Riders’ ship sinks against Argos in Touchdown Atlantic loss

The Saskatchewan Roughriders couldn’t become the first team to knock off the Toronto Argonauts this CFL season.

Saskatchewan lost 31-13 to the Argos on Saturday in Halifax, with the Green and White’s only touchdown coming from the arm of a different quarterback.

Mason Fine played the majority of the game and while he was able to lead the Riders’ offence into Argos territory, for the second week in a row, the offence seemed unable to score a touchdown.

Fine threw for 302 yards and two interceptions in the game, with one of the picks returned for a touchdown by DaShaun Amos.

The Riders had scored only six points — on two field goals from kicker Brett Lauther — when Fine had to leave the game late in the fourth quarter after taking a hard hit from the Argos’ Shawn Oakman on a pass that was intercepted.

The 26-year-old pivot said he was feeling 100 per cent healthy after the game and that he needs to play better.

“I’ve got to make the throws, I’ve got to get through my reads and notice the pressure and put us in some better looks here and there,” Fine said. “I’m not happy with the way I performed and I know I can play better and I have to.

“You have to win football games at this level. Anytime you don’t win, you’re not doing your job.”

Despite throwing for more than 300 yards in the game, Fine said the stats aren’t important.

“You’ve got to put points on the board. You can have all the yards in the world but you have to finish when you are down in the red zone and you have to move the chains once you’re in the fringe area,” Fine said. “The yards are great and it shows a little bit (that we’re) on the verge, but you have to look on the scoreboard at the end of the day and see if you won or lost and see if you put points up.

“You have to score more points than the opponent. If you’re not doing that, no matter how many yards you got, we have to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do better at.”

Backup quarterback Jake Dolegala came into the game for one drive, throwing for 100 yards on four completions — one of them a 31-yard TD strike to Shawn Bane Jr.

Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Jake Dolegala looks to throw during the second half of CFL action against the Toronto Argonauts in Halifax on Saturday, July 29, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese)

“I just wanted to see Jake. Jake has played a lot of football and worked really hard. I felt like Jake deserved some reps,” head coach Craig Dickenson said.

“It wasn’t that Mason wasn’t moving the football — I was happy with the way he was playing in that last quarter — but I just wanted to see Jake get some reps, and I felt like the game, in theory, was a little bit out of reach at that time.”

But Dickenson said he won’t be making a quarterback change when the Riders host the Ottawa Redblacks next Sunday.

“We’re going to look at the film and work hard and try to get better across the board,” Dickenson said. “I felt like Mason did enough and played well enough to continue to start.”

The Riders’ defence once again held its own against a dynamic offence, with the Argos only accumulating 212 yards of total offence. Argos quarterback Chad Kelly, considered one of the frontrunners for the CFL’s most outstanding player award, threw for 112 yards with a touchdown pass to Dejon Brissett and one interception.

It was the Argos’ special-teams unit that provided the spark for the team, with returner Javon Leake taking a punt back 71 yards for a first-quarter score.

With 36 seconds left in the first half, the Riders moved all the way to the Argos’ two-yard line, but running back Jamal Morrow, who had 10 rushes for 41 yards in the game, fumbled the ball and Toronto recovered it.

“He feels bad about it. He will never do that again, I can promise you,” Dickenson said. “You live and learn. We love (Morrow) and he knows that was a big play.

“I felt like if we scored there, then we had a chance because we had the answers for them in the second half on defence.”

In the third quarter and with the Riders down 21-3, Dickenson elected to gamble on a third-and-goal from the 15-yard line but the pass was incomplete leading to a turnover.

“I just felt we needed touchdowns. Field goals just weren’t getting it done at that point,” Dickenson said. “I knew if we didn’t get it, we would hold them down there and get the ball back with better field position.

“I didn’t want to kick a field goal late because they will just take the ball at the 40(-yard line) and with that punter, a first down or two and you are starting at your own 15.”

Boris Bede was good on all three of his field-goal attempts in the game. Lauther and Bede also connected on each of their convert attempts in the game.

The Riders, now 3-4-0, are below .500 for the first time this season. Toronto improved to 6-0-0.