The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 24-3 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats was predictable. The Riders went with their backups, the Tiger-Cats with their starters.
Don’t try to twist that loss into anything but a throwaway game. That’s what it was. Of course, not for players like Rolan Milligan or Mason Fine, who should be proud of how they played in their first CFL action.
We’ve been here before for the Roughriders. In 1989, the team got pummelled 49-17 in the regular-season finale. In 2007, the final score of the finale was a 41-13 loss to Toronto.
Yeah, those losses meant nothing for the team’s chances of going on to win the Grey Cup.
Now, I’m not saying the Roughriders will win the Grey Cup but there is no carryover from this regular-season finale to the playoffs.
What will carry over is the play from the regular season overall. For the Riders to win, they need way more production from the offence and a game plan to take the pressure off their struggling offensive line.
Thankfully, their defence should keep them in every game as the team should hope the “defence wins championships” cliche holds true for the 2021 version of the Riders.