Needing a victory to secure a CFL playoff spot, the Saskatchewan Roughriders lost 26-19 to the Calgary Stampeders on Friday night.
Calgary trailed 13-0 before scoring 26 of the game’s final 32 points before 24,099 spectators at McMahon Stadium.
The Roughriders emerged from the West Division showdown with a 6-11 record and a six-game losing streak. Calgary, which has one game in hand, improved to 5-11.
“It’s a tough one,” defensive tackle Micah Johnson said in a quiet Roughriders dressing room. “We’ve been saying it every week, but a couple of plays changed the game.
“This one hurts. It’s no different from the rest of them.”
Saskatchewan is to conclude its regular season on Oct. 21 versus the Toronto Argonauts (2 p.m., Mosaic Stadium). The Roughriders have a bye during the final week of the regular season.
Calgary is to meet the host B.C. Lions next Friday before welcoming the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Oct. 27.
If the Roughriders and Stampeders finish the regular season with identical records, Calgary will get the nod by virtue of having won the season series with Saskatchewan.
“If we can win a ball game, we can make it pretty darned hard for Calgary to still catch us,” Roughriders Head Coach Craig Dickenson noted.
The Roughriders opened the scoring at 1:59 of the second quarter when Ryan Meskell, playing in his first CFL game, kicked a 34-yard field goal.
Meskell was a last-minute replacement for Brett Lauther, who missed Friday’s game due to illness.
Saskatchewan went up 10-0 at 8:25 of the second quarter when Meskell converted an 11-yard touchdown run by Jamal Morrow. The scoring run capped a six-play, 90-yard march that began with a 24-yard run by Morrow and included a 31-yard pass from Jake Dolegala to Kian Schaffer-Baker.
Another Meskell field goal, from 38 yards, increased the Riders’ lead to 13-0 at 12:36 of the second quarter.
Calgary got on the board when Saskatchewan punter Adam Korsak conceded a safety touch with 1:11 remaining before halftime.
Rene Paredes kicked a 44-yard field goal on the final play of the first half to reduce Saskatchewan’s lead to 13-5.
Meskell’s 43-yard field goal, which concluded the opening series of the second half, gave Saskatchewan a 16-5 advantage.
Calgary scored its first touchdown shortly after a Mario Alford fumble on a punt return gave the Stampeders possession on the visitors’ 15-yard line.
Following a first-down incompletion, Jake Maier found Floyd Allen for a TD at 8:28 of the third quarter. The convert by Paredes reduced the Roughriders’ lead to 16-12.
Calgary went ahead for the first time when Cameron Judge intercepted Dolegala and ran 33 yards for a TD at 13:30 of the third quarter. The convert put Calgary up 19-16.
“The pick-six was tough,” Dickenson said. “The turnover by Mario hurt us because it gave them a touchdown and got them close. With the pick-six, all of a sudden we were trailing.
“I felt like those two plays were the turning points. I don’t know if one was worse than the other, but those two hurt us.”
Meskell answered with his fourth field goal of the game — a 31-yarder just 39 seconds into the fourth quarter — and moved the Roughriders into a 19-19 tie.
“We got back out there and rebounded, but then we stalled again,” Dolegala said of the Roughriders’ response to Judge’s TD. “It would have been nice to have a touchdown on that following drive.”
Calgary regained the lead at 10:08 when Tommy Stevens scored on a one-yard quarterback sneak to complete a nine-play, 89-yard drive. The convert by Paredes gave the Stampeders a 26-19 lead.
EXTRA POINTS
• A moment of silence was held before the game to honour Roughriders icon George Reed and ex-Stampeder Cedric Gyles. Reed lived in Calgary from 1984 to 2009. He died on Oct. 1, one day shy of his 84th birthday. Gyles, who was the last surviving member of the Grey Cup-winning 1948 Stampeders, was 96 when he passed away on Sept. 24.
- Saskatchewan’s Shawn Bane Jr. caught seven passes for 103 yards. He is 23 yards shy of 1,000 for the season.
- Three of Friday’s four kicking specialists — Meskell, Korsak and Calgary punter Cody Grace — were born in Australia. Paredes, the exception, was born in Caracas, Venezuela.
- Roughriders offensive lineman Evan Johnson played in his 100th CFL game.
- Roughriders linebacker Larry Dean made two defensive tackles to hit an even 100 for the season. He is now one of only seven players in CFL history to have three or more seasons with 100-plus tackles. As well, Dean is only the second Roughrider to register multiple 100-tackle seasons, having made 101 stops last year. George White had 105 tackles for the 2000 Roughriders and 104 a year later.
