VANCOUVER \u2014 The Saskatchewan Roughriders will look to rebound from their first loss of the season when they visit the BC Lions on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan fell to Calgary, 24-10, in Week 6, while BC edged Edmonton to move back to .500 at 3-3.<\/p>\n
The Riders and Lions have met once already, a game that Saskatchewan took 37-18 back in Week 4.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s three keys to victory for both teams ahead of Thursday\u2019s 7:00 p.m. ET kickoff, which can be watched on TSN and CTV in Canada, CFL+ internationally and on CBS Sports Network in the U.S.<\/p>\n
RELATED SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS<\/p>\n 1. REVIVING THE RUN<\/p>\n Sticking with the theme of rebounding, head coach Corey Mace would love to see more out of his run game after it put up a season-low 16 yards against the Stampeders. The Lions\u2019 defensive front should be seeing plenty of A.J. Ouellette<\/a> after he rushed for 139 yards on 23 carries the last time the two squared off.<\/p>\n 2. PASS AGAINST THE PASS DEFENCE<\/p>\n Quarterback Trevor Harris<\/a> returned from injury in Week 6 and promptly passed for 425 yards. Second-year receiver Joe Robustelli hauled in 191 of those yards, and Harris hopes he can once again provide a reliable target against a Lions secondary that leads the league in limiting opposing yards.<\/p>\n 3. ANOTHER CRACK AT JAMES BUTLER<\/p>\n The only real blip on the season for the Riders front was in that Week 4 matchup when James Butler<\/a> rushed for 123 yards. On average, they\u2019re giving up 80 per game. Defensive lineman Malik Carney<\/a> and linebacker Jameer Thurman<\/a> will have to play a big role in the unit\u2019s attempt to slow Butler.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n BC LIONS<\/p>\n 1. ATTACKING THROUGH THE AIR<\/p>\n In the four games Nathan Rourke<\/a> has played this season, the Canadian pivot is averaging 317.5 yards per game and is facing a secondary on Saturday that\u2019s coughing up the second most of any team. With plenty of targets he trusts, it shouldn\u2019t be surprising when he drops back.<\/p>\n 2. FINDING OPEN SPACE DOWNFIELD<\/p>\n Speaking of those targets, receivers Keon Hatcher Sr. (516), Justin McInnis<\/a> (334), Stanley Berryhill III (290) and Jevon Cottoy<\/a> (289) all find themselves in the top 12 of the Canadian Football League in receiving yards. Given the Riders\u2019 struggles defending the pass, head coach Buck Pierce will rely on Rourke to spread the secondary.<\/p>\n 3. JAMES BUTLER\u2019S ENCORE<\/p>\n What will James Butler<\/a> do with a second shot against Saskatchewan? The league\u2019s leading rusher is fresh off a 171-yard game, and with so much emphasis on the Lions\u2019 air attack, opportunity waits.<\/p>\n NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n Trevor Harris<\/a> and Nathan Rourke<\/a> were both out with injuries in the two teams\u2019 first meeting.
\u00bb Depth Charts:\u00a0SSK<\/a> | BC<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Game Notes: Roughriders at Lions<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Tickets: Saskatchewan at BC<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Injury Reports: Stay up to date<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Who\u2019s gonna win? Play CFL Pick \u2018Em presented by Old Dutch now!<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Sign up and watch CFL games on CFL+ in the U.S. and Internationally<\/a><\/p>\n
\nKickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET and can be watched on TSN and CTV in Canada, CFL+ internationally and on CBSSN in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 The Saskatchewan Roughriders will look to rebound from their first loss of the season when they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-5992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}