Roughriders’ comeback falls short in loss to Blue Bombers

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The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ comeback bid fell short in the Labour Day Classic.

A 22-point second quarter powered the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers to a 35-33 win over the Roughriders on Sunday in front of 33,861 fans at Mosaic Stadium in Regina in Week 13 of the CFL season.

With the loss, the Riders — who are now winless in six games — drop to 5-6-1 on the year. Winnipeg (6-6) now occupies the top spot in the West Division as they hold the tiebreaker over the B.C. Lions (6-6) who are in second.

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For the third-place Riders, Sunday’s two-point loss followed a one-point loss, a three-point loss and a tie in their last four contests.

“I felt like the guys fought hard,” said Riders’ veteran defensive lineman Micah Johnson, who was forced to play right guard for the majority of the game after injuries to offensive linemen Peter Godber and Zack Fry. “I feel like it’s been the same thing every week; one of two plays here and it’s a different complexion of the game.

“We’ve just got to find a way to be more detailed and just understand that those small details matter and add up in the biggest moments.”

The Riders will now look to exact revenge Saturday (1 p.m., TSN, CTV) as they travel to Winnipeg for the rematch in the Banjo Bowl.

“When the guys are putting everything out there, you’d like to be rewarded,” said Riders’ head coach Corey Mace. “We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole early in the game and we were just a hair short of climbing out of it.

“We’ve got to go in their house and push to pay them back for what they got us here in ours.”

After Bombers’ short-yardage quarterback Chris Streveler opened the scoring for Winnipeg in the first quarter, Saskatchewan responded as quarterback Trevor Harris found Shawn Bane Jr. for an 11-yard touchdown pass.

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Saskatchewan made it 14-7 as Harris connected with Dohnte Meyers for an 18-yard touchdown before the Bombers answered back with quarterback Zack Collaros throwing a 44-yard touchdown pass to Nic Demski.

After scoring a rouge on the ensuing kickoff to go up 15-14, the Bombers added to their lead after Saskatchewan’s Mario Alford fumbled a punt which was recovered by Bombers’ defensive back Nick Hallett for the touchdown.

Later in the quarter, Saskatchewan was called for pass interference and roughing the passer on the same play as Riders’ defensive lineman Miles Brown delivered a high hit on Collaros, who did not return to action after the hit.

After the penalties put Winnipeg on the one-yard line, Streveler punched in his second touchdown of the game to put the Bombers up 29-14 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Saskatchewan’s Brett Lauther hit field goals from 55 and 25 yards to cut the lead to 29-20 before Winnipeg added a field goal of their own to restore the 12-point lead.

Saskatchewan then got to within one score after Harris hit KeeSean Johnson in the end zone to make it 32-27 in the fourth quarter.

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After Winnipeg kicked a field goal with 1:52 left to go up by eight, Harris put together a 10-play, 89-yard drive — which was capped off by a one-yard touchdown plunge — to make it 35-33 with 14 seconds left.

However on the two-point convert, Harris’ pass was knocked down by Bombers’ linebacker Tony Jones.

“Disheartening to not get this one for sure,” said Harris, who completed 30-of-49 passes for 368 yards and three touchdowns to go along with four carries for 27 yards and a touchdown along the ground. “It’s frustrating to put together the clutch drives that we did and then just to not get the two-point conversion, which is the easy part.

“I thought I saw the field pretty well tonight and moved through progressions well and whatnot but that one I just didn’t locate him. Unfortunate. I’ll probably have some times I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and think about that (two-point convert).”

Saskatchewan still had one final chance after Lauther’s on-side kick was recovered and the Bombers were called for pass interference on the next play.

However, a 60-yard field goal attempt as time expired fell short.

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“Luck is on your side sometimes and sometimes it’s not,” said Mace. “But there was multiple things that happened tonight that I thought we could have done better that we’ve been preaching.

“And it puts us in tough situations.”

Despite their current skid, Harris said the Riders still believe they have what it takes to  contend in the West Division.

“I wouldn’t rather be with any other group in the league than this group right here,” said Harris. “We have the DNA of a championship team and I think we’re going to look back here in a month and a half and like where we’re at.”

tshire@postmedia.com

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