Riders’ comeback falls short, lose to Calgary 23-17

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ fourth-quarter comeback came up short Saturday, as they lost 23-17 in their first of three consecutive meetings with the Calgary Stampeders.

It was a game of Jekyll and Hyde for the Riders, showing two completely sides of their offence in the first half compared to the second.

Riders quarterback Cody Fajardo says they simply weren’t good enough to get the job done.

“It’s unfortunate it didn’t go our way, I thought we got in a good groove there in the second half moving the ball and completed some balls down the field. But offensively speaking we were just not in it today, we had a lot of mistakes that cost us pretty dearly in the game,” Fajardo said. “I like to stay positive but this one’s been tough, very tough.”

Unnecessary penalties continued to haunt the Riders in their first game of October, as they totalled nine penalties for 67 yards compared to the Stamps’ three for 36.

Failing to execute on third downs and missing on deep balls to open receivers added to the Green and White’s woes in the first half.

In the first quarter, Fajardo overthrew a wide-open Kyran Moore on a third-and-three pass on what would have been an easy six points.

The Stampeders took advantage of the Riders’ failure to execute on third down as Bo Levi Mitchell drove the Stamps down a shortened field and connected with Shawn Bane for his first CFL touchdown.

The score made it a two-touchdown lead for the galloping Stampeders early on in the first quarter.

Fajardo said miscommunication played a big role in the game, especially in how the offence performed in the first half.

“I missed a few throws and that’s going to happen in a game. We dropped some balls and that’s going to happen in a game. We had a few huddle miscommunications where guys were lining up in the wrong spot and running the wrong play that led to some negative plays for us,” he said. “I called the play wrong when we were backed up and and we ended up having to punt out of our own end zone.

“Just some of those minor detail things that usually don’t happen in a game, for whatever reason they happened in this game.”

Fajardo wasn’t shy about voicing his frustrations with the offence, saying that the receivers need to step up.

“We just need to find a guy who can go down and make a play other than (Kian) Schaffer-Baker who’s going to draw a double team,” he said. “So that’s the biggest thing. We know Shaq (Evans) is coming close (to returning from injury) but we can’t count on that. He’s still a game or two away so we have to find somebody to get some confidence with the deep ball.

“We just need to figure something out.”

The second quarter is where the Riders put up their first points of the game, but they could not find a way to connect on a touchdown.

Both teams traded field goals back and forth throughout the quarter. The Riders went into halftime trailing 17-6.

It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the momentum swung for the Green and White.

Roughriders running back William Powell broke a 22-yard run before Fajardo connected on a 71-yard bomb to Schaffer-Baker.

Powell ran into the end zone one play later, making it a 20-14 ball game.

For the second straight week, it was looking like there could be magic for the Riders after both teams traded field goals to make it a 23-17 game.

Schaffer-Baker hauled in a critical onside kick with less than two minutes to go in the quarter — just for it to be called back on a penalty.

The Riders’ second chance was just as incredible.

Kicker Brett Lauther sacrificed his body and recovered his own onside kick to give the Riders a chance to drive down the field and win the game.

The Green and White would run out of magic, preventing them from overcoming a fourth-quarter deficit for the second straight week.

Riders head coach Craig Dickenson says the team has a lot of work to do before they play the Stamps again on Oct. 9.

“We’ve got to start faster. We knew Calgary was going to come out with a lot of emotion and a lot of energy and offensively we couldn’t get anything going,” Dickenson said. “We’ve got our best players playing and they’re not playing as well as we’d like and we’re not playing as well as we’d like as a team.

“We’ve got to get better and we’ve got to get better fairly soon.”

The Roughriders ended up beating the Stamps by roughly three minutes in time of possession as well as beating them in total yards by 96 despite not being able to come out with the win.

Schaffer-Baker had the best game of his rookie season by hauling in eight passes for 107 yards.

Fajardo completed 25 of 44 passes for 269 yards and one interception. Mitchell left the game late in the fourth quarter with a shoulder issue, but prior to his departure he completed 16 of 25 passes for 184 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

The Riders moved to 5-3 on the year while the Stamps moved to 3-5.