Saskatchewan Roughriders vs BC Lions Game Preview
Published: Friday, Jul 19th 2019, 10:07pm
By: Sheldon Jones (@Sheldon_Jones83)
On Saturday night at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, the 1-4 BC Lions roll into town to take on the 1-3 Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Lions are licking their wounds from last week after an embarrassing loss at home to the Edmonton Eskimos. Not only did the lose 33-6 in front of their own fans, they have already lost the season series with the Esks. Mike Reilly again faced relentless pressure, being sacked 5 times. He is starting to show signs of the mounting pressure faced in BC, as with all the additions Ed Hervey made during free agency, he was by far the biggest splash and the leader of the team. BC will look to get the ball into the hands of their big 3 playmaker WR on offence. Bryan Burnham and Lamar Durant have been preforming well this season, but Duron Carter has not, and it looks like he is also starting to show his frustrations. He will be looking to burn the Riders after they released him last year. BC seems to have all the tools on offence, except an Oline. They have allowed far too many sacks this year and will need to have some improvement this week as they are lining up against one of the best DL in the league (on paper).
The Riders DL has under achieved this year and these next two games could be just what the doctor ordered for AC Leonard, Mica Johnson, Zack Evans and Charleston Hughes as they look to add to their sack totals against a very soft OL. The Riders are coming off a bye week after a disastrous home loss of their own to Calgary. CB Nick Marshall looks like he might be healed up enough to get back into the lineup which will push Solomon Means to the field side CB position as he will need to have a bounce back game after his horrendous outing last game. Offensively WR Emmanuel Arceneaux will make his first start for the Roughriders as he slots into the lineup after recovering from a torn ACL last season. He and LB Solomon Elimimian will both face their former team this week, so Rider Nation will certainly be looking for big plays from both. Elimimian made his debut against Calgary but was not that impressive. Looked like he just needed to knock the rust off after missing most of training camp with his duties as a player rep for the CFLPA and only practicing for one full week before his debut.
The Riders will be looking for a big bounce back game from the entire offence. QB Cody Fajardo will need to manage the game better and not make low percentage throws. He was two quick to scramble against Calgary (partially because the OL was giving him no protection) but he will need to be more methodical with when he choses to run. Speaking of running, the Roughriders seemed to forget last game that they signed William Powell in the offseason. Stephen McAdoo needs to use his star RB early on to set up the play action and deep balls. Other teams have been able to go deep on BC and the Riders should be too.
This game will be decided in the trenches. Whichever teams OL dominates the other teams DL will win the game plain and simple. On paper the Riders match up far better than the Lions so I expect them to come out on top. Saskatchewan 28 – BC 13
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