36-30 read the scoreboard at Calgary's McMahon Stadium as the Riders playoff dominance over the Stampeders came to an end in what was a thrilling West Division semifinal. The sting of a playoff loss still looms, but it does not have the same feeling of other Riders playoff defeats that have haunted the province. In my 19 years on this planet I have been a party to some terrible Riders losses. From Paul McCallum's gaffe in BC Place and the near misses of the Nealon Greene era to the two Grey Cup losses to Montreal my formative years as a Riders fan from an early teen to present day have been filled with letdowns as much as they have been filled with the winning that the 2007 Grey Cup and those subsequent appearances in the final brought.
Sunday's game had all of the hallmarks of those painful losses from before the Grey Cup era. A plucky Riders team going on the road as the underdog comes back from not only a 14-3 deficit but also 26-16 to take a 30-29 lead off of an out of nowhere fourth quarter only to lose in the most backbreaking way imaginable. It really should hurt more than it does, but it doesn't. Yes, the Riders finally got their old school Darian Durant fourth quarter mojo back just to see it prove meaningless, yes the Riders secondary did forget how to play fourth quarter pass coverage, but I am still at peace with it.
I think the reason this loss doesn't sting nearly as much is the fact that I have come to terms with the fact that this is what the Saskatchewan Roughriders do. In two weekends the 100th Grey Cup will be played, you want to know how many of those Grey Cups have been won by Saskatchewan's team? Three. Yes three percent of the Grey Cups have been won by the Riders in what has almost always been a league hovering around eight to ten teams. That isn't just dedication to losing, that is pretty much mathematically impossible. If you are a Riders fan, you probably do losing better than most people do.
Why does that have to be a bad thing? The fair weathered Riders fans that only show up for the playoffs were outraged on facebook, twitter and all the other modern day soapboxes for misplaced rage after the loss, but this one was okay in my books. An 8-11 football team that lost its last four games going into the playoffs and went neck and neck with a team that was much better than they were all season and ended up losing in the last minute. I look back at my first Riders column of the season when I said the Riders would struggle, but if the defense did its job and Durant got back on track they would make the playoffs and make it interesting, but the Grey Cup is probably not in the cards and I was right.
Odell Willis was the great free agent pickup I thought he was going to be and is nowhere near the distraction he was with the Bombers, Kory Sheets is our franchise running back now, and a receiving core and offensive line that were the scapegoats of the dismal 2011 offense improved with young players and should be better for next season. Progress has been made after a season that had many fans feel as if the sky was falling on the Riders.
That doesn't mean improvements aren't needed in the offseason. This is still a team that isn't a Grey Cup contender, zero fourth quarter victories and no wins against West Division teams on the road for a second straight season won't cut it next season. A core of players is visible, but with the potential of a Grey Cup home game with the 101st Grey Cup at Taylor Field the Riders need to get serious in free agency and in the entry draft to ensure that the best effort is being put in place to get the Riders in their hometown Grey Cup.
In closing, this wasn't a special year for the Roughriders, sporadic spurts of winning streaks followed by equally as long losing streaks prevented a constant vibe on this season. It was a tale of ups and downs on the road to what hopefully will be the construction of another contending team. With the Grey Cup being on home soil next November the pressure is now on management, the coaches and the players to get the Riders back into the top of the West and bypass the Stampeders and the Lions on their way to a Western Division title. Going into next year expectations will once again be raised and that light at the end of the tunnel will have us all looking to that Grey Cup game next November. 8 wins. 11 losses. A lot of hope. Not a lot of consistency. That was your 2012 Saskatchewan Roughriders. See you next Canada Day, let's see if next year will bring the magic back.
