Saskatchewan Roughriders short favourites over Stampeders in battle of struggling teams

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are short favourites over the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium this week despite riding a seven-game winless skid.

The Riders haven’t won since mid-July, recording six losses and one tie over that timespan. Only one of those defeats occurred by more than five points, including their recent home-and-home against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, which the team dropped by a combined eight points. This marks the third straight season that Saskatchewan has had a late-season slump of six games or more.

Franchise quarterback Trevor Harris has started the team’s last four games and played well, completing 66.7 percent of his passes for 1,200 yards, eight touchdowns, and four interceptions. He has also carried the ball five times for 38 yards and one score.

The Stampeders are riding a five-game winless skid, which includes their tie against the Montreal Alouettes from this past weekend. Jake Maier returned to the starting role this past week after briefly being benched in favour of Logan Bonner and completed 78.4 percent of his passes for 236 yards and one touchdown in the tie, though he was unable to generate any first downs in overtime.

Calgary is 4-2-1 at home this season, notching wins over Hamilton, Winnipeg, B.C., and Toronto. Saskatchewan is 2-4-1 on the road with those two victories occurring in the first two weeks of the season against Edmonton and Hamilton.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders (5-7-1) will visit the Calgary Stampeders (4-8-1) on Friday, Sept. 20 with kickoff slated for 9:30 p.m. EDT. This will be the first of two meetings between the teams this season.

The rest of the lines for Week 16 in the Canadian Football League are as follows.