Rider Nation in ugly mood after Saturday loss to Stampeders

Even the Roughriderssales department must have been cursing the coaching Saturday night.

A golden marketing opportunity, wasted as 33,000 fans left the stadium grumbling over what they had witnessed over the previous few hours.

The Riders' greatest asset, the fans, neutralised early as the Stampeders galloped out to a 24-0 first-quarter lead before pulling back on the reins into a trot to hold off the home team by a final score of 34-22.

Still, the Riders' head coach was proud of his team's character.

"That's the one positive that comes out of this, the guys have a good belief system, they kept on fighting, they kept on scratching," said Chris Jones after the loss.

Unfortunately the fans kept on booing.

Most were in disbelief as the Riders, despite being down by 24 points, stuck with an offensive game plan consisting of about a half-dozen plays.

Chris Jones was not a popular man Saturday, nor was offensive coordinator Stephen McAdoo.

Rider Nation was perhaps in its surliest mood since the Riders left the old stadium for the new one as it suffered through a non-stop reel of short screens and run plays.

Some likely hit the ditch listening to Jones' post-game comments when he promised to do the same thing next week.

Because, apparently, that's what successful teams do.

"Youbetter get used to it because we're going to do more of it," stated Jones, already looking ahead to Thursday's matchup against the Eskimos.

"I'm going to tell Edmonton right now, we're going to run the football, we're going to be running Sally, we're going to throw screens and that's what we're going to do, we're going to get good at that, play great defence and special teams."

Somehow, I don't think the Eskimos are too worried at this point because Jones' idea of successful football wasn't too inspiring against the Stampeders.

Saskatchewan's top receiver was a player from the defence and his name wasn't Duron Carter: Tobi Antigha returned an interception 52 yards for a touchdown 18yards more than the most productive pass catcher.

Caleb Holley chipped in with a whopping total of 34 yards on two catches.

Jordan Williams-Lambert caught the ball five times for a total of 19 yards.

The Riders' inability or reluctance to stretch the field, throw the ball further than 20 yards, comes from a lack of confidence in quarterback Brandon Bridge.

The coach said so himself.

"We've made a commitment attempting to try and be a ball control [offence]and try and slow the game down." said Jones.

"We're trying to get down to where Brandon can throw a higher percentage. When you're struggling throwing deeper routes, don't necessarily add up to more completions."

Bridge stuttered into the starting role after Zach Collaros suffered a concussion in week two.

His final tally against the Stampeders:19 completions on 29 attempts for 147 yards.

And what has become the norm in 2018, no touchdown passes.

The Roughriders have thrown just four touchdown passes in six games this season.

Their offensive game star Saturday was the kicker.

Brett Lauther was five for five including a 56-yarder.

Defensive end Charleston Hughes, who played ten seasons in Calgary before coming to Saskatchewan, sacked Bo Levi Mitchell twice in his first game against his former mates.

"I'm pretty proud of my performance out there and what we did, individually what I did," said Hughes, who leads the CFL with eight sacks.

"But when it comes down to it, it wasn't enough to win the game so it don't matter."

Hughes refused to point any fingers towards the offence, believing it's only a matter of time before they get it together.

Perhaps he's thinking of Collaros, who may be ready to return following the Riders bye week, but there's still a game to be played before then and Jones has already warned the Eskimos what he's going to do.

The Roughriders are now one-third of the way through the season playing .500 football.

Jones was asked if he felt his team was a good three-and-three or a bad three-and-three.

"I think if you polled most of the teams in the league, they know they have to strap it up when they play us, they're not going to look past us I assure you that."

The second-third starts Thursday and it's already advantage Edmonton Jones has already told them how he's going to play.

Run, screen, repeat.

We can hardly wait.