Riderville.com
EDMONTON — Chris Jones had no issue finding perspective after his team’s 35-12 pre-season opening loss to the Edmonton Eskimos.
On the one hand, most of the Riders’ veterans were spectators on Sunday, including their top two quarterbacks and the majority of their starters on defence. On the other, there’s still plenty of work to do before June 15 rolls around, when the regular season begins.
“You would hope that we would come over here and be further along, but we left about 10 or 12 veterans — basically the entire defence — at home,” the Riders’ head coach and general manager told Riderville.com. “We brought these young guys over. I was hoping we would have a little stronger performance, but that’s where we are.”
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With most of the Eskimos’ top players on the field on a hot, sunny afternoon at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium, the home team jumped out to a 14-0 lead on the strength of a C.J. Gable touchdown run and a 20-yard hookup from Mike Reilly to Duke Williams.
Jason Maas then turned to the remainder of his 85-or-so players that dressed on Sunday night, but the Riders couldn’t recover from the early deficit.
Quarterbacks B.J. Daniels, David Watford and Marquise Williams helped pile up 351 yards for the Riders, but in the end couldn’t find the end zone as all of the team’s scoring came from four Brett Lauther field goals — including one from 55 yards out.
“The goal of the offence is to score touchdowns,” Jones said, “and certainly when you don’t score touchdowns and the opponent does, it’s not something that you look at very kindly.”
For the Eskimos, that’s it for the heavy lifting from the starters, who won’t likely see much action when the team concludes its pre-season schedule on Friday night in Winnipeg.
Maas said he would consider playing Reilly for up to a quarter on Sunday, but in the end two drives were all the reigning Most Outstanding Player needed. Reilly completed five of his six passing attempts for 69 yards, the best coming last with a 20-yard dime to Williams.
The Eskimos showed no issues moving on from league-leading receiver Brandon Zylstra, who’s trying his luck in the NFL, or Adarius Bowman, who was released before promptly signing with Winnipeg. They also showed a glimpse of why they moved on from three veteran running backs, including John White, after a sterling performance from Shaq Cooper.
Cooper, who’s been highly-touted since Eskimos mini-camp in Las Vegas, piled up 70 yards and a touchdown on seven touches.
Inversely, the Riders will see their starters when they return home to take on the Calgary Stampeders in their pre-season finale on June 8. But not before plenty of practices, with the bye week falling in Week B.
For Jones, returning to practice will be a welcome sight.
“We’re not going to go hide from it,” Jones told the team’s official website. “We’re going to go coach them, act like it’s Day 1 again, make it fun and continue to learn.”
– With files from Riderville.com
