Roughriders look to avoid third loss to Lions

The Saskatchewan Roughriders will look to be the hunter this week against the B.C. Lions.

The Riders (5-5-0) have been unable to keep up with a high-powered Lions squad (8-1-0) the first two times the teams met this season — a 32-17 loss on July 29 and a 28-10 defeat on Aug. 19.

The game Friday is the third meeting of the season between the two CFL clubs. Kickoff for the game is set for 8:30 p.m. The Green Zone pre-game show begins at 6:30 p.m.

“We know the stakes are getting higher each and every week. We’ve got to come out and compete each game, play four quarters of football and let the chips fall where they fall,” Roughriders linebacker Derrick Moncrief said.

The Riders are currently in fourth place in the West Division, behind the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Lions and Calgary Stampeders.

Saskatchewan has struggled in recent games, dropping four of its last five.

“It’s big for our confidence (and) it’s big for where we want to go. We want to be a playoff-calibre team and we want to go in on a little bit of a hot streak,” Riders head coach Craig Dickenson said. “This is a big game for us and our guys have put in a good week of practice. Hopefully it pays off for us.”

The biggest stories coming into the game revolve around the teams’ franchise quarterbacks.

The Lions are playing without Nathan Rourke, whose play this season saw him emerge as the favourite to be voted the league’s most outstanding player.

Rourke has thrown for 3,281 yards and 25 touchdowns in nine games. The 24-year-old suffered a Lisfranc injury when he was sacked by Riders defensive end Pete Robertson last week.

Michael O’Connor will get the start in Rourke’s place Friday.

Over three seasons, O’Connor has thrown for 236 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.

“He’s a great dude, first and foremost,” said Saskatchewan linebacker Darnell Sankey, who was O’Connor’s teammate in Calgary last season.

“I think he’s a really smart quarterback, really tall and a bigger body, wants to sit in the pocket and really (throw) it. He has a really good arm, it’s strong and he can hit the deep ball. He’s a good quarterback for sure.”

O’Connor will have a lot of high-quality receivers to throw the ball to as well.

Lions receivers Dominique Rhymes (810 yards), Lucky Whitehead (738) and Keon Hatcher (629) are all in the top 10 in receiving yards in the CFL this season. Rhymes also has a league-leading nine touchdown receptions.

Slotback Bryan Burnham, who missed four games due to a rib injury, has been a solid target for the Lions in the three games since his return, hauling in 19 passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns.

For the Riders, there have been questions around the play of quarterback Cody Fajardo.

Fajardo was pulled after throwing for only 41 yards in nearly a full half of play last week against the Lions.

“(My) confidence isn’t great right now and then you get pulled in a game — I expressed my frustration, but it’s (Dickenson’s) decision to make. I feel like I’ve been playing my best ball in the second half (of games),” Fajardo said.

“It was difficult. It was difficult to push through a lot throughout the year and then you finally start feeling better and then you get pulled, so it wasn’t an easy thing to deal with. But I’m a team player and whatever the coach needs, that’s why he makes the big bucks — he makes those decisions.”

Dickenson said he’s going to give Fajardo a lot of room for error in this game rather than have him worried about making mistakes.

“I don’t want him to play tight,” Dickenson said. “Hopefully he plays well. We’re going to do everything we can to play good around him and hopefully, as a unit, we can make more plays than they do and hopefully win the game.”

The receivers Fajardo will be targeting Friday continue to change after more injuries to the group. Mitch Picton (ankle), Justin McInnis (ankle), Duke Williams (hip) and Shaq Evans (ankle) are all out of this game.

The running game will also feature Frankie Hickson as the lead back for the first time with Jamal Morrow sidelined with a broken hand. Morrow, who is expected to be out six to eight weeks, went into the week with a CFL-high 564 rushing yards.

But there is some good news for the offence as the team welcomes back slotback Kyran Moore to the lineup.

Moore hasn’t played for the Riders since Oct. 30, when he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament against the Montreal Alouettes.

“It feels great. It has been a long nine months, so just being able to practise with them, it means everything to me,” Moore said. “It was real tough for me because I never get hurt. I’m never in the training room, just only bumps and bruises.

“When it happened, I called my parents and shed a few tears. I called my baby girl and when she was smiling, mentally I was all good. It wasn’t as tough mentally as I thought it would be but it was a long journey.”