By Mitchell Blair
For Riderville.com
It was a good news, bad news night for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Calgary. The good news was a touchdown drought that approached nearly 300 minutes ended, but the bad news was the team lost its 5th straight as they dropped a 25-13 decision to the Stampeders.
For the 2nd straight game, the team put up a much better effort offensively, but they still struggled to get the ball into the endzone. However, the drought finally ended when Darian Durant, who left the game in the 4th quarter with a suspected concussion, called his own number and ran the ball in from the four yard line to end a touchdown drought that had spanned 18 quarters.
While Durant got his team into the endzone, he also had two costly turnovers that arguably turned victory into defeat on this night. In the 3rd quarter, he threw an interception to Charleston Hughes who took it back 68 yards to the Riders seven yard line leading to a Jon Cornish touchdown. Durant was then rocked deep in Calgary territory by Demetrice Mobley causing him to fumble. That play was Durant’s last on the night, and perhaps his last for the season as he went to the bench with his concussion after the hit.
Weston Dressler was named the Riders offensive star of the night after hauling in seven passes for 73 yards which gives him a 1000 yard season for the third time in his four year career. He says it was great to finally be able to celebrate a touchdown.
“It felt good,” Dressler admitted. “Fortunately, we needed a few more tonight, but we were better as a unit. We’ve moved the ball pretty well the past couple of weeks, but when we get into the score zone, we can’t punch it in for whatever reason.”
The Rider defense had some problems in trying to contain Calgary quarterback Drew Tate, who was starting his first CFL game. He impressed defensive back Chris McKenzie.
“Give him a lot of credit,” McKenzie told 620 CKRM’s Carm Carteri moments after the game. “He showed a lot of poise in there, and he controlled the game and put them in a position to win.”
As for Head Coach Ken Miller, he was disappointed to see his team lose for the fifth straight time and for the 12th time this season. However, Miller was happy with the fact that once again the team put in a respectable performance which is something that hadn’t been happening.
“We moved the ball well,” Miller told Carteri. “Our defence gave us some turnovers and we played with what I thought was some good effort, but we just couldn’t finish on the opportunities we were given. We played hard and while we did make some mistakes, I think we were right there with Calgary tonight and perhaps we just left one out there that we should have had.”
The team will now get ready for its last home game of the season. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats will provide the opposition for the Riders in that game which will go next Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium starting at 1 o’clock.
