VANCOUVER, CANADA - JULY 19: The Saskatchewan Roughriders play the BC Lions in their CFL game at BC Place on July 19, 2025 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/BC Lions)
VANCOUVER– The BC Lions started slow and never got into a groove against a Saskatchewan squad that played like a team on a mission for a full 60 minutes. Trevor Harris passed for 395 yards and three touchdowns to lift the visitors to a 33-27 victory in front of 28,893 fans at Save-On-Foods Field at BC Place.
The result drops the Lions to 3-4 on the young season while Saskatchewan improves to 5-1 after suffering their first defeat at the hands of Calgary last week. And perhaps what stings most about this one is the Lions drop a season series to another Western rival, as Saskatchewan is assured of taking two of three meetings, with one more to come in Regina on October 25. Now for some game takes.
A Taste Of Their Own Medicine
Truthfully, this score flattered the home side. Harris and the Riders came out firing, as the veteran pivot hit Dhonte Myers for the first of two touchdown connections on their first offensive series after a Lions two-and-out. It was almost a carbon copy of the offensive game plan used by Nathan Rourke and company in Edmonton: a power run game to complement an impactful group of receivers.
Right after the opening major, Seven McGee coughed up a return that gifted Saskatchewan three more points. They opened up a 17-1 lead through 15 minutes before Rourke gave the Lions life with a big scramble and long touchdown toss to Ayden Eberhardt, who had a big night with 105 yards and two majors on six receptions. But as was the case in this one, they couldn’t sustain the momentum.
Harris and the Riders opened the second half with another Myers touchdown grab to further open the floodgates. Stanley Berryhill III made it close with a touchdown in the final quarter. Too little, too late. Rourke owned his mistakes on a night he still managed to finish 27/41 for 337 yards and three touchdowns against one interception.
“I don’t think, don’t think we played well enough to win. I certainly didn’t. I think throws were there, just a little high in a lot of circumstances,” Rourke said.
“I like to give credit where it’s credit to due. I thought their defence or their team outplayed us. But I don’t think we’re that much farther behind. I think we beat ourselves. Tough one, very frustrated. Obviously, we would have liked to have played better.”
The head coach also didn’t sugarcoat this one.
“Slow start. It didn’t seem like we could get any momentum early. So, we’ve got to look at everything right now and we can only improve and get better,” Buck Pierce explained.
“Credit to Saskatchewan. I thought they did a really good job of staying on the field and continuing to put themselves in second and manageable. I’m going to have to look at the tape to see exactly the reasons why.”
Your impact players need to be your impact players. This Saturday’s result epitomized that reality and this Lions team must get back to the drawing board with a tough Hamilton squad coming in here next week.
“Ultimately, in the CFL, it comes down to quarterback play,” Rourke added.
“Their quarterback played, I thought, very well. I’ve got a lot of respect for Trevor as a person and as a player. He plays well in a lot of ways, the way I want to play as a passer. And he did a great job today. Offensively, you can say whatever you want. I think, ultimately, it comes back to me and I’ve got to play better.”
Key Numbers
132– a game-high in receiving yards for Myers in the win.
0- the number of sacks recorded by the Lions’ defence. The inability to pressure Harris was a big factor in this result.
504- Net offence for Saskatchewan. Did we mention this was a similar recipe the Lions had last week?
505– career number of defensive tackles for Micah Awe, who surpassed the 500-mark in his great career. He recorded seven in the losing effort.
Quotable
“They had a good game plan. We came out not as fast as we wanted to. Hats off to them. They game planned us well. Certain things we tried to implement weren’t as effective. We made adjustments, they made adjustments. That’s how the game went. It is what it is. We have to learn from this and fix it for next week.”- linebacker Josh Woods on the 730 CKNW post-game show on what went wrong for the defence.
Next Up
The Lions play host to Hamilton next Sunday, July 27 at Save-On-Foods Field at BC Place. The kickoff for our Family Traditions game is at 4:00 pm. The 3-2 Tiger-Cats play host to 1-5 Ottawa to wrap up week seven on Sunday afternoon.