Riders First Exhibition Game a Sleeper

The Bombers managed to rack up 495 yards of offense mostly under the adept direction of Dakota Prukop, the career back up who enjoyed his best game against the Riders. While the Riders and the Bombers sat out most of their starters, what was left was free agent acquisitions and draft picks most of whom managed to decide their own fates.

The lack of starters made evaluations of the Saskatchewan offensive line to be relatively meaningless. The Bombers had two sacks, one forced fumble, three pass knockdowns, two interceptions and two fumble returns.

The Riders for their part managed to stop Winnipeg on three short yardage plays mostly within the Rider 10-yard line. The Riders also managed to blow several opportunities when Winnipeg was first and long by giving up big plays.

The linebackers playing will not start when the regular season starts, but part of the fun was trying to see where the Riders are looking to emphasize their Canadian ratio. It is not enough to have a Canadian who is a starting player, you also need to have a competent Canadian back up to that player.

The defensive secondary was burned so badly on a regular basis you would think the Riders would have considered sun screen, but this was more a case of screening out potential back ups. The moving of the hash marks to the middle of the middle opens up one side of the field where before a Canadian corner back could be hidden but now, if the Canadian cannot play on the wider field, then the team has to rethink its approach of Canadians on the roster.

Another interesting battle was for who would succeed William Powell at running back. Jamal Morrow was the early leader, and since Morrow ran back kicks one would think he had a bit of an advantage. Frankie Hickson, a running back from Liberty who is also a returner, was more aggressive in his running. It is likely the Riders will be running a running back by committee, which is probably smarter considering the impact of injuries over an 18 game season.

When it comes to the Canadian receivers, the departure of Brayden Lenius combined the retirement of draft pick Terrence Jana would make one think the Riders may be hampered when it comes to Canadian receivers.

The Riders 1^st round draft pick Samuel Emilus looked like he had things to offer like an increased catching radius and speed to burn. Riley Boersma of the University of Regina Rams has speed to burn and with him returning to University, will pick up playing time and will be someone to keep your eye on in the future.

Cody Fajardo was on the sidelines helping the QBs, consisting of Mason Fine, Jake Dolegala and Troy Williams. Fine was 13/18 with one TD and interception and 114 yards. Dolegala has arm speed and strength as he went 6/10 for 70 yards and a touchdown and interception. Williams, who was a third down QB, went 5/7 for 41 yards.

It is hard to draw any conclusions with no number of starters in the offense, but while the Rider offense seemed to be a bit better than swing passes, there was not the downfield attack demonstrated by the Bombers.

The Riders have a game Friday against the BC Lions who expressed their displeasure against the Godless Calgary Stampeders for running a blitz while the Lions were being fixed 41-6 that not just injured quarterback Kevin Thomson with just four minutes left and resulted in a pick 6 for the Stampeders.

One school of thought says Calgary has to evaluate their players as well and if the Lions were so upset over the play, they could have blocked the rush. Adding to Calgary’s tendency to push the rules, the archaic Alberta labour laws, drawn up sometime in the 16^th Century, let the Stumps and the Edmonton Chronic Wasters get valuable days of practice while everyone else had to wait on the sidelines until the CBA was settled.

So it will be interesting to see the Lions and the Riders on Friday. The Riders will likely let their starters handle a quarter and then the back ups battle for jobs the rest of the way.

This will give Rider fans a better look at their defensive line and linebacking corps and perhaps a better handle on how the Riders offensive line will work and protect the QB.

The Riders demonstrated what could be classified as maturity issues with a number of blown plays on second and long situations for Winnipeg in addition to stupid off side penalties. Lining up offside for defenses is countered by checking where the ball is spotted and giving the one line of yardage from that.

By constantly repeating that penalty, the players either don’t understand the rules or don’t care. If they don’t care, the Riders then have a problem that will only get worse.

When you have a Rider game where the empty seats outnumber the filled seats, and I heard of many Rider season ticket holders unable to find takers for their seats for this game, the economic crisis facing Rider season ticket holders is starting to emerge.

About a month ago I wrote about the costs of a family of four to come from Prince Albert to Regina for a football game. The costing out was based on a gas price average of $1.43 a litre. It is now $2 a litre.

The game Tuesday was the result of a cancellation when the CFL Players Association turned down a contract proposal from the league that had nothing for those able to sense the future where Canadian jobs are about to become more limited. The CFL is split between the Canadians and Americans with the Canadians looking to ensure the Canadian ratio remains while Americans are more concerned with money and guaranteed contracts.

Many did not know when the cancelled game was going to be played, and with the Tuesday start, that was a further nail in the coffin of out of town fans coming to see the team. The night was also colder than usual and the Riders were up against the first game of the Colorado-Edmonton hockey series.

Add to the fact it was the first exhibition game with the cast from Scrubs and the number of fans, which could be estimated at under 10,000, is understandable.

It does indicate fans may be using their own financial situation to determine to what extent they will want to be involved with the team. If the cost if becoming prohibitive to come in from out of town for a game, the Riders will see their own of town season ticket base erode.

It may be too soon to hit the panic button on the Rider attendance, or lack thereof, but the scenes of empty seats are a disturbing contrast to five years ago when seats in the new stadium were a point of pride. The reduced seat capacity affects the Riders ability to pay off their share of the stadium, which is tied to ticket prices.

Single game tickets for the Grey Cup game went on sale for Rider season ticket holders and will likely go on sale to the general public later on this month. The Riders should have a relatively healthy season ticket balance with this being a Grey Cup year, but next year is where the Riders will see if they can hold, never mind grown their season ticket base.

The Rider-Bomber game has a half time score of 3-0 for Winnipeg and the first half was marked more by missed opportunities than anything specific. When the Bombers expanded the score to 18-3, it seemed like the game was over before the Riders rallied but fell short.

It will be an interesting few days to see who the Riders will cut following the Bomber game, how they approach the BC game and who survives after that game. What kind of team the Riders may be will become clearer after the BC game, but it is way too soon and inconclusive so far to determine whether the Riders will be finishing the season in their own stadium in the Grey Cup.

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by Greg Urbanoski

Riders First Exhibition Game a Sleeper

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