Roughriders drop regular season finale 27-12 to visiting Stampeders

A day of hope turned into a day of despair for the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday.

The day began with the Riders having an outside chance of finishing first in the CFL's West Division, but a 28-27 victory by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers over the Montreal Alouettes ended that hope.

Then the Riders took to the field against the Calgary Stampeders in their regular-season finale and put in a lacklustre effort that resulted in a 27-12 defeat.

The Winnipeg victory, coming on a 51-yard field goal by Sergio Castillo on the final play of the game, snatched the possibility of finishing first from the Riders. The ensuing mental letdown played a major role in the loss to the last-place Stampeders.

"We obviously didn't play how we wanted to play today. I don't want to bank it on a letdown being the reason, but you never really know. We were prepared to play hard regardless but I think that kind of gave guys a little bit of letdown. But I think it probably wasn't an excuse at all, to be honest," said Saskatchewan linebacker C.J. Reavis.

"We shouldn't be waiting for somebody else to do the work for us again. We should have hit our business, so we really didn't deserve the spot, to be honest. We should have won earlier in the season for the spot. We didn't get it reserved."

Riders head coach Corey Mace believed his players could handle the disappoint of the Winnipeg victory, but he acknowledged the letdown.

"It sure felt like it and I wish it didn't. At halftime, we spoke about it a little bit, and even before the game, the goal was always the goal, we've got to go 1-0. There were some guys who had an opportunity to play who maybe hadn't seen an extensive amount of playing time," said Mace.

"Everybody was excited about that, and