Riders pre-season ends with 37-29 loss to Calgary

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ pre-season came to an end with a 37-29 loss to the Calgary Stampeders on Friday night at Mosaic Stadium. 

The loss was the Riders second in a row during the pre-season. It’s something that may not be alarming to most fans, but the players weren’t too happy about it after the game.

“We have to make sure that when we’re up, we stay up. That’s two games that we’ve been up and we’ve let the lead slip,” said quarterback Kevin Glenn. 

On this night, the Riders held an 11 point lead late into the fourth quarter before running back Steven Miller fumbled eventually leading to a touchdown. The Riders grew the lead back to seven before Calgary scored 14 unanswered points for the win. 

The disappointment in the loss was something that head coach Corey Chamblin was glad to see. 

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“That’s good. That’s the mentality right now. It’s all about winning,” he said.

“If we’re just saying it’s just pre-season. Then we’re going to say it’s just one game, it’s just two games. I want them to feel that pain for every single game. Knowing that we don’t want to experience that when the playoffs come.”

Offence continues to grow

One positive the Riders can take out of this game was the growth of the offence from last week to this week. 

With the starting offence in the game late until the third quarter, when the wheels fell off, the team did put 27 points on the board.

“We did some good things as well. We just need to continue to build on that and make sure that we get the little things down pat,” said quarterback Darian Durant. 

Durant and Glenn combined for 293 yards passing and two touchdowns. Not jaw dropping numbers but the efficiency of the offence was there. 

That was especially true for Glenn who completed 12 of his 14 pass attempts.

“We’re getting more comfortable with the offence and the guys. I think it’s good to come and play against a good defence in Calgary and get some meaningful reps,” he said.

Running back Steven Miller was the top receiver with 56 yards. Jerome Messam rushed for the most yards with 23. 

Now comes the hard part

A sleepless night could now be on the horizon for Chamblin, general manager Brendan Taman and the rest of the Riders braintrust. 

By the end of the day on Saturday they have to shed their roster to 46 players. 

Coming into this game Chamblin wanted the players to make life difficult on him.

“There’s some guys that did a lot of good things. I’m proud of some of those guys. In some areas they did make it difficult,” he said.

“In other areas, it showed some things that I thought some guys would show. I’m not going to say they played themselves off the roster, but they might have played themselves out of an active role.”

Chamblin, naturally, wouldn’t single out any players on this night. However, he did suggest there might be a player or two who may have played their way into a starting role.

“There’s some guys in the two group that I thought moved themselves up the one group. There’s some guys who played in the one group, not many guys, there’s a guy I might have to look at and say ‘okay, you might not be ready to start of us.’ So, I got to put the best football team on the football field,” he said. 

Once the final cuts are in, the attention then turns to week one and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers next Saturday night at Mosaic Stadium. 

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