Inside the CFL: Riders’ loss but a blip on hot regular season

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on September 25, 2025.

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A couple of weeks ago the second-place Montreal Alouettes rolled into Regina and routed the Roughriders 48 -31.

Last Friday the fourth-place B.C. Lions feasted on horse meat at McMahon, 52-23. As my friend the late Bill Powers, longtime Stampeder radio analyst, used to cry, “Will no one stop this senseless slaughter?” What’s going on here?

Usually the victim in one-sided games is a bad team.

But the Riders and Stampeders were in first and second place with the best defences in the league. After the loss, Dave Dickenson said, “Hard to watch because it doesn’t look like us.”

It hasn’t looked like them since the second half of the Labour Day Game which they won.

The week before that QB, Vernon Adams Jr.’s head barely glanced off a visitor’s knee and he hasn’t been the same since. He sustained a rib injury last Friday against B.C.

His backup P.J. Walker broke his arm. If Adams Jr. can’t play, the Stampeders may not make the playoffs. First half of the season was a dream, the second half so far, a nightmare.

The Riders loss is just a blip.

Their veteran cornerbacks Marcus Sayles and Tevaughn Campbell were injured. Head coach Corey Mace opted to replace them with Kerfalla Exume and Benny Sapp III, who was playing his first ever CFL game.

Montreal’s journeyman quarterback MacLeod Bethel Thompson picked them apart. Mace should have moved other members of the defensive backfield around rather than going with a raw rookie. At 10-2, their best start to a season since 1970, the Riders were ready for a letdown.

Flush.

It wasn’t the worst defeat in franchise history.

The Riders were eviscerated 67-21 at Hamilton Oct. 15, 1962. After the game, Roughrider star running back Ray Purdin yelled, “Let’s get on the bus before they score another.” They made the playoffs that year. The following season Ron Lancaster and George Reed arrived to lead the greatest dynasty in Roughrider history.

The year of 1959 was disastrous for the Green and White finishing last winning only one game. They sustained their biggest home loss in team history, 61-8 to Winnipeg Aug. 29, 1959. Five days earlier they were shutout 55-0 in Edmonton. But there were great moments, too.

They won the Labour Day Classic over Winnipeg 52-0 in 2012. They scored their most points against Ottawa, Aug. 7, 1989, winning 58-22. Perhaps the most interesting game came at Taylor Field against Calgary, July 28, 2000.

That year marked the beginning of a new era in Saskatchewan football history.

Former Stampeder super scout Roy Shivers became the first black GM in CFL history. He brought with him a former Red and White QB Danny Barrett who also was black, as his head coach. Their quarterback was Dave Dickenson’s Calgary backup Henry Burris. They owed their careers in the CFL to Wally Buono. On a magnificent summer night, the teams played to a 52-52 overtime tie. I loved every minute of it. With the exception of Barrett, all the principals that night are in the Hall of Fame.

After the deadlock, the ever brash Burris told Buono he was lucky to salvage a tie. Six days after the mega tie they lost 62-7 in Montreal. The Riders have been competitive ever since.

Calgary’s biggest wins? They defeated Montreal 62-22 July 10, 1996 and they beat the Lions 62-21at McMahon July 29, 1994.

That game resembled last Friday’s loss in that both were good teams. B.C. edged Calgary in the Western Final and kept the Grey Cup out of American hands a week later. Their worst home defeat was a July 29, 1989 54-4 loss to Edmonton, Their worst defeat ever came in Toronto 70-8 Sept. 20, 1990.

Both years they made the playoffs.

Memo to the CFL commissioner:

There have always been lots of touchdowns in the CFL. The 2025 season has been one of the most exciting years in league history, especially with all those games decided in the last three minutes.

The reaction to announced changes reminds me of Stephen Leacocks words: “He … flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.”

I’ll take some time to think about them.

Meanwhile, Calgary is in Montreal tomorrow facing a team with quarterback problems. The Roughriders play in Edmonton on Saturday and should bounce back.

Calgary? Unlikely.

Graham Kelly has covered the CFL for the Medicine Hat News for 53 years. Feedback for this column can be emailed to sports@medicinehatnews.com.