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REGINA — With a little assistance from his kicker and plenty of help from the vaunted Saskatchewan defence, Michael Bishop's debut in a Roughriders uniform was a successful one.
Bishop overcame a spotty passing performance yesterday with a nine-yard touchdown run as the 'Riders silenced the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 19-6 in the Labour Day Classic. Under overcast conditions at Mosaic Stadium, the 'Riders (7-2) broke their two-game losing streak, while Winnipeg dropped to 2-7 and remained winless on the road this season.
Luca Congi booted four field goals to pace Saskatchewan, while the Roughriders defence bent but didn't break against a Blue Bombers pass attack that yielded big gains but couldn't find the end zone.
Bishop had just four days of practice with his new team after being traded by the Toronto Argonauts on Aug. 23 for a conditional pick in the 2011 draft. He looked dismal on his first series of the game — throwing an interception to defensive back Anthony Malbrough on his second pass attempt — and finished just 10 of 24 for 107 yards.
Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Michael Bishop runs for a first quarter touchdown against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday in Regina. (Troy Fleece/The Canadian Press)
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Despite the forgettable numbers, Roughriders head coach Ken Miller said he saw plenty of positives in Bishop's performance.
"It is a rush to put a new quarterback in after four days of practice and he showed that a little bit, but he also showed a lot of ability and a lot of potential," Miller said. "Bishop operated our offence reasonably well. He managed the game. He made a lot of plays with his legs and showed you a lot of his athleticism and how he's able to make plays with his legs."
Bishop acknowledged he has plenty of work to do.
"We will get it together and we will improve and we will be a better team," said Bishop, who also rushed for 51 yards on 11 carries.
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"The greatest challenge today was being calm and knowing where everyone's going to be and deliver the ball. A couple times I did that and, a couple of times, we weren't successful.
"I can play better than that, and like I told my teammates after the game, 'there's some things that I can do better that's going to put us in a better situation.'ƒ|"
Bombers defensive tackle Doug Brown said the disappointing part of the loss was knowing ahead of time what Bishop was going to do — but still coming up short in the end.
"They tried to turn him into the Saskatchewan Kerry Joseph offence, which is all about [bootlegs] and run and getting him out of the pocket and moving the pocket," Brown said. "We had our moments but that's been the story all season. ¡K It was a very incomplete effort for us and we're going to need to be a hell of a lot more competitive next week if we expect to have a different result."
After Congi gave the 'Riders the lead with a 27-yard field goal early in the first quarter, the Bombers drew even late in the quarter on a 22-yarder from Alexis Serna.
The 'Riders regained the lead on their next possession, with Bishop steering the offence 75 yards before showing off his running ability, scoring the game's only touchdown to move ahead 10-3.
Congi added two more field goals to go into halftime ahead 16-3.
The Bombers struggled early in the third quarter with a pair of turnovers. Quarterback Kevin Glenn was picked off by the James Patrick and, on Winnipeg's next possession, Maurice Lloyd forced a Glenn fumble. Kitwana Jones grabbed the loose ball and ran 22 yards to set up a 19-yard field goal by Congi.
Glenn, who completed 28 of 42 passes for 269 yards, had a pass in the end zone picked off by Lance Frazier with 37 seconds left in the game to seal the Saskatchewan win.
"I don't know exactly what it is, but if I had the answer, if I had the formula, we wouldn't be going through this right now, but we've got to figure it out," Winnipeg receiver Milt Stegall said. "We've got to figure out something, because if we continue like this it will be over.
"We're not mathematically out of it but if we keep playing like that, it will be over."
Saskatchewan running back Wes Cates — the league's top rusher — was held to 72 yards on the ground.
"You're going to win some and you're going to lose some but I did enough for our team to be successful," Cates said. "Our receivers caught enough balls and Bishop completed enough to have more on top of their score, so, whatever happened, we did enough."
