By News

Rod Pedersen: Rider Insider

Jun 17, 2015 | 9:14 AM

Preseason pro football games are generally, in a word, weird.

And the inaugural Northern Kickoff in Fort McMurray on Saturday night between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Eskimos really was no different. In a way, it was weirder than most.

Don’t get me wrong – travelling to the northern-most game in CFL history was an absolute delight and the 100,000 locals treated it like a mini-Grey Cup!  The festivities were highlighted by an attempt for a Guinness World Record for the highest-attended ribbon cutting ceremony and CFL Commissioner Jeffrey Orridge and the Grey Cup itself were on hand for the spectacle.

But once the smoke from the pregame fireworks drifted off into the Boreal Forest, we were left with a bizarre scene.

The game itself started as a snoozer, tied 0-0 after the opening quarter.  However, the Eskimos were ignited by rookie quarterback James Franklin in the second quarter who put his team into a 14-11 by halftime.

Event Centre funding

City may hire lobbyist for event centre money

6h ago

International honours

Raiders' Kubiesa to represent Czechia at IIHF U18 Men's World Championship

9h ago

Learn the signs

How often should you change your brakes?

13h ago

The wonky new CFL rules were unveiled for the first time in this game and it had many scratching their heads.  Even those on the field!  When the game’s first touchdown was scored (a one-yard plunge by Franklin), all 24 players were gathered around the 5-yard line for the point after convert, huffing and puffing with their hands on their hips.  Officials had to tell them to go out to the 25-yard line where the kick will now take place.

Were they not prepared for this?  Perhaps they were but you can’t fault them for old habits that were formed from the moment they began playing football.

Sophomore Roughriders quarterback Brett Smith then took his turn to shine, engineering 13 points in the third quarter to give Saskatchewan a 24-17 lead going into the fourth.

As back-and-forth games go, this one had it all and it had to have thrilled the 11,825 fans in attendance (3,175 short of a sellout).  The Eskimos turned up the heat in the final quarter, blitzing Rider quarterback Tino Sunseri five times on 14 plays which led to an interception and the eventual game-winning drive for Edmonton.

Game over: Edmonton 31 Saskatchewan 24

“There was some good and there was some bad in that game,” Rider coach Corey Chamblin explained afterwards.  “Of course there was a lot of penalties, adjustments to the new penalties and all that.  But for the most part I saw some winning football out there, I saw some losing football, and that’s what preseason is. We just have to build on that winning football and continue to grow.”

Chamblin referred to the penalties which were an eyesore for the national TV audience.  Coaches generally get mad when the length of the football field is given up in penalties.  However on this night the teams combined for 55 penalties for a whopping 450 yards!  (Or over four football fields).  That had to be some sort of record.

See why this night was strange?

But each team had a job to do and that was to evaluate the players they had in uniform.  For the Riders, that was 77 while the Eskimos dressed 65.  Chamblin was asked how and when he planned to make his first wave of cuts.

“Well the first thing is I’m gonna get some sleep!” Chamblin huffed, referring to the team’s hectic schedule of late.  “Then I’ll sit with the coaches and get their grades.  A lot of guys did a lot of good things but we have to trim the roster.”

And trim they did, releasing 11 players on Sunday night and reassigning four more to their university or junior football programs.

Of the 11 who were cut adrift, three were veterans including Tino Sunseri who didn’t take long to edit his Twitter profile correcting his years in Saskatchewan and putting up a profile pic of his college days at Pittsburgh.  Linebacker Joash Gesse and defensive end Ryan Wellman were the other veterans let go as the team headed into Week 3 of training camp in Saskatoon.

Not much stock could or should be put into the overall team’s performance in Fort McMurray because it simply wasn’t a normal game.

However things will get a little more real in Friday’s preseason finale when the Roughriders host the Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders at Mosaic Stadium at 7:30 p.m. (TSN, CKRM Rider Radio Network).

Rod Pedersen is the Voice of the Riders on CKRM.

900 CKBI is broadcasting every Rider game this season.  Listen for the pre-game show on Friday at 6:30 pm, kickoff 7:30 pm.