{"id":874921,"date":"2026-08-28T19:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/874921\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T19:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:38:10","slug":"riders-look-to-avoid-falling-into-the-pack-in-cfl-west-as-argos-visit-regina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/874921\/","title":{"rendered":"Riders look to avoid falling into the pack in CFL West as Argos visit Regina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Trevor Harris throw the ball against the BC Lions in Vancouver last Sunday.ETHAN CAIRNS\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are heading into what could be a defining moment for the defending Grey Cup champions.<\/p>\n

The 6-4 Roughriders host the 5-5 Toronto Argonauts on Saturday in a match that could keep the Riders in a dogfight for first-place in the CFL\u2019s West Division or drop them into a logjam at the bottom of the standings.<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan\u2019s usually high-scoring attack is coming off back-to-back losses in which it failed to score 20 points. It\u2019s the first time that\u2019s happened under Corey Mace, now into his third year as Roughrider head coach. <\/p>\n

He says his team needs to show in this game that recent struggles aren\u2019t becoming a trend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think so. Going back to the last two weeks we haven\u2019t met the standard of what we\u2019ve been and who we want to be\u201d, Mace said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s the third game that we\u2019re looking for, it\u2019s just the next one. We\u2019re always looking to improve. And that honestly goes even if we have a good game.\u201d <\/p>\n

Saskatchewan\u2019s mini funk has included moments where their usually unflappable quarterback Trevor Harris and star receiver KeeSean Johnson have not looked like they were on the same page. Harris has thrown more interceptions than touchdown passes in two straight games for the first time since 2018.<\/p>\n

The Roughriders have missed two other star receivers, Canadians Kian Schaffer-Baker and Sam Emilus, over that time and will be without them on Saturday. But Johnson insists nobody is trying to do too much in their absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say that\u201d, Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s been team mistakes out there and those team mistakes can lead to some of the slow starts that we\u2019ve had and missed opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rookie receiver Daniel Wiebe has been freed up from the punt return chores he\u2019s been handling for much of the season and he is likely to play an important role in Saskatchewan\u2019s offence. He scored his first, and so far only, touchdown catch, against Toronto earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe standard is the standard, regardless of who\u2019s in\u201d, Wiebe said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re called, you\u2019ve got to be able to do your job well and execute. So, I think our team\u2019s very good at that, and we have a lot of great players, a lot of great leaders who are good at helping the younger guys. So, I think we\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mace hopes avoid having his squad become answer to a CFL trivia question as the only West Division team to lose at home to the same East opponent twice in the same season. While the FIFA World Cup was being played at BMO Field in Toronto earlier this summer, the Argos played one of their \u201chome\u201d games earlier in Regina, a contest in which they beat the Riders 40-34 largely on special teams including a 68-yard punt return touchdown by Janarion Grant. <\/p>\n

James Letcher Jr. missed six games with injury but returned last week and is back to return kicks for Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we owe them one as a team\u201d, Letcher said. \u201cWe came up short last time we played them, so we\u2019re looking to have a different outcome this week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Trevor Harris throw the ball against the BC Lions in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,521,875,522,520,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-874921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadian-news","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874921","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=874921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}