Roughriders fall to Alouettes 27-24 on Friday night

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Quarterback Trevor Harris threw for 355 yards in his return to the lineup, however Brett Lauther missed four of seven field goal attempts as the Saskatchewan Roughriders lost to the Montreal Alouettes 27-24 on Friday night.

In front of 28,123 fans at Mosaic Stadium in Week 11 of the CFL season, Lauther missed his fourth kick of the night as time expired which sealed the Alouettes victory, improving Montreal to 9-1 while the Riders dropped to 5-4-1 in the CFL standings.

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“A little heartbroken,” Roughriders head coach Corey Mace told reporters. “But that’s football.

“We’ve got to find ways to win close games. And I know the easy out is just to point at one person but boy, there was lots of other stuff out there that we could have done in crucial moments to not even put ourselves in that situation leaving it to the last one.”

Lauther had a tough night missing two kicks in the first quarter from 30 and 43 yards and two in the fourth quarter, including a 38 yarder that was returned 128 yards by Montreal’s James Letcher Jr. and another from 48 yards as time expired.

“Obviously a tough one,” Lauther said after the game. “Single-handedly losing that one for the guys was tough.

“Going out and doing that, it’s unacceptable … No excuses at all. Great snaps and holds the whole night.

“Guys will try to eat this one for me, but this is just solely on me. There’s no excuses for going out and doing that in a football game.”

While it wasn’t a great night, Lauther still made it a point to wait in his locker and meet the media following the game.

“When you lose like that, you’ve got a responsibility to the fans in the entertainment business to be here and face the music,” said Lauther, who connected on three other kicks and two converts. “For me, it was a tough night and like I said, just don’t want to beat myself too much.

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“The guys have been great, so supportive. No one was pointing fingers even though they had all the right to.

“I feel like the biggest liability on the team right now so never a good feeling but all I can do is come in, go back to work tomorrow and move on.”

In Mace’s post-game media availability, he said he still has confidence in the kicker despite the outing.

“He’s made a ton of big kicks for this team in the past and we’ve leaned on him certain games this year as well,” said Mace. “I have full faith in the guy otherwise we would just continue to go for it or something on third (down).

“Tough day for (Lauther), but we love him. He’s one of our team captains and we’re going to have to count on him when a game is on the line going forward.”

Aside from the missed field goals, Saskatchewan had chances to close the game out.

While the Alouettes led 10-7 at the half, the Riders opened up a 17-13 lead through three quarters after receiver KeeSean Johnson caught his first career touchdown pass from 12 yards out.

“Felt good to be back in the (end zone),” said Johnson, who had five catches for 90 yards. “But it always feels better with a W.”

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After Letcher scored on the missed field goal to put Montreal up 20-17, the Riders responded as Harris hit Mitch Picton for a 33-yard touchdown with seven minutes left to put Saskatchewan up 24-21.

With two minutes left and Montreal looking to answer, Riders’ defensive back Marcus Sayles was called for pass interference, which led to a 30-yard gain putting the Alouettes in scoring range.

“Honestly, I don’t think it was pass interference,” said Sayles. “I thought I played him pretty well.

“It just changes the game; changes the momentum. And it put us in a situation where we had to fight for our lives and unfortunately it just didn’t turn out our way.”

A few plays later, Alouettes’ quarterback Davis Alexander scrambled in from 15 yards out for the touchdown with 30 seconds left.

While replay angles appeared to show Alexander stepping out of bounds at the seven-yard line, the call on the field stood and Montreal went up 27-24 after the convert was missed.

“It’s out of my control,” said Mace, who challenged the pass interference call and could only watch as the CFL Command Centre ruled Alexander stayed in bounds. “Whether he stepped out or didn’t step out, the Command Centre is there to get the call right. And if that’s what they rule, that’s what they rule.

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“You’ve got to continue to play.”

Saskatchewan got the ball back with 23 seconds left and while Harris drove the team to field goal range, Lauther missed what would have been a kick to send the game to overtime.

“It’s not on Brett; it’s not on one player,” said Harris, who completed 31-of-39 passes and two touchdowns after missing six games with a knee injury. “I know that’s what people may do but I would urge people caution on that.

“I think all three phases are going to be able to look inward and see that we all could have made a difference and we didn’t capitalize on certain little things.

“Offensively, we easily could have sealed that game up. We had the ball in our hands with under three minutes (left) with the lead. We move the chains, we stay on the field, we win, and we didn’t do that.”

Rookie receiver Dohnte Meyers logged his second straight 100-yard game as he had eight catches for 101 yards to lead all Rider pass catchers. Running back A.J. Ouellette racked up 77 yards along the ground on 18 carries while also catching three passes for 34 yards.

Defensively, Saskatchewan sacked Alexander four times while also forcing two turnovers. The Green and White limited Als’ running back Walter Fletcher to 14 rushing yards, but they allowed Alexander to throw for 285 yards, including gains of 40, 36 and 34 yards.

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“I thought we did a good job getting after (Alexander),” said Mace. “Forcing him into some different throws (but) we had a couple busted coverages that he saw and took advantage of.”

Now on a four-game winless streak, the Riders will look to rebound on Thursday night in Toronto as they take on the 5-4 Argonauts in Week 12.

For Mace and the rest of the leaders, they are facing the adversity head on.

“You can’t avoid it,” said the head coach. “It’s easy when it’s roses, right.

“We can talk about how much we love each other and all that other stuff but when stuff hits the fans and it’s hard … We’re about to see how much we really care for, how much we want to work for one another.

“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. We have to band tighter and get our a** to work and find solutions.”

tshire@postmedia.com

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