Saskatchewan Roughriders running back Kienan LaFrance (29) scores a two point conversion during the second half of CFL action in Vancouver, B.C., Saturday, August 5, 2017. (CFL PHOTO - Jimmy Jeong)
VANCOUVER — One step forward, one step back.
Twice this season, the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders have followed up a confidence-building victory with a momentum-sapping loss. The latest such incidence of that trend occurred Saturday at BC Place, where the Roughriders lost 30-15 to the B.C. Lions.
Saskatchewan entered the game brimming with confidence after posting a 38-27 victory over the Toronto Argonauts on July 29. That self-assurance drained away Saturday as the Lions built up a 30-0 lead and cruised to the win.
The same scenario had played out earlier in July.
The Roughriders outplayed the Hamilton Tiger-Cats en route to a 37-20 win on July 8. After enjoying a bye week, Saskatchewan travelled to Calgary and was beaten 27-10 by the Stampeders on July 22.
The up-and-down trend is growing tiresome for the 2-4-0 Roughriders.
“We’ve got stop it,” quarterback Kevin Glenn said after Saturday’s game. “It’s frustrating because we want to try to make sure that we put wins together, especially when we’re playing West teams.
“That’s something that we need to focus on and we need to get better at, plain and simple.”
Safety Mike Edem concurred.
“It’s disappointing,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to keep progressing as a team and as a unit and keep moving forward.
“When you start winning early (in the season), it’s easier on the team when the playoff run starts. People don’t have to press to do more. We’ve got to start stacking wins together.”
The Roughriders put together four straight wins during the 2016 regular season, but that streak came too late to save a campaign that eventually ended in a 5-13-0 record.
Potential victories slipped through the Roughriders’ fingers in each of the first two weeks of the 2017 regular season — they lost 17-16 to the Montreal Alouettes on June 22 and 43-40 in overtime to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on July 1 — but they seemed to be back on the beam in the victory over Hamilton.
That was followed by the one-sided loss in Calgary. Then came the come-from-behind victory over the Argos, which was followed by Saturday’s defeat.
“You can’t really put your finger on what the issue is,” cornerback Jovon Johnson said. “We have games where we play great and we have games where we play not so great. We’ve just got to find a way to be consistent.”
The Roughriders’ offence has reflected that trend. The Kevin Glenn-led unit has been solid in four games, but hasn’t produced enough in the losses to Calgary and B.C.
On Saturday, Saskatchewan rushed for only 49 yards and, while Glenn completed 70 per cent of his passes (19 completions in 27 attempts), he threw for just 186 yards. Brandon Bridge added 114 yards and two touchdowns on six completions in mop-up duty.
“I don’t have a clue on this one,” Glenn said when asked about the offence’s woes. “We moved the ball. We just came up with turnovers or we got pushed back on second-and-long and then they played pretty good defence on second-and-long and we couldn’t get anything going.
“I just can’t put a pin or a finger on what actually went wrong. We moved the ball. It was just when we got opportunities in the red zone, we came away with nothing.”
Saskatchewan’s defenders also were left scratching their heads Saturday.
The Lions accumulated 535 yards of net offence, including 202 yards rushing. Quarterback Travis Lulay led the way, completing 19 of 28 pass attempts for 338 yards and rushing six times for 32 yards.
Despite the yardage total, B.C. scored only two touchdowns as the Roughriders’ defence stiffened. But the Lions still managed to march the ball, producing points on four drives that started inside their 15-yard line.
“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out when they (put up) 500 yards that you’re not doing the right things,” said Roughriders head coach-GM-defensive co-ordinator Chris Jones. “We’ve got to do a better job defensively.
“I thought we did some good things. I thought we held (Lions returner Chris) Rainey down really well. Our kids kept scrapping until the end, kept working and all that type of stuff. You didn’t hear anybody complaining on the sidelines and things like that.
“They know what they’ve got to do (but) we’ve got a ways to go to get in the level that B.C. and Calgary are.”
In other words, the Roughriders currently don’t measure up to the competition in the powerful West Division — and Saskatchewan’s next four games also are against teams from the West.
The Roughriders play host to the Lions next Sunday, travel to Edmonton to take on the Eskimos on Aug. 25 and then have a home-and-home set with the Bombers (Sept. 3 in Regina and Sept. 9 in Winnipeg).
So far this season, the Roughriders are 0-3 against the West.
“The teams at the top of the list as far as the standings go, we’ve got to show up against them,” Glenn said. “The only way we’re going to get to the top of the standings is by beating those teams and not looking for other teams to beat them.
“Luckily, we have (the Lions) next week, so we’ll be able to watch this film extensively to figure out what it was (that went wrong) to come back next week and possibly get a win.”
Jones said prior to the game in Vancouver that facing a team in back-to-back games makes preparation easier for the players since they’ve spent so much time getting ready for the opponent for the first game of the series.
That theory will be put to the test when B.C. visits Regina next Sunday.
“I wish it wasn’t eight days (between games),” Jones said. “I wish it was more like five days to play them again, quite honestly.”
