By Jamie Nye

Stampeders top Roughriders 22-18

Jul 31, 2011 | 8:14 AM

It was a tight game but in the end the Calgary Stampeders managed to come out on top in the Western Division’s battle for second place, beating the Saskatchewan Roughriders 22-18.

The game was back and forth as the Stampeders climbed out to a 10-0 lead but the Roughriders were able to chip away.

At the start of the second half, the Roughriders Darian Durant got away with a throw that was almost intercepted but fell into the hands of receiver Weston Dressler. Dressler completed the 58-yard play and the Roughriders took their only lead of the game, 15-13.

The Roughriders would give up the lead a short time later as Head Coach Greg Marshall decided to give up a safety, tying the game at 15. After the ensuing kick-off the Stampeders were able to drive the ball into Roughrider territory and Rene Paredes kicked his third of four field goals to take a 18-15 lead and the Stampeders were able to hold on for the win.

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Darian Durant was the Roughriders offensive player of the game as he threw for one touchdown and ran for another, while never turning over the football but it wasn't enough.

“If you control field position then you give yourself a good chance at winning and we had long fields to work with and kudos to them.”

One thing Durant wasn't able to do was use his legs, which he was able to do in last week's win over Montreal when he rushed for 71-yards. He had just two rushes for 10 yards in Saturday's loss and was sacked three times.

“They had somebody assigned to him on most of the plays and they were very disciplined on their reads as far as our bootlegs and stuff,” explained Marshall, “I still think there were a couple of chances that Darian might want to take a look at and think about maybe taking a shot at (running) next time but Darian is not the problem.”

Missed opportunities

The Roughriders did have their chances. The usually sure handed Jason Clermont dropped a pass in the end zone at the end of the third quarter that would have made the score 22-19 for the Roughriders, instead Saskatchewan kicked a field goal to start the fourth quarter and trailed 19-18.

After the game, Clermont reached out to fans with this tweet, “Had a chance to make a play and help my team. Didn't finish. Let down my team, the fans and myself.”

There were other moments in the game when the Roughriders appeared to shoot themselves in the foot. At the end of the second quarter, the Roughriders had the ball deep in their own end with 35 seconds left and instead of running out the clock, they handed the Stampeders three points. After a first down run, the Roughriders were penalized with a time count violation, lost a down and had to punt with nine seconds left. Eddie Johnson's punt traveled only 31-yards and the Stampeders kicked a 45-yard field goal as time ran out. Instead of being down 10-8 at halftime, the mishap made it a 13-8 deficit.

Overall it was a frustrating night for the home side said Coach Marshall.

“We had a couple of dropped passes, we had a couple of missed tackles, we had a couple of chances to establish some field position and allowed them to make some first downs and re-establish field position.”

The Stampeders are now 3-0 on the road while the Roughriders are 0-3 at home. The Roughriders drop to 1-4 and will take on the 0-5 B.C. Lions next Friday in Vancouver.

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