Saskatchewan Roughriders' head coach Corey Mace was disappointed with defensive back Deontai Williams’ tackle on Ottawa Redblacks' receiver Kalil Pimpleton during Week 17.
“The play went on, [Deontai] ended up making the tackle and lifted the guy. I understand from Ottawa's perspective, and Rhymes got upset, temperatures were a little bit high. We probably made some decisions we probably shouldn't have made,” Mace said. “We want to try to push ourselves to be a team that can win with class.”
Mace made sure to find his counterpart, Bob Dyce after the game to clear the air with him.
"I talked to Bobby about it after the game; that's not the way neither of us wanted to end the game," Mace said. The way we want to finish the game, that's not exactly it. We have to stay composed all the way through."
"I saw it from my side of the field and I could tell what happened. To me, it didn't look like a clean football play, but the refs ejected him," Dyce told TSN 1200 post-game. "They did their job. You can't control anything like that so the refs did their jobs and I will leave it at that."
Near the end of the game, Williams stopped Pimpleton and dropped him on his head, which resulted in a mini brawl between both teams. Williams and Redblacks' receiver Dominique Rhymes were ejected from the game while No. 24 in Green was flagged for his tackle, called for a 25-yard unnecessary roughness penalty. Rhymes got his second 15-yard objectionable conduct penalty which equalled an automatic elimination from the game.
"That's bullsh*t in this league. We know the game's pretty much over, for you to slam somebody on their head, you have no regard for their lives or them as a football player. We don't need that type of stuff in the league. That's bush league-type stuff," Rhymes told TSN 1200 post-game.
"It's one of those things that don't need to happen. We're professional football players, we know how to take care of each other but still play good football, hard-hitting football. That type of stuff doesn't need to be in this league."
The Roughriders are on a two-game winning streak and hope to continue the momentum when Saskatchewan travels to Edmonton for a matchup with the Elks. Countdown to Kickoff with Justin Dunk and Wes Cates starts at 2 p.m. Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder have the call at 5 p.m. You can listen to all the Riders game day coverage on 620 CKRM.
