Some members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders may be in for a sleepless night, what with the CFL’s roster deadline looming.
The Roughriders’ staff may be in for one, too.
“I told the coaches, ‘I don’t care if you stay the night, but you have (to have) your film ready by 8 o’clock (Saturday morning),’ ” Saskatchewan head coach-GM Chris Jones said Friday. “We’re going to know who we’re keeping by 8 o’clock in the morning.”
Each CFL team has to set its 46-man roster, 10-man practice roster and injured lists by Sunday at 8 a.m., Saskatchewan time. The Roughriders will make their decisions Saturday — and the choices may have been made easier Friday, when the team lost 39-12 to the Calgary Stampeders in pre-season action at Mosaic Stadium.
The Roughriders opened the pre-season May 27 with a 35-12 loss to the host Edmonton Eskimos, but Saskatchewan’s roster didn’t include many of the team’s front-line veterans.
Most of those players were in the lineup Friday, but others such as running backs Jerome Messam and Marcus Thigpen didn’t dress. Defensive ends Charleston Hughes and Willie Jefferson were in their jerseys for the pre-game ceremonies, but neither player had his helmet or shoulder pads.
As well, injuries kept players like receivers Rob Bagg and Chad Owens, offensive linemen Dariusz Bladek and Josiah St. John and defensive tackle Makana Henry out of the lineup.
Many of those players are safe, but some may be on the bubble.
“We’re not going to win or lose the Grey Cup off of a pre-season game that still doesn’t count (in the standings),” Jones said. “We’ve got to improve on some things as a football team.
“We’ve got to coach things a little bit better in order to get where we’re going and I’m a little perturbed that we’re not farther along than we are.”
The Roughriders are now winless in nine straight pre-season games. They’re 0-8-1 since defeating the Ottawa Redblacks 21-17 on June 14, 2014.
Saskatchewan opens its regular season June 15 against the visiting Toronto Argonauts.
“Obviously we’d like to go in with a little bit more confidence on offence,” said quarterback Brandon Bridge. “Two weeks ago when we faced Edmonton, we were kind of stagnant and this week, we were stagnant again.
“We have a great defence, but the offence has to pick it up against Toronto.”
The Stampeders opened the scoring at 12:08 of Friday’s first quarter, when Terry Williams returned a Josh Bartel punt 86 yards for a touchdown. Rene Paredes missed the convert attempt, leaving Calgary with a 6-0 lead.
That was Bartel’s fourth punt of the first quarter; Saskatchewan had just one first down to that point of the game.
Zach Collaros started at quarterback for the Roughriders and played the entire first quarter, completing four of 10 pass attempts for 26 yards.
The second quarter started with Tyler Crapigna kicking a 52-yard field goal that cut the Stampeders’ lead to 6-3.
Calgary stretched its lead at 6:17 of the second quarter when Bo Levi Mitchell found Kamar Jorden with a 40-yard TD pass. Paredes hit the convert to put the Stamps ahead 13-3.
The Roughriders’ defence had held and forced a punt, but cornerback Duron Carter was flagged for unnecessary roughness to extend the drive. Mitchell connected with Jorden on the next play.
After Paredes kicked a 20-yard field goal at 10:23 of the second quarter to give Calgary a 16-3 lead, the Stampeders took advantage of another infraction against Carter.
The receiver-turned-corner was hit with a 44-yard pass-interference penalty that gave Calgary a first down at the Roughriders’ 14-yard line. On the next play, Nick Arbuckle threw a 14-yard scoring pass to Nick Truesdell. Paredes’ convert made it 23-3 at 13:04 of the second and that was the score at halftime.
Paredes kicked a 29-yard field goal at 4:06 of the third quarter to stretch the lead to 26-3 — the only points of the frame.
Calgary made it 32-3 at 1:19 of the fourth quarter when Truesdell took a short pass from Larry Brihm Jr., broke a couple of tackles and scored from 21 yards out. The convert attempt failed.
The Roughriders reached the end zone at 4:32 of the fourth, when David Watford found Caleb Holley with a 34-yard scoring toss. A two-point convert attempt failed, making the score 32-9.
Saskatchewan had an opportunity to score again after recovering a fumble at the Calgary 23-yard line, but B.J. Daniels was intercepted at the goal line.
After a 37-yard completion to Richard Sindani and a rough-play penalty against Saskatchewan, Ricky Stanzi threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Boston Rowe. Gabriel Ferraro added the convert and the Stamps led 39-9 at 8:05.
Saskatchewan’s Brett Lauther completed the scoring with a 28-yard field goal at 13:44.
Jones said earlier in the week that Collaros and Bridge would take turns in the game, but circumstances changed as the game progressed. Neither man took a snap after Collaros was rocked midway through the third quarter.
“You could have blocked better than what we blocked in the third quarter and I didn’t want to risk our A-group (and) B-group quarterbacks going out there,” Jones told a reporter when asked why he made the move to play Watford and Daniels.
“The other guys have a little bit more mobility, so I put them in there. That way if it breaks down, they could move.”
Jones and his staff still have to make a decision on a starting quarterback. Collaros was 6-for-16 passing for 41 yards, while Bridge was 2-for-5 for 21 yards in limited action.
Watford was the most productive Roughriders QB, going 9-for-17 for 172 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Daniels was 0-for-3 with two picks.
“I don’t see anything positive coming out of tonight,” Jones said, “other than we’ve got a couple of guys on special teams that we got a really good solid look at.”
