Article content

The Saskatchewan Roughriders were up to their same old shenanigans in a season-ending, 41-18 CFL loss to the host B.C. Lions on Saturday night.

Once again, the offensive line was a sieve in terms of pass protection. The defensive line repeatedly got pushed back five or six yards in the run game. Defensive end Willie Jefferson was the only one who could get more than a regular whiff of a Lions quarterback.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Darian Durant is the only quarterback who can help the Roughriders win Back to video

The Riders’ defence once again proved that it doesn’t matter how good 80 per cent of your secondary is at man-to-man coverage. As long as the opposing quarterback has time to find the weak link, the result will often be a touchdown.

So there is nothing new to analyze with the Riders after Saturday night, except for who is behind Darian Durant on the quarterbacking depth chart.

Mitchell Gale got the start and completed six of 11 passes for 56 yards. He seemed comfortable running the first-team huddle. He showed a good understanding of the offence and got the ball out of his hands on time. That’s to be expected as Gale has been with the team for most of the season, has seen considerable game action, and has CFL experience dating back to 2013.