MOSAIC PLACE RECAP: RIDERS 37 BOMBERS 19

Quarterback Brett Smith threw for 211 yards and rushed for 59 yards as Saskatchewan beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 37-19 on Sunday for the Roughriders first victory of the year. The win comes after head coach Cory Chamblin was fired on Monday, replaced by Bob Dyce in the interim.

“Everybody is excited and I think we’re going to celebrate it tonight, but there’s a bigger mission that these players and these coaches have,” said Smith. “It’s just not about one win. It’s about finishing strong and getting as many wins as we can to make the playoffs and eventually the Grey Cup.”

The Riders (1-9) pulled to within four points of the fourth-place Blue Bombers and now sit six points behind the B.C. Lions (4-5).

Despite a horrendous 0-9 start to the season, Saskatchewan has hope for a second-half push for the playoffs. But it won’t be easy.

They’ll complete the home-and-home series with the Blue Bombers next week before they play host to the Ottawa Redblacks and Montreal Alouettes to close out September. They’ll face three West Division rivals in October, as well as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Photo courtesy Cindy Pedersen

“We still have lot work to do,” said receiver Ryan Smith. “We have been preaching all week to just go 1-0 each week and continue to work at it. We’ll see the results like we did today.”

Jerome Messam rushed for a team-high 73 yards for the Riders. Nick Demski scored his first professional touchdown against his hometown team – on a 60-yard punt return – for Saskatchewan.

“It felt pretty good,” said the first-year Riders receiver, who had 107 combined return yards. “Hopefully it rubbed it in their face a little bit. It definitely was a great feeling to score my first touchdown against my hometown Winnipeg Blue Bombers.”

Demski’s big play changed momentum in the favour of the Riders, who handed the Bombers (3-7) their fourth straight defeat.

“I’m happy for Nick to score against his hometown team,” said Dyce, also a product of Winnipeg. “I had bugged him after the Ottawa game saying he didn’t know how to get to the end zone? That was a huge spark for us (today). It was our first touchdown of the game, it tied up the game and it was just a really big play.”

Winnipeg quickly jumped out to a 10-0 lead before the game was seven minutes old thanks to a Lirim Hajrullahu field goal and a one-yard touchdown run from quarterback Brian Brohm.

Saskatchewan countered with a Paul McCallum field goal early in the second quarter, which set the stage for Demski after the defence forced a quick two and out.

Photo courtesy Mrs. SportsCage

“Everybody had great leverage and I just saw the hole,” Demski said of his return. “Everyone did their job and I found the hole and ran to open space and then into the end zone.”

The Riders tacked on 19 consecutive points after Demski’s score – two field goals from McCallum, a 27-yard touchdown reception from Ryan Smith and a one-yard run from Rob Bagg – to flatten the Blue Bombers.

Brohm completed 21-of-26 pass attempts for 184 yards, with his favourite target being Nick Moore, who caught six passes for 57 yards.

The Riders announced an attendance of 33,427, the second consecutive home sellout of the season.

(The Canadian Press/Craig Slater)

POSTGAME COMMENTS

REC/RETURNER NIC DEMSKI

– Feels great.  Bob’s such a great guy, such a great leader and we really feel a change.  We’re excited to take the next step with him.

RIDERS COACH BOB DYCE

– When we talked before the game we said winning’s never easy.  I told them before when I was coordinator, they gave great effort.  I couldn’t ask them for more effort before the game but it was going to be important to play consistently for 60 minutes and that’s what they did.

– I’m just happy they got rid of the old special teams coordinator.  A lotta times on special teams it’s the negative things that get pointed out but that touchdown by Demski was big to get our team spurred on.  Great job by (coach) Cory McDiarmid.

– I’ll tell you what – we couldn’t have stayed in this game without the play of the defense.  Andre Monroe had four hits on the QB in the first half before he even had a sack.  He was obviously a new addition and he changed the ratio but he’s a disruptive influence in there.

– I’m not a guy that keeps keepsakes.  I have two footballs and a helmet in my trophy case.  One is from the 2013 Grey Cup.  This one will go in the trophy case for sure.

– It felt good but it’s cold!  And sticky.

– I’m happy for the guys in that room.  They went through nine hard weeks of great effort.  For that to materialize into a victory, I’m ecstatic about it.  I’m happy for Jeremy and I’m happy for Craig.  I’m just happy.  It’s probably the first time where I’m happy for myself as well.  But I’m happy.

– That’s a challenging question (did the firing lead to Sunday’s result).  The guys went out and played hard like I said, but they’ve played hard every week.  There obviously was some change because things did change.  They were able to come out and play a little more free and I think that was to their benefit.

– Things ran pretty smooth.  There wasn’t really a time where I had to make too many tough decisions.

– We’ve got six days to prepare to get another victory.  We have to focus on the task at hand which is going into a very hostile environment and trying to get a win (next Saturday at Winnipeg)

– It’s very challenging to beat a team two weeks in a row.  That’s the biggest challenge we have ahead of us.  One step at a time.  We’ll come in on Tuesday (as a team) and start preparing from there.

– The time waiting just before the national anthem, things sunk in.  The guys were in the middle of the team.  They said ‘The Saskatchewan Roughriders led by Bob Dyce‘ and that was the first time I thought ‘Wow’.

– We obviously have a pregame meeting with coaches and the first thing I did was thank them.  I thanked them for making a tough week easier for me and the players.  Our assistant coaches are the leaders and they gave the players that mindset.  They went out and did their jobs.

– That was Darian being Darian (being active on the bench).  There was a time where he calmed me down.  Both he and Kevin Glenn have been outstanding in that regard.

– I think the part of our success was the guys had a great comfort level in what they were asked to do.  If you don’t ask them to do too much, I think that’s where they excel.

– I’m happy for Coach McDiarmid because he’s such a great guy to work with and I’m happy for Nic because he scored against his hometown team.  Very happy for special teams as a whole.  That was a huge touchdown for us.  It was a spark and tied the game for us.

– Brett, like the rest of the team, had worked hard for nine weeks.  It shows that playing 60 minutes and not making mistakes gives you the fruition of a victory.  Hopefully that sticks with them.  Jacques will grade Brett’s game but the key thing we eliminated was the interception.  We still have challenges like we don’t want to take points off the board with penalties.

– I would ask Brett to increase his ball security.  He’s a little loose with the football but I won’t ask him to change how he plays.

– This win’s up there.  2013 was obviously something special.  I don’t know how far behind this is.

DT ANDRE MONROE (2 SACKS)

– It’s nothing but good vibes coming out of there.  This team stuck together through a lot of bad times and was finally rewarded.

– I got off the ball, a little flash here and a flash there and I was on the bottom of the pile (on his first sack).  It was the only celebration I could think of and my teammates were encouraging me to do it!

– I wanna call it the triangle.  The defense trusted the offense, the offense trusted the special teams and the special teams trusted the defense.  Something like that.

RUNNING BACK JEROME MESSAM

– It feels great.  We stuck together.  We had a week of distractions and we shut it all out and got the big win.

– Brett’s doing a great job.  His confidence is building day by day.  He’s showing us what he can do moving forward.

– Honestly coach Dyce has been trying to hide it but he looked nervous all week.  We’re happy to get the win for him.  We all love him.

– I love it!  (Going to the Banjo Bowl)  I love the energy in there and it’s a lot like here.  I’m looking forward to going in there and silencing them.  That’s what I plan to do.