The good, the bad, and the dumb of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 30-14 loss to B.C.

For the first time in 2026, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are on a losing streak.

While the B.C. Lions deserve full credit for the victory, the Riders simply couldn’t get out of their own way as they dropped a 30-16 decision to the Leos in Vancouver.

The loss is the second in a row for the Green and White and while there’s still nothing to panic about, the loss does open the door for someone else to snatch a home playoff game from the Riders, something that seemed unlikely just a few weeks ago. As usual, things can change fast in the CFL.

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

The Good

Not a whole lot went right for the Riders at BC Place but one area in which they did get the job done was stopping a Lions running game that has been rolling of late.

The duo of Zander Horvath and James Butler has been a big reason why the Lions have been able to turn around their season following a dismal start. Horvath had been particularly impressive over the last number of games as the big man’s been difficult to take down when given an opportunity to carry the rock on a regular basis.

This week, neither Horvath nor Butler even cracked 50 yards rushing with just 43 yards and 14 yards, respectively.

As a whole, the defence put up a valiant effort against Nathan Rourke and company as they held the deficit to one score for a good portion of the evening. Eventually, the Lions did break through late in the third quarter and the Riders couldn’t muster up a response on offence to reward their defence for keeping them in the game.

The Bad

Since Corey Mace took over as head coach of the Riders, one thing the team has been particularly good at is staying out of their own way.

Any team will always have bad games from time to time but when that happens, it generally came down to execution — not mental errors.

That was not the case on Sunday evening.

In total, the Riders took seven penalties for 72 yards, a number that isn’t great but not necessarily backbreaking.

However, the context of some of these penalties are a big reason why the Riders have now lost two games in a row, as penalties directly took at least 14 points off the board.

In the second quarter, an illegal block from Jermarcus Hardrick took a 49-yard touchdown off the board from Quali Conley. Early in the third quarter, the Riders appeared to have recovered a fumble from Lions returner Stanley Berryfield for a touchdown — at least until a flag hit the turf due to a no yards call.

Those plays alone could have at least sent this game to overtime but some other errors made it a night to forget for the Riders. Those include a lost fumble from Johnny Johnson III late in the first half when he simply should have gone down to give his team a chance to score at least three points. Trevor Harris threw another two interceptions deep in Lions territory.

Those are just the plays that took points off the board. There were other penalties that wiped out first downs that made drives more difficult than they had to be, too.

Losing is one thing, but playing uncharacteristically undisciplined football is another. This surely won’t sit well with this group.

The Dumb

There probably haven’t been too many games of professional football that saw multiple offensive linemen get their names on the stats sheet.

The first such play came midway through the third quarter when big man Daniel Johnson — who has lined up at tight end on a number of occasions this year, and played the position in his younger years — went to the wide side of the formation.

This must have caught the Lions off guard as Johnson was completely wide open and as he always does, Harris threw to whoever is open — including the big guys.

Johnson busted off a 17-yard play that included a bit of a hurdle and a stiff arm of T.J. Lee before he was pushed out by Darnell Sankey.

Later in the game, centre Logan Ferland for himself on the score sheet when he recovered a fumble. It was a key play, as it kept a scoring drive alive.

The next time someone uses the team “skilled position,” they better be including the big guys.