It was a physical game to start off the 2019 CFL season for the Green and White. 

Quarterback Zack Collaros left the game early in the first quarter following a controversial hit from Ti-Cats linebacker Simoni Lawrence. Cody Fajardo and Isaac Harker stepped throughout the game as the riders fell short 
23-17 to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Tim Hortons Field on Thursday Night.

Head Coach for the Riders, Craig Dickenson thought the team did quite well on one side of the ball. 

"I thought they did a great job of moving the line of scrimmage, I thought they ran the ball well. I'll have to look at the film closer. But overall, I thought the offence did a pretty decent job today."

The Riders opened up the scoring as Cody Fajardo rushed the ball for a 2-yard touchdown in the first quarter. 

After a Ti-Cats field goal and a 41-yard touchdown from Brandon Banks, Hamilton found themselves on the scoreboard. Before the end of the second quarter, The riders got one more into the end zone from William Powell for his first as a Rider to put Saskatchewan up by 3 points.

The latter half of the game was a battle of field goals. A scoreless third quarter for the green and white was too much too recover from and resulted in a loss for the travelling team. However, the coach isn't discouraged.

"We just start working." Dickenson said "It's a long season, you got a lot of games, there will be some highs and lows. We certainly wanted to come out of here with a win. We weren't able to. Give credit to Hamilton, they got a nice ball club and we'll get back to work tomorrow."

The Saskatchewan Roughriders will now prepare for the second game of the season in Ottawa when they take on the Redblacks Thursday evening at 5:30 PM from TD Place Stadium.