CIS football Friday roundup: No. 8 Rams shut down, defeat No. 2 Dinos in defensive battle

Photo credit B2 Digital Imaging

No. 8 Regina 12, No. 2 Calgary 9 Final  Boxscore

Source: Calgary Sports Info

REGINA – The No. 2 University of Calgary Dinos had their worst performance of the season and fell 12-9 to the No. 8 Regina Rams Friday night - but still managed to clinch first place in Canada West.

The Dinos earned the top spot for the second season in a row after winning the points for/against battle against the Rams in the season series thanks to a 16-point win back on Week 1 in Calgary. With just one week remaining, the Dinos (6-1) hold the tiebreaker over Regina (5-2) and will enjoy home field advantage throughout the Canada West playoffs.

But it clearly wasn't the way the Dinos wanted to clinch their second straight first-place finish. It was an ugly night all around – the offence sputtered and gave up three turnovers that each had an impact on the game, special teams struggled to battle the Regina wind, and for the seventh consecutive game penalties were a major concern for the Dinos with 15 flags for 112 yards – and most of those at inopportune times.

It was a game in which the Dinos had every chance to succeed – and head coach Blake Nill pointed to an across-the-board lack of execution talking to QR77 radio after the game.

“It really came down to our inability to generate any kind of offence in the first half and the turnovers, one that resulted directly in seven points,” said Nill. “There’s no question we were in a tough football game, one we circled on the calendar at the beginning of the season, and one we wanted to win. We figured this would be our toughest game of the year, and we just weren’t able to get it done. There were just too many mistakes tonight for us to be successful.”

The story of the game can be told in the three Calgary turnovers. The first came late in the first quarter with the Dinos driving when Joey Dwyer picked off an errant Eric Dzwilewski pass and returned it 54 yards to the end zone on what turned out to be the only Rams touchdown of the night.

Minutes later, the Dinos were driving again but a big gain turned into a turnover. Dzwilewski completed a 32-yard strike to Richard Snyder – but Snyder was blindsided by Dwyer, the ball popped loose, and the Rams recovered – leading to their only offensive points of the night, a 33-yard Taylor Wandler field goal.

With Dzwilewski pulled in favour of backup Andrew Buckley late in the third, the Dinos started to move the ball. Buckley led the Dinos on a 12-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a 12-yard touchdown toss to Brett Blaszko – and a punt single pulled the Dinos within a field goal at 12-9.

It looked like that field goal was within reach as the offence again began marching downfield. With the Dinos first-and-10 at the Regina 27-yard line and 90 seconds to play, Buckley was picked off by Justin Edralin – sending the Rams into victory formation.

Calgary’s defence did its job on the night, allowing just 189 yards of offence to the Rams – but the top-ranked offence in the country managed just one touchdown, despite moving the ball reasonably well most of the night.

The Dinos quarterbacks combined for 24 completions on 40 attempts for 256 yards, with 143 of those going to Dzwilewski. Chris Dobko was his top target with seven catches for 83 yards, while Blaszko equalled those seven catches for 74 yards – all of those from Buckley. Calgary’s ground game had a rough night against a resolute Regina run defence, with Steven Lumbala managing just 64 yards on 13 carries on the night. As a team, Calgary put up 147 rushing yards – 50 of those from Buckley.

Michael Klassen was Calgary’s leading tackler on the night with seven total, followed by Josh Symons with six and Mike Edem with 5.5.

The loss snaps a 16-game regular season win streak for Calgary and a 10-game win streak over the Rams. Calgary closes the season next Saturday with a home date against the Manitoba Bisons. Kickoff goes at 5 p.m. MT at McMahon Stadium.