Riders fall to Stamps for second straight week, lose 22-19

It was a frustrating loss for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

“I felt like we should have won this game,” defensive tackle Micah Johnson said following the Riders’ 22-19 loss to the Calgary Stampeders at Mosaic Stadium on Saturday. “I think guys are playing hard but obviously this is not where we want to be.”

It was the second week in a row that the Riders fell to Calgary in pivotal games in a close race for second place in the CFL’s West Division.

“(Our team) played hard. We didn’t play very well, we’re was disappointed in that, but I was happy they did the best they could. They left it all out there,” Riders head coach Craig Dickenson said. “We’ve just got to find a way to play a little bit better.”

In their first meeting a week earlier, the Stampeders jumped out to a 14-0 lead after their first two offensive possessions.

While the Riders said they needed to have a faster start on defence, on the very first offensive play of Saturday’s game, Stamps quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell connected with slotback Markeith Ambles for a 71-yard touchdown.

“That’s literally the opposite way you want to start the game,” Johnson said. “You just have to reset and keep on going … Guys are sick about that happening.”

Mitchell went 20-for-28 passing for 296 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions while improving to 5-1 in Regina and 11-3 against the Riders in his career.

Calgary running back Ka’Deem Carey also enjoyed a lot of success on the ground Saturday, rushing for 109 yards while also catching five passes for 69 yards. He was a physical force, running through would-be tacklers for most of the night.

“You’ve got to want to tackle him and if you don’t, he’s going to expose you. He’s a big guy and gets north to south fast and you’ve got to make up your mind that you want to hit him,” Johnson said. “If you don’t, I feel like he’s the type of running back who can feel that and he can see when guys don’t really want to tackle him.”

Dickenson said Calgary took advantage of the Riders’ weakness in their perimeter run game.

“We’ve got to figure out how to fix it. The reality is good coaches — and Dave Dickenson is a good football coach — will find weaknesses in your personnel and what you are doing,” Dickenson said.

Riders quarterback Cody Fajardo finished the game with 20 completions on 31 attempts for 191 yards and a touchdown, which was caught by slotback Ricardo Louis.

Fajardo felt that penalties and inefficiency on first down led to their loss.

“I preach it almost every week and it seems like every time we lose, we don’t do a good job on first down and get into second and long,” Fajardo said, who dropped to 0-4 in his career against Calgary as a starter.

“We’ve got to capitalize on our opportunities. We had two turnovers and where we had an opportunity on the 35- or 40-yard line, we came away with three points in each one of those drives.

“(You can’t beat) the good football teams by kicking field goals.”

Fajardo nearly connected with slotback Brayden Lenius for a touchdown, with the second-season CFLer jumping over Calgary defenders to come down with the ball. But the heel of his foot just touched the white out-of-bounds line, voiding the play.

“I thought I was in,” Lenius said. “When I fell, I saw one foot inbounds.”

Both defences were strong throughout the game, only giving up one touchdown apiece and forcing the opposition to settle for field goals.

Riders kicker Brett Lauther was 4-for-4 on his kicks while Calgary kicker Rene Paredes was 5-for-6 on his, including the 44-yard game-winner with no time left on the clock.

The Riders fall to 5-4 while Calgary creeps closer to the Riders in the West Division standings, now at 4-5 and holding the tiebreaker.

“We knew we needed to win two out of three (against Calgary),” said Craig Dickenson, whose team is to face the Stamps again after its bye week. “They are right there on our tail now and it’s going to make every game that much more important.

“That group is frustrated in there and our coaches are a little frustrated too.”

The Riders are to play the Stamps in Calgary on Oct. 23.

“I think it’s a great time (for a bye). Re-energize our batteries and get away for a little bit,” Fajardo said. “I’ll have a great week with my wife and come back and make this final push with five games remaining.”