By Joel Gasson

Riders offence sputters in 18-10 loss in West semifinal

Nov 16, 2014 | 7:40 PM

The Roughriders season was thrown away on Sunday losing to the Edmonton Eskimos 18-10 at Commonwealth Stadium in the West semifinal.

Problems that plagued the Riders on-and-off all season showed up again on Sunday. The offence was unable to do much of anything for most of the game, including starting quarterback Kerry Joseph being intercepted five times and yet again the team was let down by the punt cover unit when Kendail Lawrence returned a Josh Bartel punt for a touchdown in the second quarter.

The defence did all they could to keep the team in the game by not giving up a single touchdown all game but it just wasn’t enough.

“We definitely had a chance. A hard fought football game against a very good football team,” said head coach Corey Chamblin. ” 18-10 this is what the playoffs is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a tough game, it’s supposed to come down to the end and it did.”

Chamblin told reporters after the game that the Eskimos used a lot of cover zero defence and actually used the blitz to stop the run. That’s why they had to get away from the run at times in the game.

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Chamblin’s focus will now quickly turn to next season and changes will be made.

“You have to learn from your season. Learn from your ups and downs,” said Chamblin. “We weren’t ready to be champs this year.”

Joseph’s nightmare

One of the first things Joseph said when he arrived in Regina to re-join the Saskatchewan Roughriders was he had the chance to have a fairy-tale ending.

That ending turned out to be more of a horror story than a fairy-tale.

“It’s an ending that’s for sure,” said Joseph. “You definitely seen the last of Kerry Joseph, that’s for sure. You’ve seen the last of me as a player.”

Joseph was very dejected in the locker room after a game which saw his career likely come to an end in a way he never would have wanted. Joseph was intercepted five times in the game, including four in the first half and three in a row at one point.

In the end, Joseph feels his teammates and coaching staff deserved much better.

“The way I let this team down, this organization down. I just think it’s probably best for me, some people may say it’s emotional right now but I think you’ve seen the last of me as a player.”

Despite the way things ended, Joseph is still glad he came back to give it one more go with the Riders.

“I embraced the opportunity but at the same time to give these guys that worked so hard this, they don’t deserve it. It hurts,” he said.

The coach didn’t talk to Joseph right after the game as Chamblin suggested Joseph needed time to settle down as he was obviously quite emotional.

Some could question the coach for keeping Joseph in as long as he did considering most non-starting quarterbacks wouldn’t get that long of a leash when they are clearly struggling.

“I wanted to give Kerry that shot to pull us out with his experience,” said Chamblin. “There’s always second guessing that’s the easy part of the game.”

Special teams the difference

Coming into the game plenty of fans were concerened about the state of the special temas, mostly about kicker Chris Milo, but their fears were realized on Sunday after Lawerence’s 84-yard punt return touchdown that gave the Eskimos a 17-0 lead.

A score that ended up being the game winning play.

“He split through our first line,” said linebacker Brian Peters. “I know I had an opportunity to tackle him. So, I carry some of that weight on my shoulders. We were in position to make a play and we didn’t make those plays.”

One play. That’s what many players in the locker room were thinking about after the game. They all had different ideas about what that one play they could have made to make a difference would have been. The special teams gaff certainly is one of those.

But, there were others as well.

“Just keep going over plays that I thought I should have made,” siad defensive end Ricky Foley. “I had a chance on the screen play, I could have picked it and score.”

Number crunching

Joseph finished the game seven-for-17 with 120 yards passing, five interceptions and a touchdown. Sunseri was seven-for-15 for 100 yards but also ran for 27 yards. Sunser’s 27 yards rushing led the team as he had five more than running back Anthony Allen.

Korey William was the Riders top receiver with 60 yards and a touchdown.

Safety Tyron Brackenridge led the way defensively with 12 tackles and a sack. Weldon Brown had an interception with John Chick and Foley both getting a sack as well.

Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly came into the game with around eight-and-a-half minutes to go in the third quarter and finished six-for-eight for 53 yards. Starter Matt Nichols was 12-for-23 for 59 yards and an interception.

The Riders will gather one last time as a team early this week to clean out their lockers before the off-season begins.