With their playoff hopes on the line, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are changing quarterbacks for their game against the visiting Calgary Stampeders Saturday in Regina.
Mason Fine will start ahead of Cody Fajardo.
“We need to be better on offense,” Roughriders coach Craig Dickenson said. “We feel maybe with a different quarterback, we can give teams maybe a little different look and hopefully score a few more points.”
The Roughriders (6-10) have lost five in a row and must win their final two games, both against the Stampeders (10-6), to have their best chance of reaching the playoffs. The Roughriders play in the West Division but can only qualify for the playoffs as a crossover team, meaning they need a better record than the third-place team in the East, currently the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (6-10).
Saskatchewan is seventh in the CFL with 356 points scored.
Fajardo, who has started 15 games, is fifth in the CFL with 3,360 passing yards, completing 70.3 percent of his passes with 16 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
In four games, Fine has completed 28 of 42 passes (66.7 percent) for 326 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions.
“We have (Fajardo) penciled in for some plays and he’s certainly our short-yardage quarterback and we feel he does a great job at that,” Dickenson said. “If we want to change the tempo of the game, we might use him a little bit more. We feel like having both of them ready to roll will help us with our offense.”
Fine will face a Calgary team that leads the CFL with 45 sacks, while playing behind a line that has allowed the most sacks in the league, 66.
“I will say, while they have given up a lot of sacks, at the end of the day that doesn’t mean they’ll do that against us because they’ll probably change everything they do just so we don’t get sacks,” Stampeders defensive tackle Mike Rose said.
Saskatchewan receiver Jake Harty (foot) and defensive back Amari Henderson (calf) have been ruled out for Saturday. Running back Jamal Morrow (hand) is expected to return.
Calgary defensive back Nick Statz (hamstring) is listed as out.
–Field Level Media