Basketball Betting

Lions take losing streak on the road against the Roughriders

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08/10/2010 - Regina, SK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Saskatchewan Roughriders try to keep their home record in perfect shape this season as they entertain the British Columbia Lions at Mosaic Stadium in Regina on Thursday.

The Roughriders who, along with Calgary and Montreal are sporting a perfect 3-0 mark in their own building thus far, started off the new campaign as one of the team's to chase in the Western Division following a 3-0 start. However, the team has hit a couple bumps in the road during the last three weeks after losing bouts against both the Stampeders and the Alouettes on the road.

Last week the Roughriders started off slow and trailed Montreal by two touchdowns at the break, but in the second half the team limited the Als to just a pair of field goals while making a desperate attempt to fight their way back into contention. Unfortunately, it turned out to be too little, too late as Saskatchewan suffered the 30-26 setback.

Darian Durant did all he could to keep the visitors in contention, converting 35-of-62 passing for 445 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but he was also intercepted twice and sacked three times. Weston Dressler reeled in 13 passes for 169 yards and a score as well.

As for the Lions, a lot has happened since the squad kicked off the new season with a 25-10 win over Edmonton, specifically a five-game slide that now has the club tied with the Eskimos for last place in the division. With Casey Printers going down with an injury several weeks ago, the offense has been turned over to Travis Lulay and the signal-caller has had his moments, but for the most part the experiment has been a failed test by everyone's standards.

Lulay converted 15-of-28 passing for 159 yards against Calgary in a 27-22 loss to the Stampeders over the weekend. However, Lulay was also picked off once and was taken to the turf four times before giving way to Jarious Jackson. The so-called rushing attack for BC accounted for a mere 58 yards on 14 attempts, although Jamal Robertson did manage to hit the end zone twice to give his team a fighting chance.

News out of British Columbia at the start of the week indicates that head coach Wally Buono has made the decision to go with Jackson as his starter this week. In just under three games as the starting QB, Lulay has been picked off a total of five times and has just a single passing score to show for his efforts. Buono admits that he would rather have Printers at the helm, but until the doctors give him a clean bill of health the coach will have to continue to juggle the available players he has now.

Jackson, who has been with the Lions since 2005, has never completed better than 58.1 percent of his passes in any one season, but British Columbia needs some sort of spark to get them going and this seems like the next logical step. After the performance last week the Lions fell to last in the latest CFL power rankings, while the Roughriders remained at six.

As long as the Lions continue to feed the ball a little more regularly to Robertson perhaps Jackson will be able to deflect some of the pressure. Robertson is averaging less than 10 carries per contest, yet he is tied for the league lead with five rushing scores and is averaging better than seven yards per attempt, thanks in large part to having a 69-yard romp earlier in the season.

Ironically, Robertson is tied with Saskatchewan running back Wes Cates for the most rushing TDs in the league entering Week 7 action. Cates, thanks to a lengthy 83-yard run of his own, is averaging a solid 6.6 yards per carry and when paired with Durant (8.9 yards per attempt), give the Roughriders a hard- hitting one-two punch coming out of the backfield. Already Cates has matched his entire rushing TD total from last year.

After his huge effort last weekend, Durant is atop the list for passing yards entering play this week, having accumulated 2,040 yards, while completing just under 60 percent of his attempts. Durant has also been credited with 10 passing scores, but because he has been picked off seven times in six games, his efficiency rating has sunk to 89.7. As bad as that might sound, Durant's rating is still light years beyond British Columbia which has a combined rating of 68.9 stemming from three different QBs who still have a mere three combined passing TDs.

Entering play this week, Saskatchewan leads the league in touchdowns (18) and field goals (19) and is second overall in scoring (33.0 ppg) while the Lions are all alone at the bottom of the scoring chart with 20.3 ppg, controlling the ball for less than 27 minutes per outing, again last in the CFL.

The Roughriders ran all over British Columbia in their first meeting of the season back on July 10, capturing a 37-18 victory on the road. In that contest Saskatchewan exploded for 17 points in the fourth quarter, thanks in part to a 40-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Brent Hawkins. That was also the game in which Lulay made his first significant appearance for the Lions, converting 9-of-15 passing for 197 yards and a touchdown, while shaking off three sacks.

With that win last month the Roughriders now own an 89-76-4 advantage in the all-time series during regular season meetings.