WINNIPEG — The Saskatchewan Roughriders may have failed to get things going in the Canadian Football League West final against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday night, but that didn’t dampen the pride that head coach Corey Mace had towards his troops.

The Roughriders lost a 38-22 decision at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg, ending a season filled with ups and downs and all kinds of adversity.

But Mace was able to see the bigger picture during a postgame chat with Luc Mullinder on CKRM Rider Radio, pointing to what the team went through just to advance to the West Finals as a sign positive.

“It doesn’t make any sense to beat a dead horse, we know we didn’t play our game tonight and that’s me, and that’s unfortunate,” Mace said when asked what ‘he told his players after the match. “But I just shared how proud I am of these guys. The things we’ve been through, the many injuries we’ve suffered, the losing streak, the fact that they continue to fight and love each other and believe in everything we’ve tried to instill over the course of our first year, it’s incredible.

Mace was blunt in his assessment of the game, especially when it came to the team’s early defensive performance, with a handful of big plays giving Winnipeg an early lead and control of the game.

“There were a couple times earlier they jumped on us, we had a couple defensive failures, and on one of those touchdowns I got a terrible, terrible call from me,” Mace said . “It just puts us a bit of distress, and it quickly got out of hand. We got close, but couldn’t control it and didn’t force any turnovers defensively.

“I thought the special teams were amazing tonight,” he continued. “Offensively, we didn’t get to the six until a little late, and defensively, we didn’t do our job tonight, so we didn’t really give ourselves a chance.”

The fact remains that just over a month ago, it seemed like even a playoff appearance for the Roughriders would be a risky proposition – but a dramatic late-season turnaround has made Mace proud of his team for what ‘they accomplished.

“All credit to the guys, man,” Mace said. “Being part of something for the first time, a vision of what it was, we wanted this thing to feel like, for the guys to stick with it all the way, have their backs to the wall a few times this year and come together, it It’s special.

“A lot of teams would walk away in that situation, but they didn’t. I’m so extremely proud, it’s the first thing I can walk away with, we’ve never refused.

With the 2024 season now over, the business aspect will soon come into play. The Roughriders would like to keep everything together and make a similar run, which Mace is naturally in favor of.

“That’s the main thing, we felt like we had a lot of good guys in the room,” he said. “We’ll continue to build on the foundation that we’ve established, which I think is a really good foundation. Today is just tough, I just really wanted to see these guys next week.