Corey Mace didn't need to watch the tape to know what went wrong. Standing in front of reporters after Saskatchewan's loss to Hamilton, the Roughriders head coach didn't sugarcoat it, calling out his team's performance across all three phases.
"Just without watching it, I just felt like in three phases we just did not meet the expectation and standards of ourselves," Mace said. "So that's bad ball, man. And you can't play bad ball in professional football."
Mace pointed to a laundry list of self-inflicted issues — missed defensive stops, offensive struggles, and special teams penalties that turned into game-defining moments. "We got to have some stops defensively there," he said. "Offensively we struggled. Special teams, we took some crucial penalties there. Penalties, turnovers — you can't lose those battles within the game. And we lost those."
The Disputed Pass Interference Call
One of the more contentious moments of the game came on a non-call against Lecombeau, where Mace admitted he expected a flag. When asked about the decision not to challenge it, Mace explained the process behind the scenes.
"At that point we had some eyes on it up top. I was thinking the same thing. But just the way that he ended up in the conversation that I had with the referee, I just don't think it was enough to overturn it," Mace said. "We'll see. I'll look at it again in time, but we had some other people looking at it on our end as well."
Hamilton's Quarterback Change Complicated Things
Hamilton's in-game switch at quarterback forced Saskatchewan's defensive staff to adjust on the fly, and Mace said his group had prepared for that scenario — just not the way it played out.
"It does. It changes a little bit. I think you'll see some of the calls were a little bit more aggressive that we got defensively in those situations," Mace said. "We do our homework and our due diligence as coaches in the event that you see a quarterback change. We'll have to go back and just see how those things and those thoughts worked, if that's something that'll work for us going in the future or if it's not."
Mace also gave Hamilton credit, pushing back on the idea that their record tells the full story. "I think they're a better team than what people think just because of the record and the situation," he said. "They got a lot of really good players and they're very well coached. So for us, shoot, we got to get to the tape. Can't be salty. We got work to do next week."
Hale Delivers After Coach's Public Vote of Confidence
Amid the frustration, Mace found one genuine bright spot: kicker Hale, who's battled through a rocky stretch this season while Mace stuck by him publicly and brought in competition at the position.
"These things don't shock us. We brought him in for a reason. We've seen the things that he can do. We saw him in training camp. He won that competition," Mace said. "He went through a couple lulls here, but he's been good for us the last two games. Hey man, like I told you guys, we got faith in the kid. He's got to go out there. He knows he's got to make his kicks and he's been making his kicks. We got that part down. We gotta figure out some other stuff now."
Injury Update
Mace also fielded a question on the health front after Keyshawn Johnson went down during the game. He struck a cautious tone but didn't sound overly concerned.
"Not totally sure yet. I know John Doe went down early — he came back out there. Keyshawn, talking to him just in the hallway, I think he's fine, but it's still a little bit too soon to figure out," Mace said.
With a blunt self-assessment on the record, Mace and his staff now turn to the film to find out exactly how deep the "bad ball" went — and whether the fixes are as simple as cleaning up penalties and turnovers, or something more structural heading into next week.