After watching the Saskatchewan Roughriders lose four straight games and six of their last eight to put their playoff hopes in serious jeopardy, SportsCage regular Arash Madani can\u2019t find any silver linings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just not very good,\u201d he said on Tuesday\u2019s show. \u201cThe talent just isn\u2019t there. It\u2019s a bad roster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sure, the Riders have had plenty of injuries and continue to endure them. But that\u2019s not an excuse for a 2-6 record over their last eight games, Madani said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA GM told me this a long time ago, and I\u2019ll never forget it,\u201d he said. \u201cHe asked me, \u2018Do you know what the difference is between an injured player and a junk player? He used a different word.\u2019 I said no. He said, \u2018Neither is of any use to me. Nothing is the difference between an injured player and a crap player because neither is of any use to me.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Riders are not a good football team. Full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Host Barney Shynkaruk then asked Madani if the season is salvageable. Madani was blunt before likening the Riders\u2019 plight to another popular and successful Canadian sports team that took a major tumble this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cI guess it depends on what salvageable means. Really, they\u2019re not a threat in the West.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly think the best comp for the Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 situation is actually just thinking back to a year ago. The Riders are the Toronto Blue Jays. They hit lightning in a bottle in 2025. It all started to work for them at the end of the season. They start making a run and things start to happen. They played sound, fundamental baseball\/football. The Riders didn\u2019t turn the ball over. The Blue Jays didn\u2019t make mental mistakes. The only difference was the Blue Jays didn\u2019t finish in games 6 or 7 of the World Series; the Riders did.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then what happened? We all hung around thinking, believing that because of what happened last year, (it was) going to repeat itself this year. And I was one of them. Now they\u2019re getting Schaffer-Baker back. Now they\u2019re getting Tevaughn Campbell back. OK, A.J. (Ouellette) is into the mix. No.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of Campbell, he struggled in his return to the lineup after missing eight games with a broken forearm. He was burned a couple times for touchdowns, the first one when he bit on a short route and was beaten over the top.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m giving him the benefit of the doubt on the touchdown because that\u2019s a revamped Riders secondary. There were guys that were lost all over the place,\u201d Madani said. \u201cThis is what happens. The margin of error for a championship team and a group that\u2019s going to get people fired is so small.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a Riders team that, in a lot of ways, a lot of things went their way \u2013 on the health side, on the communications side, and on bounces and breaks. It\u2019s not happening this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madani was informed that listeners were texting into the SportsCage wanting quarterback Trevor Harris to be replaced. That didn\u2019t sit well with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you watch the Riders play, on the list of Trevor Harris being the reason, the problem, the issue, it\u2019s not even in the top 10,\u201d Madani said. \u201cTwo, what\u2019s your solution? OK, run Trevor out of town. Guess what team\u2019s been looking to replace Trevor Harris for the last 10 years. How\u2019s that working out for the Ottawa Redblacks right now?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually a scary predicament for the Riders. I don\u2019t think he will, but if Trevor just decides, \u2018I\u2019m done\u2019 \u2026 Now what? Ask Hamilton how that\u2019s been going for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a future problem.<\/p>\n
The Riders have two games left in their regular season. They\u2019ve got a rematch with No. 1 Montreal and then close things out with No. 2 Edmonton. They need a win to even have a chance to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s almost irrelevant considering the Riders would have to go through Montreal, Edmonton, and B.C. in defence of a Grey Cup title.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Riders are not within striking distance of them,\u201d Madani said. \u201cWhether they get in, or whether they don\u2019t \u2026 it\u2019s a different class between those three and the Riders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch the full segment below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After watching the Saskatchewan Roughriders lose four straight games and six of their last eight to put their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[224145,224143,49,48,521,522,520,224144,4398,224142,1893,4397,4402,4401,4400,4399,82,4403],"class_list":["post-932678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-100-year-celebration","tag-620-ckrm","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-ckrm","tag-country-music","tag-countrys-greatest-hits","tag-radio","tag-regina-news","tag-reigna-pats","tag-rider-radio","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan-sports","tag-sports","tag-sportscage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932678","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=932678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}