Roughriders fall to Stampeders 27-12 in final regular season game

The Calgary Stampeders picked up their first road victory of the season Saturday, defeating the Saskatchewan Roughriders 27-12 in the final regular-season game of the year.

The Stampeders, who finish the CFL season in last place in the West Division with a 5-12-1 record, tossed a little bit of salt into Saskatchewan's already disappointing day.

"I just didn’t feel like we had the juice tonight and it showed," Head Coach Corey Mace said following the game. "It feels negative honestly tonight because we really wanted this game. But myself and everyone else we have work to do tomorrow."

The Riders entered play with an outside chance of finishing in first place in the West. Saskatchewan needed the Montreal Alouettes to beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the early game of the day, which would give the Riders the opportunity to move into first place by beating the Stampeders.

Winnipeg defeated Montreal 28-27 to clinch first place. The Bombers will host the West Division final on Nov. 9, while the 9-8-1 Riders host the B.C. Lions on Nov. 2 in the West semifinal. The Winnipeg game was broadcast on the big screen at Mosaic Stadium leading up to the game.

"If I’m being on honest, I was on the field and sitting on the bench and kind of just watching our specialists kicking [during their warmup]. So the fans out there let me know the reaction of what happened," Mace shared.

With the Winnipeg victory, the Riders made a number of roster changes, removing defensive back Rolan Milligan, running back A.J. Ouellette and receivers KeeSean Johnson and Samuel Emilus. They also chose to start Shea Patterson at quarterback in place of veteran pivot Trevor Harris.

"We thought about it throughout the week and mentioned it to the guys towards the end of the week, potential roster moves in the situations and scenarios," said Mace. "The timing of it worked out pretty good for us to get a proper warm up and everyone understood the situation so we had no excuses tonight."

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Patterson played most of the first half and struggled, completing just six of 13 passes for 62 yards. The Riders were held to 104 yards of total offence in the first half. Rookie Jack Coan replaced Patterson for the final possession of the first half and played the remainder of the contest for the Riders.

"It was definitely tough emotionally because you come into the day knowing you might possibly be playing and sure enough it came down to the last second. But it was bittersweet because we’d like to have the first round bye but then again, I got to play," Coan told reporters.

Coan finished the night 10 for 21 and 100 yards, including one touchdown pass to Jerreth Sterns.

"It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten live game action, not including pre-season. But it was fun to be back out there."

Calgary quarterback Jake Maier had a slow start, completing just one of his first seven passes. He got in a groove late in the first quarter, connecting with Clark Barnes on passes of 40 and 33 yards, respectively. The second Barnes reception went for a touchdown to give the Stampeders a 7-3 lead.

The Stampeders increased their lead to 14-3 midway through third quarter when Maier hit Cam Echols on a nine-yard touchdown reception.

On the first play of the fourth quarter Marken Michel hauled in a 67-yard touchdown pass from Maier, making the score 24-6.

In the fourth quarter, Coan threw his first CFL touchdown hitting Jerreth Sterns on a 19-yard pass. A failed two-point convert left the score at 24-12.

Maier completed 19 of 26 passes for 293 yards and three touchdowns. Dedrick Mills had 128 yards rushing on 20 carries for the Stampeders.

Rene Paredes had two field goals for the Stampeders while Brett Lauther kicked two field goals for the Riders.

Demerio Houston, Julian Howsare and Justin Sambu each had a sack for Calgary. Jayden Dalke and Benoit Marion had sacks for Saskatchewan.

The Riders will return to on-field activities on Tuesday to prepare for their West Semi-final matchup versus BC and the team is already excited for the challenge.

“I think the eagerness is to get to it is certainly there. We have our work cut out for us," Mace shared.

"Our focus is to completely shift from feeling what we have now. But at the end of the day it’s football. We kick the ball off, we have a job to do, and we did not accomplish that tonight so that’s the disappointing part."

-With files from The Canadian Press