Riders losing streak reaches four, fall to the Lions

The Saskatchewan Roughriders road struggles continued as the B.C. Lions roared to a win.

Saskatchewan got some scores late in the game but ultimately lost 33-26 at B.C. Place and have now lost four games in a row and have a six-game road losing streak as well.

“We have to play better and we have to play better for 60 minutes. We have our moments but we haven’t been able to put it together for 60 minutes,” said Riders head coach Craig Dickenson. “We play well at times but we make mistakes at critical times and allow teams to score too easily or turn the football over. Even on special teams, we had a couple of plays that were uncharacteristic of us. We are usually a better unit than that.

“I told the men in the locker room we are all in this together — we have to win two of the next three.”

Dickenson said that the Riders’ recent woes ultimately fall on him as the head coach.

“If our team is not prepared and not executing, that falls on me as the head coach,” Dickenson said. “You can point the finger at me and I’ll take it — I have to do a better job of preparing the team and I need to do a better job of getting the coaches on board with the gameplan and calling it the way I see we should be calling it.

“I think for the most part they do — I’m not unhappy with my coaches at all. I think I have a good staff and they work hard and put in everything they have.

“Ultimately at the end of the day, it falls on me. If we don’t do well this year, I’m sure there will be some consequences for that and that’s just what you sign up for as a coach. I understand.”

Lions quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. threw for 458 yards and three touchdowns in the game. Last time out, Adams Jr. threw for 455 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception in a 34-29 loss to the Riders.

“My job is to score one more point than them. He does what he does and plays the game like he does, we have to be able to match that and do one better,” said Riders quarterback Jake Dolegala. “We didn’t do that tonight. I thought coach (Kelly Jeffrey) called a really good game —  a couple missed throws, a couple of miscommunications between me and the guys, we just have to do better.

“It’s frustrating when you’re that close. We know we can beat this team and we know we can hang with this team and we can’t keep doing this too little, too late nonsense. It’s getting old.”

BC Lions Josh Woods (2) tries to block pass by Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Jake Dolegala (9) during first half of CFL football action in Vancouver, B.C., on Sept. 29, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns)

Dolegala threw for 409 yards but threw two interceptions and no touchdowns in the loss.

Saskatchewan’s three majors were scored on the ground — two by Canadian running back Thomas Bertrand-Hudon and one by short-yardage quarterback Antonio Pipkin.

The score was 33-12 before the Riders rattled off two touchdown drives within the final 1:20 of the game.

“You can take away the fact you can score the ball. We are able to move the ball and are able to do those things. There are positives there and you have to look at that,” Dolegala said. “You have to go back and watch the film and look at things you could do a lot better.

“That’s the most important thing. The points are great and I don’t want to say they are meaningless because that’s not the truth — we were still in the game, it’s just too little too late and it’s not good enough.”

Kian Schaffer-Baker led the way for the Riders on offence, hauling in 104 yards in the loss.

“No one likes losing, I hate it especially,” Schaffer-Baker said. “You can’t dwell and just beat yourself up about it. There’s no such thing as a loss, there’s only lessons from it. We’re going to be right back there the next day learning from our mistakes and how we can get better going into the next week.”

With the Lions’ potent aerial attack, the rushing offence wasn’t used much in the game. B.C. only ran the ball 13 times for 64 yards. Coming into the game, the Riders had given up 721 yards on the ground over the last three games.

Safety Jayden Dalke, who had a team-leading eight tackles in his return to the lineup, said everyone is disappointed in the Riders’ locker room.

“No one goes, ‘Hooray, we lost.’ The flip side of it is we were out there until the last seconds and I didn’t see a lot of quit in the guys around me which is always positive because if you have guys who aren’t willing to put it on the line for the guy next to you, then you have a bigger problem,” Dalke said. “With that not being the problem, I still think we have a lot to go with moving forward, a lot to work with, so it’s a bit quiet, frustrated but we’re just going to try to stick together as best we can but if we just separate at this point, it’s not going to do anyone any good.

“We’re still unified, we’re just trying to figure out what we need to do to flip this around.”

Riders kicker Brett Lauther made one of two field goal attempts but was battling with an upper-body injury for much of the game. He was good on all three of his convert attempts.

Saskatchewan punter Adam Korsak added a single point in the game.

Lions (11-4) got a perfect night from kicker Sean Whyte, who made all four field goal attempts and three of his converts.

Saskatchewan (6-9) will hope for better fortunes at home as they host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (6-8) on Saturday.