MONTREAL — A one-point loss didn’t produce a moral victory for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Roughriders opened the 2017 CFL regular season Thursday with a 17-16 loss to the Montreal Alouettes before 20,129 patrons at Percival Molson Stadium.
“Close is not good enough,” Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones said. “You either win or lose the ball game and there’s no consolation prizes for one-point losses.”
Quarterback Kevin Glenn agreed with his head coach. The Roughriders had their moments in the contest, but the veteran pivot wasn’t taking any consolation from that.
“We lost the game, so I’m not very happy about it,” said Glenn, who completed 31 of 44 pass attempts for 298 yards with one touchdown and one interception. “We fought hard, but we’ve got to be a little more disciplined on certain things.
“We’ll correct those. The mistakes that we made are correctible. It’s not like guys aren’t capable of doing what they’re asked to do. We can correct these mistakes — and we will.”
Jones was particularly irked that the Roughriders took 12 penalties and committed two turnovers, both of which occurred in Montreal territory.
Even so, the Als needed an 18-yard field goal from Boris Bede with 2:29 left in the fourth quarter to take the lead.
Saskatchewan had a chance to take the lead on the game’s final play, but Tyler Crapigna missed a 45-yard field-goal try and Montreal’s Stefan Logan ran the ball out of the end zone to avoid a game-tying single.
“It is tough to bounce back from (penalties and turnovers), but we still only lost by one on a late field goal,” Glenn said. “That says a lot. That says that we’ve still got some things to improve on, but at the same time, we still only lost by one with doing all that.
“It’s Week 1 and we’ve got 17 more. We’ve just got to band together as brothers in this locker room and do what we need to do.”
There wasn’t any scoring in the first quarter, which featured four punts (two by each team) and a missed 45-yard field-goal attempt by Bede.
The Als opened the scoring at 10:25 of the second quarter when quarterback Darian Durant found B.J. Cunningham with a 65-yard scoring pass. Bede’s convert gave Montreal a 7-0 lead.
The Roughriders tied the game on the subsequent possession, going 72 yards on 10 plays — the last of which was a 19-yard touchdown pass from Glenn to Bakari Grant.
The CFL Command Centre reviewed the play to see if Grant fumbled the ball before crossing the goal line. Television replays seemed to show that he did, but the Command Centre OK’ed the play — ruling that the ball wasn’t out of Grant’s possession before he crossed the line.
Crapigna kicked the convert and the score was 7-7 with 1:33 left in the first half.
A short punt by Bede gave the Roughriders the ball at their 50 with 45 seconds left. Glenn hit Nic Demski for 28 yards, but two incompletions followed. Crapigna hoofed a 35-yard field goal to complete the first-half scoring.
The Roughriders had the first possession of the second half and drove 47 yards in six plays to set up a 41-yard field goal by Crapigna at 3:27.
The Alouettes took the ball at their 35-yard line and went 75 yards in seven plays for a touchdown. Durant found Ernest Jackson in the back of the end zone for the major, which was converted by Bede. The Als led 14-13 at 7:07 of the third.
Saskatchewan put together a nice drive late in the quarter and appeared to be in scoring range, but Cameron Marshall fumbled at the Montreal 21-yard line. The Als recovered to end the threat.
After recovering a Montreal fumble on the ensuing possession, the Roughriders gave the ball right back when Glenn was picked off by Jonathon Mincy.
But Saskatchewan forced a two-and-out and a punt. The Roughriders subsequently took the lead on an 18-yard field goal by Crapigna with 6:56 left in the fourth.
Montreal accepted the ensuing kickoff and started at its 27-yard line. The Als drove 72 yards in eight plays, including an end-around for a first down by Cunningham on a third-and-one gamble from the Saskatchewan 47-yard line.
Two plays after that successful gamble, Bede hit the eventual game-winning three-pointer.
“It’s just frustrating,” Jones said. “As much as we preach penalties and hanging onto the football, we take (12) penalties and put the ball on the ground. The guys are really frustrated because they know that they’re a good enough football team to have won the football game.”
Marshall rushed 11 times for 84 yards in his Roughriders debut. Demski had seven catches for 87 yards and Grant added six receptions for 68 yards.
Durant, who was playing his first game against Saskatchewan after being traded in January, was 20-for-31 passing for 233 yards. Tyrell Sutton led the Als’ ground attack with 68 yards on 13 carries.
