Riders fall 26-13 to B.C., drop to 1-2 on year, could be in trouble if they don’t right the ship quickly

Losing two games in a row by substantial margins isn't good. When you lose to an 0-2 team that was barely considered to have a chance, that's more problematic still. When you score half as many points as them, that's even worse. When this happens at home, that's yet another blow. Not scoring a single point after halftime might be worse still, though. All of those things happened to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a 26-13 loss to B.C. Saturday night, and that may not bode well for their season.

The manner in which the Riders lost is particularly concerning. It would have been one thing to lose a close, hard-fought game; upsets happen all the time in the CFL. It would have been another if besieged veteran B.C. quarterback Kevin Glenn had suddenly discovered the fountain of youth and played like the guy who led Calgary to a 14-4 record and a West Final appearance last year. Neither was the case, though; this was a dominant win for the Lions, who took a 14-13 lead into the half and didn't allow a point again, and it was so despite a rather-average performance from Glenn (16 completions on 27 attempts, 59.3 per cent, for 170 yards and a touchdown). No, a lot of this was about Saskatchewan's own failings.

The Riders' passing game looked particularly vulnerable Saturday. Darian Durant completed just 15 of 34 passing attempts (44.1 per cent) for 191 yards with a touchdown and an interception, and generally looked very rattled. That wasn't all on Durant, as many of his receivers didn't step up and his line (usually such a strength for Saskatchewan) allowed him to be sacked twice and take several more hits. B.C. linebacker Solomon Elimimian credited those hits as the key to the Lions' win afterwards, saying "We knew a lot of times what (the Riders) were trying to do. The biggest thing with Durant is containing him … he's the main cog in that offence and we got some hits on him tonight and that slowed him down." Still, Durant didn't look good here, and he'll need to improve going forward.

There are other issues in Saskatchewan, too. Their defence was completely unable to handle B.C. running back Andrew Harris, who had 138 rushing yards on 18 carries (7.7 yards per carry) and 65 receiving yards on five catches. That's remarkable, considering that B.C. was last in the league in gain per rush (3.9 yards) and rushing yards per game (67.5) heading into this. Yes, Harris is talented, and yes, B.C.'s run-blocking was probably due for an improvement (it couldn't get much worse than what we'd seen in the previous two weeks, certainly), but that's still a bad sign for the Riders. They need more receivers to step up as well; Taj Smith had seven catches for 82 yards, but no one else had more than three.

One area that does look promising is the ground game, where recent acquisition Hugh Charles (a training-camp cut by Edmonton) had 86 yards on just 13 carries (6.6 yards per carry). However, Charles has issues to work on too; his pass-blocking needs work (one reason the Eskimos cited for cutting him), and he lost a crucial fumble in this one. All in all, there weren't many Riders who acquitted themselves well Saturday.

There were lots of former Riders who were missed, too. Saskatchewan suffered a lot of offseason attrition, including Kory Sheets and Weston Dressler heading to the NFL and several defensive starters retiring or going elsewhere. They looked good in their opener against Hamilton, but they've now had two dismal losses in a row (this one and last week's 48-15 debacle in Toronto). Yes, a new season can carry growing pains, especially one after as much offseason turnover as this team had, but the pains aren't supposed to be this sharp.

There are still plenty of good players in Saskatchewan, and the Riders were deserving Grey Cup champions last year, so they can't be written off just yet. It's a long season, and a 1-2 start isn't the end of the world. Moreover, while games like this one and last week's rout may be embarrassing, point differential only comes into play in tiebreakers (and other teams are sure to have lopsided losses too); it won't matter how bad the Riders looked in these games if they're able to start piling up some wins. Still, there's a lot of work to be done in Regina, and these two games aren't going to leave fans with a lot of hope.