The Saskatchewan Roughriders\u00a0know it’s going to be a\u00a0challenge trying to\u00a0contain Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ star\u00a0receiver Kenny Lawler in Week 11.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard for other defences to\u00a0say that you’re going to cap him off.\u00a0His catch radius is everywhere,” Riders’\u00a0defensive back Marcus Sayles told\u00a0Dave Thomas. “He can get the ball wherever you put it and that’s what makes him great. When you got Bo Levi [Mitchell],\u00a0he can sling the ball 65, 70 yards down the field, it makes it easier for him. You do have to cap his game, but at the same time, we got to make plays.”<\/p>\n
Through nine games in 2025, Lawler ranks\u00a0second among\u00a0CFL\u00a0pass catchers\u00a0in receiving yards with 783 and first in receiving touchdowns with eight. As for Mitchell, he leads all CFL quarterbacks in passing yards with 2,856 and passing\u00a0touchdowns with 21.<\/p>\n
“I love being in games like this,” Sayles explained. “When you’re going against a Hall of Fame quarterback and potentially a Hall of Fame receiver, you want to be able to put your best foot forward, your best tape on display. They’re going to get our best,\u00a0we’re definitely going to give ours\u00a0and it’s going to be a good game. As long as we keep no explosive plays and we keep the top down on our defence, we feel like we’ll be successful.”<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old Sayles<\/a> has started eight games for the Riders in 2025, accumulating 32 defensive tackles, one special teams tackle and one interception.<\/p>\n “I think I’m doing pretty good, but I feel like I’ve left a lot of things on the table,” Sayles explained. “I’ve dropped some balls this year that could have been game-changing plays\u00a0and that’s not like me. I’m always in position to make those plays,\u00a0with the coaching that we’ve had and the players that we have in this room, it’s easy to be able to put ourselves in that situation. Hopefully, I can\u00a0continue to build on it and lead this team to a great comeback.”<\/p>\n Head coach Corey Mace\u00a0knows\u00a0Sayles is up to the task for taking on Lawler.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I think everybody always sees the plays that Kenny makes going up top, but he’s making stuff underneath as well.\u00a0Sayles has been able to do a good job getting his hands on the footballs going vertically, playing tight coverage,\u00a0coming down and making plays,” Mace said. “Not just Sayles, there’s going to be a lot more people than that, but certainly similar to No. 0\u00a0[Rolan Milligan Jr.], you’re happy No. 8 is\u00a0on the field.”<\/p>\n Saturday will be the second time\u00a0the Green and White play\u00a0Hamilton this year, the Roughriders\u00a0defeated the Tiger-Cats\u00a028-23 in Week 2. Both teams lead the West and East\u00a0Divisions respectively,\u00a0the Riders have a\u00a07-1 record and the Ticats\u00a0a 6-3 record.<\/p>\n “Honestly, all of our games after the next one are going to be as competitive and as strong as this one,” Riders’\u00a0Tevaughn Campbell said. “We’re\u00a0preparing as if this is the game to make the Grey Cup.”<\/p>\n Campbell\u00a0trusts everyone in the Riders’ secondary\u00a0when they have the chance to cover\u00a0elite receivers such as\u00a0Lawler.<\/p>\n “I don’t think that’s an issue, I think everyone on every part of the field is\u00a0as good as the next,” Campbell said. “We’re not too concerned.\u00a0We know what we’re capable of and we know we’re capable of making plays.”<\/p>\n The Green and White battle\u00a0the Ticats at home on Saturday. Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk and Wes Cates start the pre-game show at 10 a.m. Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder have the game call at 1 p.m. You can listen\u00a0or watch our extensive coverage on\u00a0the 620 CKRM Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders\u00a0know it’s going to be a\u00a0challenge trying to\u00a0contain Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ star\u00a0receiver Kenny Lawler in Week 11.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,42856,82],"class_list":["post-67677","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-saskatchewan-roughridershamilton-tiger-catsbo-levi-mitchellmarcus-saylestevaughn-campbellkenny-lawlercfl-2025","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67677","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=67677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}