‘We got whopped’: Vernon Adams Jr., stingy Stampeders defense hand Roughriders first loss of 2025 after 19-hour delay to kickoff

WATCH: The Riders delayed showdown versus Calgary was not worth the wait – as the Green and White were dominated by Calgary. Donovan Maess explained.

Nineteen hours after the originally scheduled kickoff time Friday night, the Calgary Stampeders rolled to a 24-10 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders Saturday – handing the Riders their first loss of the season.

“Belt to ass: we got whopped,” head coach Corey Mace put bluntly after the game. “That’s a good football team we played today.”

On the stat sheet, things looked closer than the game appeared.

The Riders put up over 440 yards of total offense, the majority through the air and on the final drives of the game but were only able to muster up one touchdown and one field goal.

“We get inside the red zone and came up empty twice,” quarterback Trevor Harris told reporters after Saturday’s loss. “We didn’t get a rhythm offensively early.”

“I don’t think it’s like one of those things where you look back and it’s just like, ‘good Lord, we have no chance.’ It’s a couple plays here and there if we finish in the red zone,” he added.

Smoked out

The Week 6 matchup failed to live up to the hype leading up.

Friday night was meant to be one of the biggest games in the 2025 CFL season to date, with a first-place heavyweight matchup between the Roughriders and Stampeders, but Mother Nature had other plans.

Kickoff was moved to Saturday afternoon due to poor air quality at Mosaic Stadium caused by heavy smoke which descended on Regina Friday from wildfires in the province’s north. A long delay and ultimate cancellation Friday night came after more than three and a half hours of waiting for a decision.

“It sucked,” Harris said. “It wasn’t fun.”

“You’ve had a bunch of highs and a bunch of lows and hopefully, when the game comes, you’re ready,” wide receiver Joe Robustelli explained it. “It was definitely tough.”

Despite the nearly day-long delay, Harris was not about to make it an excuse for how the team played.

“[Calgary] had to same thing,” he reminded. “We just came out flat and they didn’t. They came out with their hair on fire and they did a great job.”

“We felt we felt great,” Coach Mace said. ”We were just happy it wasn’t going to be postponed to who knows when.”

Adams Jr. leads Stamps’ dominate first half

When play finally got underway shortly after 2 p.m. local time, Saskatchewan’s defense came out firing.

An interception on Calgary’s first offensive play of the game, plus a fumble recovery on the second drive, brought fans in Mosaic to life early.

The Riders, however, were only able to salvage a Brett Lauther field goal out of the turnovers.

From there, Calgary flipped the momentum.

Led by quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., the offense exploded for over 380 yards in the first half – 295 of them via the arm of Adams.

The Stampeders’ pivot would finish with 428 yards on 28 completions, 3 TDs and 2 INTs, highlighted with an 81-yard touchdown pass to 2025 first overall CFL draft pick Damien Alford in the third quarter.

“[Adams] was on point today,” Mace said. “We always talk about capitalizing on opportunities and certainly, defensively, we game him some opportunities to find it – and he did that.”

“It wasn’t necessarily what [Adams] was able to do, we just created holes in our defense,” linebacker A.J. Allen said. “We lacked detail.”

Defensive brick wall

Going into the game, Calgary had surrendered the fewest offensive points in the CFL through four games – continuing their stellar defensive play.

Riders’ quarterback Trevor Harris, who missed the team’s Week 4 game with a concussion, countered with a 36/44 effort passing, 425 yards and a touchdown. He was also sacked three times and lost a fumble.

“It was some YAB yards - yards after beat down – which probably shouldn’t count,” Harris joked. “But before that, they’re playing defense and we’re moving the football.”

“If we score on that last, second to last drive, we’re a punt and a touchdown away from tying it up. It’s not like we were out of it.”

The loss also ends Harris’ seven-game regular season win streak – one short of tying a league record, which Harris holds.

Robustelli had a breakout performance Saturday afternoon. He was targeted nine times by Harris, making eight catches for 191 yards, a career high – adding his first CFL touchdown reception.

“It felt good. It’s been a long time coming,” the receiver said after the game. “It’s bittersweet. When you perform like that, you’d like to celebrate it but it’s a team sport and [we] didn’t come out with a victory.”

The run game was also snuffed out, with A.J. Ouellette notching just nine yards on six carries.

“I don’t want to put it all on A.J.’s shoulders,” Mace said. “I thought early, truthfully, this might have been the first game of the year where I thought, ‘the physicality and the trench battle was not in our favour.’ And that was a big part of it, too.”

Ouellette would add 46 yards receiving on five catches.

Calgary counterpart tailback, Dedrick Mills, rushed for 85 yards on 14 carries.

Riders’ return man Mario Alford left the game in the second quarter with a lower body injury, he did not return.

Head coach Corey Mace said Alford was in good spirits after the game.

“I don’t know if it was cramping or a tweak. But I’m sure he’ll be okay. It doesn’t seem like anything serious,” the coach added.

‘No panic’

Saskatchewan falls to 4-1 and out of fist place in the West Division.

Calgary, also 4-1, jump the Riders in the standings and take the top spot due to a tiebreaker.

“I don’t think there’s been an undefeated team [in the CFL], so there’s no panic button here,” Harris said. “But there’s a button to look in the mirror hard to make sure we’re doing everything we can to become the best team we can be.”

The Roughriders’ montre of the season has been, ‘go 1-0 this week,’ but for the first time this season, they did not accomplish their goal.

Harris says a lose like this early in the season, may help the team down the stretch.

“When you slingshot things, you pull back first. And sometimes it’s what catapults you forward,” the quarterback said. “When you’re 4-0, anybody can respond and say all the good things.”

“But when you lose, it’s how are you going to respond? And I feel confident we have a group that respond really, really well,” Harris added.

“[A loss] shows where the holes are, it shows where your areas are for improvement and what you need to work on,” Allen added. “It’s a long season and an opportunity to look at the film, be very critical in a helpful way so we can get to where we need to get to when the time comes.”

The Roughriders are next in action on Saturday July 19, on the road in B.C. against the Lions.