It\u2019s hard to know what to make of the Saskatchewan Roughriders these days. SportsCage regular Arash Madani certainly feels that way.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to know what to make of the Saskatchewan Roughriders these days. SportsCage regular Arash Madani certainly feels that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t quite know only because I almost feel like a lawyer who says the defence reserves the right to call this witness back to the stand,\u201d Madani said on his Tuesday appearance on the show.<\/p>\n
The Roughriders head into their next game, Friday against the Calgary Stampeders, with an 8-6 record. They\u2019re third in the West Division after losing two straight contests and four of their last six.<\/p>\n
Madani is intrigued to find out how different the Riders look once receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker gets the rust off and once pass catcher Sam Emilus and defensive back Tevaughn Campbell work their way back into the lineup after injuries. Both Emilus and Campbell are expected to return before the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n
Those three players could make the Riders much better. But is it too late for them to impact the team\u2019s fortunes?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the question with the Riders.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre they getting back into the mix of what they were or is the magic gone and it was just too much to overcome?\u201d Madani said. \u201cAs they sit here today, they\u2019re nowhere near good enough. We all can agree on that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m interested to see where they\u2019re going to be in a couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
How do the Riders stack up in the West right now in their attempt to get back to the Grey Cup? It\u2019s tough to get a true read on that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre they better than Winnipeg when everyone\u2019s back? Yeah,\u201d Madani said. \u201cAre they better than Calgary? Yeah. Are they better than B.C., even with all those dudes back? I\u2019m not sure. Probably not, but November football (is different). Are they better than Edmonton? Depends which Elks team you\u2019re going to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, the Riders must get into the playoffs first. They can punch their ticket to the postseason with a win over the Stampeders on Friday.<\/p>\n
Madani said how the offensive line manages to contain Stamps pass rushers Clarence Hicks and Folarin Orimolade could determine the game\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre they going to make life miserable for Trevor? Are they going to shut down the running game completely in the middle of that defensive line?\u201d Madani said. \u201cThat, to me, is a real X factor, game within the game from this Stampeders team. That\u2019s a major factor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the full segment below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hard to know what to make of the Saskatchewan Roughriders these days. SportsCage regular Arash Madani certainly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-915246","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\/915246","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=915246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}