CFL Preview: Saskatchewan Roughriders at Hamilton Tiger-Cats

A quick rematch from last weekend has the best team in the CFL hitting the road to take on one of the worst. The Saskatchewan Roughriders have done just about everything right this year–they’re 4-0 SU and ATS and dominating opponents on both sides of the ball. Hamilton, on the other hand, is struggling in just about every phase of the game and are lucky to be 1-3 SU. They’ve gone winless against the pointspread so far with an 0-4 ATS record.

In a scheduling situation unique to the CFL among pro football leagues these teams played last Sunday at Regina, Saskatchewan’s Mosiac Stadium with the Riders obliterating the TiCats en route to a 37-0 victory and easy pointspread cover as a -5 home favorite. On offense the only thing that seemed to slow down the home team were nasty 30 MPH headwinds in the early part of the game. When they got the wind to their back to begin the 2nd quarter the rout was on. Saskatchewan’s offense moved the ball at will and could have put up even more points were it not for the strength of their clock eating running game. On defense, they completely shut down a Hamilton attack that hasn’t been doing anything this year. Veteran quarterback Henry Burris has put up decent numbers but is getting no help. Hamilton’s rushing ‘attack’ is particularly embarrassing–the TiCats put up a paltry 165 yards of total offense last week with only 16 yards on the ground. Even that miserable rushing number is somewhat padded as 10 yards were gained by Burris while he was running for his life from the fierce Saskatchewan pass rush.

There is a strong indication that Saskatchewan’s starting quarterback Darian Durant may sit out this game as he tries to recover from a nagging foot injury. He was kept out of practice for most of the week and given the disparate fortunes of these teams the Riders have every reason to let him take it easy this week. Backup Drew Willy is a competent CFL quarterback and has so many weapons–not the least of which is the CFL’s best running back, Kory Sheets–Saskatchewan should dominate this matchup once again.

BET SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS -3′ OVER HAMILTON TIGER-CATS