Packed Mosaic witnesses another Rider loss, 19-10 to Stamps

There wasn’t much more the Riders can say that hasn’t been already.

The Roughriders are now 1-6 on the season after losing to Calgary Saturday night. There were no real answers – the team just has to be better.

“We’ve got to score more points, can’t turn the ball over, drop balls – just a lot of missed opportunities when we got in scoring range,” Durant said.

The final score was 19-10.

It was the offence in this game that struggled more than the defensive did.

The game with marred by receiver drops and a fumble by Durant in the red zone that was recovered by Calgary.

Durant finished the game 24 of 37 for 267 yards.

The Riders only touchdown was rushed in by Mitchell Gale, after the team was stuffed at the goal line and a Calgary penalty.

The Riders draft pick, kicker Quinn van Gylswyk, was shaky in his first CFL game. He was one for three in field goals, missing wide on the first, nailing a 54 yarder on the second and hitting the goal post on the third.

And perhaps no one was beating themselves up more in the locker room afterwards than he was.

“I feel like I should have played better and I let the team down,” van Gylswyk said.

“I just wasn’t hitting the ball good today, some days you don’t have it.”

He teammates were supportive, though, and reiterated their trust in his abilities as a kicker.

“Just keep your head up,” Kendial Lawrence said when asked what he would say to van Gylswyk after the game. “Come to work next week and make every field goal. This is football, you’re not going ot make every one of (them) … We trust you, we got your back.”

Likewise, head coach Chris Jones wasn’t discouraged by van Gylswyk’s performance.

“He’s a rookie kicker,” Jones said. “He’s a good kicker. He also hit a 50-something yarder too, and there’s not many people who can do that. He’s a guy that can do all three, we think very highly of him and he just needs to keep on, like everybody else, just needs to keep on working.”

As for his assessment of the game, Jones said the offence will need to make less mistakes and penalties and the defence was improving, but he finds no real comfort in that.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s the first one or this one here, a loss is a loss. It makes me want to throw up,” he said.

GAME NOTES

• Kendial Lawrence rushed for 45 yards, the longest was a 14 yard run. Jones believes he’s going to “pop one through” one of these times.
• Naaman Roosevelt was the top receiver with 79 yards.
• Greg Jones led the defence with for tackles and a quarterback sack. Corvey Irvin also managed to get his hands on Bo Levi Mitchell.
• The third quarter saw the ball change hands three times in quick succession when the ball was fumbled by Jerome Messam and recovered by Major Culbert, then fumbled by Durant and recovered by Stampeder Joe Burnett before Mitchell was intercepted by Justin Cox.  The Riders were unable to capitalize though and the series ended with a punt.