Riders routed by Montreal; record falls to 4-5

The Saskatchewan Roughriders fell 41-12 on Friday night to the Montreal Alouettes. The team's offence was never able to find its footing after losing their starting quarterback, Mason Fine, to injury early on.

Caleb Evans made his first start of the season for the Alouettes in place of Cody Fajardo and made an immediate impact. 

A two yard rush for Evans would open the scoring and the extra point was good to make it 7-0 with 10:33 to go in the first quarter. 

With just over three minutes to go in the quarter, Saskatchewan kicker Brett Lauther successfully hit a 32 yard field goal to cut the lead and make it 7-3. 

On the Alouettes' first drive of the second quarter, they would once again find the back of the endzone on another touchdown from Evans. The extra point was good to make it 14-3 for Montreal with just over 10 minutes to go before half.

“We couldn’t get those turnovers that we needed, They started off hot and they just kept on going. It was a momentum game. We just didn’t play our best ball tonight,” said linebacker, Derrick Moncrief. 

With just under five minutes to go until halftime, Mason Fine slid awkwardly on a run play and began to favour his right hamstring. He did not return to the game. That would lead to the Riders having to put backup Jake Dolegala into the game. 

“We feel good about Jake, so I didn’t feel like it was an emotional let down. I think Mason’s going to be okay, we’re optimistic that it won’t be a long term injury,” said head coach, Craig Dickenson on the situation. 

“Obviously it sucks for Mason to go down, you never want to see that happen. But he’ll be back before you know it, I don’t really know what’s going on with him. But that’s my job as a backup to be ready,” said Dolegala. 

Dolegala threw an interception on just his second play but the Riders' defence answered back as Amari Henderson intercepted a pass in the endzone and brought it out to get Saskatchewan the ball back.

However, Dolegala did not earn a first down in his second possession, leading to Montreal garnering decent field position. That would result in a 33 yard field goal to make it 17-3 for the Alouettes at halftime. 

Fine was 5/9 and 20 yards in the first half. Dolegala was 2/5 and 18 yards. 

The Riders only had 57 rushing yards and 38 passing yards in the first half compared to the Alouettes' 108 rushing yards and 90 passing. 

“We’ll look at the film and all 45 of us need to get better and all the coaches need to make some improvements. There’s a lot for everybody to get better at,” stated Dickenson. 

The second half did not get off on the right foot for the Riders as Evans would find Austin Mack for a 56 yard touchdown and with the extra point, it was then a 24-3 game with just under 12 minutes to go in the third quarter. 

Saskatchewan struggled to get anything going on offence in the third quarter and Montreal capitalized on their side of the ball. With just over two minutes left in the third, a 19 yard rushing touchdown from Jeshrun Antwi and extra point increased the lead by 28. Those stood as the final points of the quarter. 31-3 for Montreal with 15 minutes to go in the game. 

Through three quarters, the Riders had 72 passing yards and 76 rushing yards, for a total of 141 net yards. The Alouettes had 144 passing and 145 rushing, for 282 net yards. Both teams had only allowed one turnover at this point. 

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Saskatchewan opened the fourth quarter with a 44 yard field goal to make it 31-6.

The game went from bad to worse though for the Riders as a sack and fumble on Dolegala led to a 25 yard return for touchdown by linebacker Tyrice Beverettee. Once again, the extra point was good to make it 38-6 with just under 12 minutes remaining in the game. 

Finally, the Riders did get into the endzone on a one yard rush from Dolegala but the feeling of ‘too little too late’ was prominent. Saskatchewan was unsuccessful on the two-point convert to make the score 38-12 with under six minutes to go. 

Montreal had the final scoring play of the game with a 37 yard field goal with 1:05 remaining. 

That led to a 41-12 final. 

Dolegala finished the game 11/20 for 107 yards and 1 touchdown. 

“We have to be better as a unit, myself included. There’s decisions that can be made quicker, trusting guys. Montreal they did a really good job scheme wise,” said Dolegala on the performance. 

“We knew it was going to be a tough game. I’m not going to say much but we’ll watch the film and try to make corrections and we have to get better for next week. We got beat in a lot of different ways and we’re going to work hard this week and try to have a good bounce back,” said Dickenson. 

Montreal improves to 5-3 on the season Saskatchewan falls to 4-5.

The Riders host the BC Lions on Sunday, Aug. 20.