding yes, as Josh Bell’s defence did a great job making sure that Rankin wasn’t the one who was going to beat them on Thursday night. It’s an old Bill Belichick theory: take out the other team’s best player and make someone else beat you. They did that, and so did the Elks — we’ll get to that in a bit.

When you consider that Rankin was on pace to clear both 1,000 yards rushing and receiving —  a feat which has never been accomplished in the CFL — it was a job well done on that front. He managed just 39 yards along the ground and 27 through the air.

The Bad

That’s where the good news ends for the Riders’ defence.

The flip side of shutting down your opposition’s most dominant player is the hope that no one else will beat you. That you have the scheme and the players to get the job done on everyone else.

The Riders did not against the Elks.

Cody Fajardo has done a lot in his CFL career, but he’s never been known as a huge passing yards merchant. Well, he exploded for 510 yards (a new career high) and 4 touchdowns (also a career high) as the likes of Austin Mack, Kaion Julien-Grant, and T.J. Luther routinely got behind the Riders’ secondary for big gains. Mack had himself a day with an 81-yard touchdown and a 57-yard score. Julien-Grant added the other long gain of the night at 68 yards.

Since Corey Mace became the Riders’ head coach, their defence has been known to give up yards, but not points. Against the Elks, that wasn’t the case.

Bonus Bad

Mace doesn’t get off scot-free here. As bad as the defence was at stopping anyone not named Justin Rankin, I disliked his decision to kick an 11-yard field goal when his team had gotten down to the four-yard line with under two minutes to go.

A touchdown would have been much more advantageous, and if you don’t get it, you’re still in a good position to win if your defence can make the stop.

The kick only gave the Riders a one-point lead, with the Elks only needing to get to about the Riders’ 50-yard line to have a chance to win. The decision just about worked out, as a holding call on the ensuing kickoff forced the Elks to start deep. Saskatchewan had their chances to end that drive and didn’t.

The football gods reward making aggressive decisions and do not like when you play it safe, much like when the Elks kicked on a third-and-short in the final minutes of the first half, only to see the Riders respond with seven. Be bold and be rewarded, or don’t and face the consequences.

The Dumb

I’ve seen a lot of things in my time covering the CFL. For whatever reason, when these teams play, it’s rarely dull.

This game saw a lot. The Riders attempted an onside kick. They also attempted an onside punt. Fajardo hit the same upright he’s hit before in this stadium and showed some good humour by trying to get the crowd going afterwards.

However, the wildest series of events started on an Elks’ third-and-two with just over five minutes to go. The ball was seemingly snapped early, and Fajardo was not ready for it at all. Instead of just falling on it to preserve some field position, he then pitched it to, well, no one.

Obviously, Fajardo must have thought that Rankin was over there, but the ball ended up nowhere near Rankin before eventually being picked up by Antoine Brooks Jr., who returned it deep into Elks territory.

That wasn’t the end of the chaos thoug, as the rails continued to fall off from there.  Two fans ran on the field, Sam Emilus had a touchdown wiped out by an offensive pass interference call, Trevor Harris was sacked, and then Alex Hale missed another field goal, this time from 46 yards out. Those three points would have come in handy, but the Riders came away with nothing.

All of that happened in about two minutes of game time.

Joel Gasson is a Regina-based sports writer, broadcaster and football fanatic. He is also a beer aficionado.