Taylor Shire, Regina Leader-Post
The Saskatchewan Roughriders got strong play from their defence, but couldn’t get enough going with a Mason Fine-led offence, losing to the host B.C. Lions 19-9 on Saturday night in Week 7 of the CFL season.
Fine — who was making his first start of the season for the Green and White in place of the injured Trevor Harris — completed 31-of-40 passes for 278 yards, but also threw two interceptions against a stingy Lions defence.
“Tough first game playing against arguably the best defence in the league,” said Riders’ head coach Craig Dickenson, whose team dropped to 3-3 with the loss. “I thought (Fine) showed great toughness and he showed great heart, so I was very pleased that he kept playing and kept working hard.
“We’ll clean up some stuff and I think he will play better his second game out. But it was a tough first game for him.”
One week after the Riders saw Harris go down with a tibial plateau fracture in his knee, Lions’ starter Vernon Adams Jr. left Saturday night’s game with a knee injury of his own after being sacked by Riders’ defensive lineman Pete Robertson early in the game.
However, the Lions, who improved to 5-1, had the luxury of having the CFL’s most experienced backup quarterback in former Hamilton Tiger-Cats starter Dane Evans, who has started 29 games in his five-year CFL career.
Evans went 16-of-25 for 219 yards in relief and engineered the only touchdown drive of the night on Saturday.
“Dane is a veteran quarterback, he can make all the reads unlike a young guy coming in there,” said Riders’ defensive lineman Micah Johnson, who had three tackles and one sack on the night. “That’s the luxury of having a quarterback like that backing up.”
While the Lions’ defence played Saskatchewan tight, so did the Riders’ defensive group. Not only did Saskatchewan pick up four quarterbacks sacks, but the team forced four turnovers, with three fumbles and an interception.
And it appeared Saskatchewan had another sack in the Lions’ end zone for what would have been a safety to open the scoring, but it was called back due to a roughing the passer call against Riders’ defensive lineman DeMarcus Christmas.
Dickenson challenged the penalty, but it was not overturned.
“I thought I was going to win that,” said the head coach. “That was just a tackle.
“You can hit him in the neck and head area but not with unnecessarily rough force and I felt like DeMarcus got him over the chest, his arm went over the shoulder, and I felt like it was a clean sack.”
And the penalty, which resulted in a fresh set of downs for B.C., proved to be costly as Evans would go on to march his team down the field on his first series of the game — finding Alexander Hollins in the end zone for the 27-yard touchdown — to open the scoring for the Lions.
And as Saskatchewan tried to respond to that score, the Lions defence didn’t allow Fine to move the ball down the field.
“I’ve got to give credit to the B.C. Lions, they’ve got a great team,” Fine told reporters after the game. “I thought we shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times there early in the first half.
“I felt like we were moving the ball, then something would happen, and it would kind of throw our rhythm off.”
The Riders cut the lead to 7-3 in the second quarter after long snapper Jorgen Hus recovered a fumble on an attempted on-side punt, which led to a Brett Lauther field goal.
In the second half, Riders’ defensive back Amari Henderson intercepted Evans at the Lions’ 52-yard line, which led to another Lauther field goal, trimming the lead to 7-6.
Evans and the Lions answered with a field goal of their own on a six-play, 45-yard drive to make it 10-6.
The Riders looked to respond, but a gamble on third-hand-two from their own 42-yard line, resulted in a turnover on downs.
The Lions would go on to kick a field goal to make it 13-6, and on the next series, Fine was intercepted by Lions’ defensive back Garry Peters. The Lions scored another field goal as a result, to lead 16-6.
And on the next series, Fine was picked off again, this time by B.C. defensive back Jalon Edwards-Cooper.
After the Riders recovered another fumble on a punt return, Fine connected with Tevin Jones for a 44-yard pass, the longest of the game for Saskatchewan, but the Riders couldn’t put it in the end zone as Lauther kicked his third field goal of the night with 1:53 to go, cutting the lead to 16-9.
The Riders attempted an on-side kick, but it was recovered by the Lions, who kicked a 44-yard field goal with 1:05 to go to restore their 10-point lead, making it 19-9.
As time winded down, Fine put together a drive to the B.C. 32-yard line, before taking a sack on the final play of the game.
Despite the losing effort, the head coach saw enough from the 26-year-old Fine to stay patient with his development.
“We’ve got to give him opportunities to grow and learn,” said Dickenson. “He did enough to earn the job and we’ll keep working with him and hopefully get him to play a little better and get everybody around him to play a little better.”
And the next test for the Fine and the Riders won’t get any easier as they are set to travel to Halifax for Touchdown Atlantic, where they will take on the 5-0 Toronto Argonauts on Saturday (2 p.m., TSN)
“You can’t get down on yourself the whole time, you’ve got a lot of weeks left in the season,” said Fine. “We’ve got to take the positives and learn from it and take it into that next week.”
Subhead: Riders injuries
Riders’ defensive lineman Bryan Cox Jr. went down in the second quarter with a left knee injury and did not return.
The Riders also lost receiver Mitch Picton for the second half after he entered concussion protocol. Safety Jayden Dalke also left the game in the second half with a shoulder injury.
