Roughriders lose 24-3 to Tiger-Cats in regular-season finale

With a home playoff game clinched and a number of starters given the week off, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were beaten 24-3 by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday.

Despite the Tiger-Cats having most of their regular starters dressed for the game, Riders head coach Craig Dickenson says the Riders shouldn’t use the film from the game as an example.

“There wasn’t a lot of good out there today. I told the guys to watch the film and learn from it and then wash it away. If we play like we did tonight, we won’t last very long (in the CFL playoffs) and we all know that,” Dickenson said.

The Riders (9-5) and Tiger-Cats (8-6) had second place in their respective CFL divisions locked up coming into the game at Tim Hortons Field.

Saskatchewan quarterback Isaac Harker, who started in place of a resting Cody Fajardo, finished with 16 completions on 23 pass attempts for 150 yards and two interceptions.

“It’s always nice to get out on the field, especially when you’ve put so much time and energy into game-planning and practising,” Harker said. “It feels good to get out and play.”

It was the first time Harker had thrown a pass in the CFL game since the Banjo Bowl on Sept. 11 in a 33-9 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Harker completed 10 of 13 pass attempts for 89 yards in that contest after Fajardo was knocked out of the game with a concussion.

Harker felt the Riders’ offence moved the ball well in Saturday’s game but some penalties put an end to the momentum the group was building.

“We shot ourselves in the foot with procedure penalties or false starts and offsides. That normally doesn’t happen. They were odd occurrences that would keep us from sustaining drives,” Harker said.

“I thought our receivers played really well and played tough. I thought the O-line — you should see how hard they prepare all week — they were blocking their (butts) off and it was just not what we wanted.”

Penalties once again reared their ugly head for the Riders, who committed 12 for 101 yards in the game. Prior to the start of Week 16, the Riders had committed a league-leading 136 penalties.

“I’ll do the best I can with (penalties) but here’s the truth of the matter — you are who you are at this point. That group in (the locker room) is a group that plays hard, enjoys coming to work but has a hard time controlling their emotions on game day,” Dickenson said. “I’m not overly optimistic we will be able to turn the switch come playoff time.”

Riders backup quarterback Mason Fine got his first CFL snaps during a few series in the third quarter, going 5-for-9 for 64 yards. Fine led the 56-yard drive that ended in a 16-yard field goal by Riders kicker Brett Lauther — the only points scored by Saskatchewan in the game.

Harker said it was important to get some live reps in case he has to enter a game during the playoffs.

“Good quarterbacks don’t make the same mistakes twice so it’s good to get reps,” Harker said.

Running back Jamal Morrow got his first start at the position. Morrow had nine carries for 41 yards and caught three passes for 29 yards.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted but personally I felt it went OK,” Morrow said. “I definitely feel like I left some plays out there but it was fun and a good experience and fun to get out there and play at running back.”

Tiger-Cats starter Jeremiah Masoli completed 17 of 21 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown. Backup Dane Evans finished the game, completing 10 of 16 attempts with a touchdown and two interceptions. Running back Don Jackson and slotback Brandon Banks caught the two touchdown passes for Hamilton.

Hamilton kicker Michael Domagala was good on three of his four field-goal attempts.

“It was a lot of new players and younger players but I thought it was a nice way to get their confidence up and a feel for in-game situations and in-game tempo. We didn’t get the results we wanted but I felt like everybody out there played their heart out,” said defensive tackle Charbel Dabire, who had two tackles in the game.

“We never like to lose. We always play every game with the mentality we want to win every game and play hard every game.

“It wasn’t a throwaway game. We’ve got to look back at this, see the problems we had and see the situations where some new players were good in.”

Dickenson said he didn’t anticipate Saturday’s game playing a role in how they lineup for the Nov. 28 West semifinal against the Calgary Stampeders (8-6).

“The reality is we will probably dress about the same way we did next week against Calgary the same way we did a couple of weeks ago when we had everyone healthy,” Dickenson said.

But despite the loss, Dickenson doesn’t expect the performance to bleed over into the Riders’ next game.

“It’s a one-week season for us now,” he said. “We’ve got eight days to prepare for Calgary.”