Saskatchewan @ Ottawa preview
TD Place Stadium
Last Meeting ( Sep 15, 2018 ) Ottawa 30, Saskatchewan 25
The Ottawa Redblacks look to build off an impressive Week 1 win when they host the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Thursday. The rebuilding Redblacks scored the final 14 points en route to a 32-28 win against the Calgary Stampeders - their first victory at McMahon Stadium since entering the CFL in 2014 - after being picked by many experts to finish near the bottom of the East Division, and hope to ride the momentum to their fourth consecutive regular-season win over Saskatchewan.
"It's a great confidence booster for us," Ottawa quarterback Dominique Davis told reporters. "There are a lot of people out there who doubt us, but we don't listen to the outside stuff as we just worry about what's in-house." The Roughriders' season-opening 23-17 setback to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats was compounded by the injury to starting quarterback Zach Collaros, who was hurt on the third offensive play of the game, following a late hit to the head by Simoni Lawrence. Collaros was placed on the six-game injured list with concussion-like symptoms and will be replaced by either Cody Fajardo or Isaac Harker, who both played after Collaros was hurt. "It's unfortunate and I feel for him, but we have to move on with the guys we got," Saskatchewan coach Craig Dickenson told reporters. "We're going to let Cody and Isaac split reps this week and decide later who our starter is going to be."
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, TSN, RDS
ABOUT THE ROUGHRIDERS (0-1): William Powell, who rushed for over 1,000 yards in the previous two seasons with Ottawa, was one of the lone bright spots on offence as he gained 104 yards and scored a touchdown in his Saskatchewan debut. Harker finished 8-of-14 for 128 yards, but threw two costly interceptions while Fajardo went 9-of-17 for 66 yards to go along with a touchdown on the ground. Saskatchewan signed quarterback Bryan Bennett with Collaros shelved for the foreseeable future and released former backup David Watford, who appeared in 18 games last season.
ABOUT THE REDBLACKS (1-0): Davis completed 29-of-44 passes for 276 yards and four interceptions in his third career start, but atoned for his inconsistency in the air with three rushing touchdowns, including the go-ahead 5-yard run with 1:15 left in the fourth quarter against Calgary. Mossis Madu racked up 112 yards on 24 carries behind a revamped offensive line to record his first 100-yard rushing game since going for 125 on Oct. 29, 2016. Second-year kicker Lewis Ward made all three of his field goal attempts to extend his streak of consecutive makes in the regular season to 51 in a row.
EXTRA POINTS
1. Three of the last four regular-season meetings between the teams have been decided by five or fewer points.
2. Saskatchewan has been held to fewer than 20 points in seven regular-season games since the start of the 2018 campaign.
3. Ottawa has won four straight regular-season contests dating back to last year.
PREDICTION: Redblacks 28, Roughriders 19