By Riderville

Rider Success in CFL Exhibition Game

Jun 20, 2011 | 9:38 AM

The Rider B team beat the Eskimo B team 23-22 On Friday night to kick off the 2011 CFL exhibition season.

The wind and to a lesser extent the rain played a role in hampering what might have been a full evaluation of the players, but watching from the stands, there were a few trends that stood out and will make for interesting viewing when the Riders play the BC Riot, sorry, that should be Lions, 8 p.m. Wednesday in BC, game to be shown on TSN.

The offense was relatively effective considering the wind, and Ryan Dinwiddie showed a good command of the offense, which means he will likely remain as the number two quarterback behind Darian Durant, who did not dress, along with Weston Dressler and Chris Getzlaf.

Craig Bergquist also showed well, throwing deep with authority, but he didn't take the major steps a third string needs to break into the back-up role. Chris Leak is not too familiar with the Rider offense and between skipping the odd pass off the turf and looking like he would prefer to run, was adequate, but not at the same level of Dinwiddie and Bergquist. If the Riders keep Leak, it would be on the practice roster.

Wes Cates ran fairly well and even went out for passes, demonstrating he wants to keep his job. There was nothing he did or didn't do that would suggest he would not keep his job, but Hugh Charles stepped forward, with not just a 70 yard punt return touchdown, but also with some effective runs. The Riders ran a pretty vanilla type of offense and while there was no blitzing (some type of gentleman's agreement for this game) their running game was effective. Whether or not the Riders will use Charles to spell Cates as Calgary does with Joffrey Reynolds being spelled by Cornish remains to be seen, but Charles showed he is ready to move into such a role. Brandon West also ran well, but the versatility he showed in practices by going out in the slot position was not seen in this game so if West sticks, it would be as a practice squad player. Neal Hughes will be the Canadian fullback or designated blocker as it seems Canadians are considered in the offensive backfield.

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The receiving corps had its moments, with Patrick Brown looking good and Ernie Cartwright impressing many with his speed, size and catching ability. Cary Koch seems ready to assume the Rob Bagg role in the offense and was a tireless worker on the field. Terrence Nunn was a non-factor because he wasn't thrown many passes and Jordan Sisco was not really a factor, but he didn't drop any passes. The Riders still have a variety of options when it comes to their receiving corps and perhaps having Darian Durant taking the team for a half against the BC Lions will help answer some of those questions.

On the offensive line, the big question mark was at centre and Marc Parenteau and George Hudson are still locked in mortal combat for that job. Overall, I felt better about the Riders o-line following this game, because even when the younger players came in like Dan Clark, Nick Hutchins and Patrick Neufeld, they provided effective pass and run blocking – even if it was against Edmonton's b-team defense.

On defense, Brent Hawkins was not dressed and it seems Luc Mullinder will be one defensive end and I would say Montez Murphy or Tearrius George the other. Hawkins suffered another shoulder injury and the fact this is a recurring injury makes reliance on him an iffy proposition for the Riders. With the BC Lions upgrading their offensive line, the Riders defensive line prospects will be well tested and have a great opportunity to grab a roster spot. The inside of the line will be Keith Shologan and Dario Romero, who were pretty good in getting containment and a good push against the Eskimos offensive line.

The Riders linebacking battle got really interesting with the emergence of Chris Graham, who had two sacks against the Eskimos. One unfortunate incident was the torn achilles of Jeremiah Weatherspoon, who has a lot of verstaility and may be gone for the season. Barrin Simpson was solid in the middle, but the interesting thing was figuring out who might start and who might back up. Linebacking will not be a problem in Saskatchewan this year.

THe defensive backfield was another interesting battle with John Eubanks getting off to a solid start and Kerry Butler giving a solid performance at safety. Another player to watch was Eddie Russ, who was aggressive with receivers in addition to performing on special teams and had a great knockdown of an Eskimos pass in the Rider end zone in the third quarter. The prospect of an all American defensive backfield seems a little less likely considering the play of Butler and others like Ludovic Kashindi.

Special teams have improved somewhat, although a botched snap on an opening field goal try almost got Eddie Johnson killed when Bergquist tossed him the ball. There should be a rule of thumb if that happens the handler gets the ball back and either eats it or goes wide to find a potential target. The bright spot was the punt return for a touchdown by Charles and the coverage was pretty good for the most part.

Exhibition games are for evaluation, so unless you are studying a particular position for a whole game, it is difficult to say who had a good game and who didn't. Factor in that Edmonton and Saskatchewan held out key veterans, likely because these teams face each other in the first home game of the season, neither team was going to show each other what may be up their sleeves for that game.

The Riders reserves did themselves well, and the plan seems to be to give the first stringers a chance to get their timing down during the first half of Wednesday's game against BC and then those competitive positions will get a closer look in the second half.

The Riders held their AGM the following morning and while everyone knows about the $6 million profit, there was some interesting news from the AGM.

The CFL gets $200,000 a game from TSN, while TSN pays the NHL $500,000 a game. The problem with this is that the CFL is drawing more viewers than the NHL and gets less money for its rights. The Riders report the CFL is studying the situation with TSN because the TSN contract expires the end of this season. The Riders do expect to get more in television rights, especially since most of the highest viewed games involve the Riders.

The entrance of the Ottawa whatevers has been delayed to 2014 because of delays in building at the former Lansdowne Park. Ottawa was supposed to get the 2013 Grey Cup to help build interest in football, but the 2013 Grey Cup is now up for grabs and the Riders seemed poised to make a bid for it. The Riders will also be working a lot with Ontario based CFL teams looking at different marketing strategies to encourage fan growth. Rider CEO Jim Hopson said the market in souther Ontario is different than out here in the west and the Riders will be looking to help apply their expertise to the situation.

Rider VP of football operations Ken Miller said there was the chance there would be cuts before the BC game and the Riders are looking at about 25 cuts to be made to get under the league limit.