by Greg Urbanoski

By Greg Urbanoski

Riderville

How do you get to the Grey Cup? Practice, practice, and yes, more practice

Oct 15, 2019 | 1:24 PM

As the 2019 CFL season moves towards its finish, the Saskatchewan Roughriders yet again showed while they can be competitive with Calgary, they are not quite there yet with a 30-28 loss to the Stamps in Calgary.

The Riders were up a game on the Stampeders and Bombers so a win would have left them two games up on Calgary with three games remaining. The Riders showed signs they would be more competitive than they were the last time these teams played – a 37-10 win for Calgary, but where the Riders fell short is something that needs to be bookmarked and addressed by the Rider coaching staff as they go into their final three games of the regular season – still having a pretty good shot at first place.

The Riders didn’t quite fall apart, but they had a hard time maintaining their composure as they picked up penalties after the whistle – notably an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty given to defensive back Ed Gainey that influenced his play for the rest of the game. The Riders also had problems on the line of scrimmage, particularly after defensive tackle Micah Johnson went down with a calf injury after getting it rolled on by AC Leonard on a convert attempt and in tackling.

The Gainey penalty seemed to spook him for the rest of the evening and allowed Calgary receivers to make relatively uncontested catches without having to work too hard for them. Throw in the poor tackling by the Rider linebackers and secondary and Calgary picked up a lot of extra yards after catches that helped to wear the Riders down and put the Stampeders in position to kill the clock and better yet – score.

When Johnson went down, the Riders didn’t have the same presence on the defensive line that it once did and Bo Levi Mitchell was able to sit back in the pocket and pick apart the Riders zone defense. In contrast, Calgary was able to put pressure on Cody Fajardo and a few of Fajardo’s shortcomings – like looking at the receiver he is throwing to before he snaps the ball – came back to bite him and the Riders.

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The Riders were facing a team that was forcing them to chip away on the field instead of making big plays like they did last week against Toronto. Fajardo got a good lesson in being patient and not forcing the ball, and hopefully he also drew the connection between his spin move and teams now defending against the move.

Based on the relatively sloppy first half, the Riders did not respond to the pressure of clinching first too well. While not all calls will ever go in favor of one team, the Riders tendency to try to go for the big showy hit instead of the sure tackle, meant Calgary never really did have to worry much about what the Riders were trying to do.

There was a bit of foreshadowing of what would happen in Calgary taking place the week before when the Riders beat Winnipeg. When Shaq Evans scored a 61- yard touchdown catch and run to salt that game away, the mics on the sideline heard him boast of being the best receiver in the league.

Well, Evans pulled up on the first drive of the game for the Riders when Fajardo tried to hit him on a deep pattern. And one thing I kind of noted last year was that Evans is not yet a cold weather receiver, especially in last year’s Western Semi-Final and even the final game against Montreal.