Riders lose 19-9 to Lions in Fine’s first start of 2023

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ offence couldn’t find much of a spark with a new quarterback under centre.

The Riders only managed three field goals in a 19-9 CFL loss to the B.C. Lions in Vancouver on Saturday.

Mason Fine, who was making his first start of the season due to a knee injury to Trevor Harris, completed 32 of 41 pass attempts for 284 yards with two interceptions.

“(It was) good and bad,” head coach Craig Dickenson said when asked for his thoughts on Fine’s play. “I think there’s a lot of plays he would like to have back. I think it was fast for him. It was a tough first game going against arguably one of the best defences (in the league) if not the best — one of the best.

“I thought he showed great toughness and he showed great heart so I was very pleased that he kept playing and kept working hard.”

The 26-year-old Fine admitted the offence got in its own way at times in the game.

“You have to give credit to the B.C. Lions. They have a great team with a great offence and they have great playmakers on defence,” Fine said. “We didn’t score as many points as we wanted to. I thought we shot ourselves in the foot a couple times early in the first half. I felt like we were moving the ball and then something would happen where it kind of threw our rhythm off.

“We were executing the game plan pretty well there early. I can’t take sacks or turn the ball over and stuff. There is going to be things to work on and go back to watch the film.

“You have to win games. That’s what we are here for. We’ve got to do better.”

Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Mason Fine passes during the first half of a CFL football game against the B.C. Lions in Vancouver on Saturday, July 22, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

Dickenson does feel the young pivot needs the opportunity to grow.

“He hasn’t played a ton of football up here. He did enough to earn the job and we will keep working with him and hopefully get him to play a little better and get everybody around him to play better,” Dickenson said.

Slotback Shawn Bane Jr., who had 74 yards on 10 catches, said Fine’s ability to quickly move on from a bad play gives the receiver confidence Fine can continue to lead the team into the future.

“It was always onto the next play. I think he did command the offence, we listened to him and we just tried to be into the right spots,” Bane Jr. said.

The Riders’ ground game was held in check throughout the game, with running back Jamal Morrow only gaining 11 yards on 12 carries.

Despite the lack of success running the ball, Morrow was given a handoff on a third-and-two attempt at the Saskatchewan 42-yard line that came up short.

“That wasn’t a run call. It’s a run-pass option,” Dickenson said. “They were taking away the pass so that’s why (Fine) handed it off.”

The Riders’ defence was able to put pressure on B.C. quarterbacks after only getting two sacks over its past four games. The group got to B.C. quarterbacks four times with Larry Dean, Micah Johnson, Pete Robertson and Miles Brown all recording sacks.

“(The key was) just really rushing together. We have been having a lot of wins across the board — guys winning one-on-ones — but we have been kind of selling each other out with guys being out of position and allowing the quarterback to make a move,” Johnson said. “All week we really harped on just being able to rush together so guys could capitalize.”

B.C. lost quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. in the first quarter of the game after suffering an apparent knee injury after being sacked by Robertson.

Dane Evans came on in relief and threw for 202 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. That pick went to halfback Amari Henderson — his first CFL interception.

Riders kicker Brett Lauther was good on all three of his field-goal attempts. B.C.;s Sean Whyte was also perfect, hitting on all four of his attempts.

The next task for Fine doesn’t get any easier with a cross-country trip to Halifax, N.S., to take on the undefeated Toronto Argonauts in Touchdown Atlantic next Saturday.

Fine said the Riders want to take the positives out of this game and build on them moving forward.

“You want to look at yourself in the mirror and know what you could have done better and be hard on yourself as a team and as an individual as a player,” Fine said. “You also can’t get down on yourself the whole time.

“We have a lot of weeks left in this season. It is early in the season, so we have to take the positives and learn from it and take it into next week and get one week better.

“We’re going to take it one game at a time. We’re going to learn from this game in B.C. and then we are going to flip the switch and focus on Toronto and we’re going to learn from our own mistakes. Hopefully you make new mistakes — you don’t want to make the same mistakes over and over — so you hope to learn from these losses.”