Mitchell Blair
If successful, it might arguably have been the greatest comeback in the history of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the CFL, however it wasn’t meant to be under the lights at Mosaic Stadium Friday night as the West leading Calgary Stampeders knocked off the green-and-white 31-24.
For most of the game, it looked as if the only excitement for the home crowd would come from an event just before the game when a small fire broke out above the Maxtron scoreboard as the Riders offence was non-existent, but the team fought back to tie the game only to have Calgary get the winning points on a Drew Tate touchdown from the one yard line with less than a minute to play.
It was a contest that left Head Coach Corey Chamblin in a second-guessing mood after the contest as he took full responsibility for the loss by making what he calls the wrong decision.
With four minutes to play and the Riders facing a third and one from the Calgary 51 and a tie game, Chamblin elected to punt instead of going for it to keep a possible game winning drive going. His thought process was that a defense that once again had played extremely well would hold Tate and the Stampeders giving his team time to perhaps get the winning points and send the crowd of over 33-thousand home in an ecstatic mood.
The plan failed though as Tate led the Stamps on a 12 play, 85 yard time swallowing drive that gave the Riders very little chance to come back again. A very solemn Chamblin wishes he could have a second chance on his ill-fated decision.
“I’m still kicking myself right now about that. “Chamblin muttered. “We should have went for it on third-and-one. We’ve got to have confidence that we can get one yard. If we can’t get one yard, we need to move forward. We’ve got to have confidence that we can get that yard. Out of everything out of that whole game, that’s my biggest regret right there. Whether we win the game or lose the game, I’ve still got to stay aggressive. I can’t play soft there.’’
While Chamblin was bothered by making the wrong call in his mind, quarterback Tino Sunseri defended it. Sunseri helped engineer the second half comeback to take over for an ineffective Seth Doege and proceeded to go 16 of 19 for 289 yards and a touchdown as he had his best outing in a Riders uniform. The 2nd year Rider had no problem with what Chamblin did, but he questioned if the decision even had to be made.
“No. That was a good call by Coach Chamblin. He understood the situation and tried to pin them deep and play into that situation.” Sunseri told reporters. “ With the way our defence was playing, I trust our defence in that situation 10 out of 10 times. I think Coach Chamb made a great call. If anything, I thought that was really, really close to the first down whenever the guy touched me. That was the only thing that I was contemplating: Did I actually get the first down before the guy touched me?”
While Chamblin goes over the decision in his mind, the defence had to answer questions about what happened on the last drive. Macho Harris says it was a blown opportunity.
“I’ll give them credit for what they did at the end. We had to step up and make that stop, but it didn’t happen so it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.” Harris said. “It hurts a lot, but the season isn’t over and this team is full of character. We’ve been in a lot of close games and we’ve won a lot of them, but tonight we didn’t. “
With the loss which is Saskatchewan’s 3rd straight, they fall to a record of 9-5. They will now have over a week to prepare for their next contest. That game will go in Montreal on Thanksgiving Monday in an 11 AM start Saskatchewan time.
GAME NOTES:
- Dan DePalma’s 66 yard touchdown ended a pointless streak of over 102 minutes for the Riders
- The Riders had 386 yards of total offence compared to Calgary’s 325
- Rookie receiver Brett Swain had his most productive game catching four passes for 59 yards
- Since 2012, the Riders are 26-16 in games started by Darian Durant. They are 2-6 without Durant in the lineup.
