Taylor Shire
Regina Leader-Post
Justin McInnis came back to haunt his former team on Saturday night in Vancouver.
The former Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver had 14 catches for 243 yards and a touchdown as the B.C. Lions topped the Roughriders 35-20 in Week 6 of the CFL season.
The Riders — who lost their first game of the season to drop to 4-1 — couldn’t stop the aerial attack of the Lions, who improved to 5-1 to sit atop the West Division standings.
“I told these guys one of the first meetings of training camp I don’t want to go undefeated,” Riders’ head coach Corey Mace said after the game. “I’ve never actually seen it in this league.
“I’ve been part of a team that was 16-2; that’s the closest I’ve ever been but even that, there’s still two losses and you learn a lot about yourself as a team and how you respond.”
Lions’ quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. completed 26-of-42 passes for 451 yards with the lone touchdown to McInnis. Adams also had four carries for 39 yards and a touchdown along the ground.
“We were just blowing coverages,” said Mace. “We weren’t doing what we were supposed to do or we were blowing our pass rush responsibilities that buys more time for those guys to get open.
“In all three levels of the defence, we had some crucial mistakes tonight and they hurt us.”
Meanwhile Saskatchewan’s offence — led by quarterback Shea Patterson who was making his second career CFL start in place of the injured Trevor Harris — put up 340 yards of net offence.
Patterson went 17-of-25 for 278 yards, with receiver Samuel Emilus catching 161 of those yards on eight receptions. Running back A.J. Ouellette chipped in with 72 yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns.
“We’ve got a bit of a sour taste in our mouth right now,” said Patterson, who threw an interception on his first pass of the game. “Everybody in the locker room is pissed off but keeping our heads high.
“We’re going to learn from it and going to come back stronger and ready to go next week.”
While Adams torched the Riders’ secondary, Saskatchewan was able to force two turnovers as Rolan Milligan Jr. and Deontai Williams both snagged interceptions. The Riders only gave up two touchdowns, but they did allow seven field goals in the loss.
“Really didn’t have an answer for him,” Milligan said of covering McInnis. “He’s a tall receiver with a big catch radius so he was able to go up get a lot of those catches over the middle.”
B.C. took the lead on their first drive of the game as Sean Whyte kicked his first field goal to put the Lions up 3-0 early.
Later in the first quarter, Adams connected with McInnis for a touchdown as B.C. led 10-0.
After Patterson found Emilus for a 51-yard gain, Ouellette got the Riders on the board to make it 10-7 late in the first quarter before Whyte added a pair of field goals to make it 16-7.
Patterson and Emilus connected for a 50-yard gain shortly after, however Saskatchewan could only muster a field goal on the drive which made it 16-10.
Whyte added another field goal before halftime to make it 19-10 at the break.
The teams traded field goals in the third quarter to make it 22-13 before Saskatchewan made it 22-20 on Ouellete’s second TD of the night.
On the ensuing kickoff, Riders’ kicker Brett Lauther recovered his own kickoff, but Saskatchewan ended up fumbling the ball on the drive and that’s as close as they would get to the Lions, who added 13 points in the fourth quarter for the win.
“Anytime we got a little bit of momentum, they killed it,” said Mace. “It was just back and forth and then towards the end of it there, we lost composure and we did some things that losing teams do unfortunately, so we’ve got to clean a lot of stuff up.
“I told the guys I was proud of how hard they played — I thought they played hard and that was good to see — but we’re got to fix it from the top.”
While the Riders lost the game, they may have also lost a key offensive lineman as right tackle Jermarcus Hardrick went down with a left leg injury in the second half and had to be carted off the field. He was later seen on crutches on the sideline. Mace didn’t have an update following the game.
Saskatchewan will now look to rebound from its first loss of the season as they are set to host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Friday night at Mosaic Stadium in Week 7.
“This was something I think that we needed,” Mace said of the loss. “It’s early in the season so that’s a plus.
“You never want it to be the one when you end up losing one unfortunately. Certainly didn’t want it obviously this week but the reality is what it is and we’ve got to fix it because we’ve got a big game next week.”
tshire@postmedia.com
