Courtesy Regina Leader Post:

Things will be different next week, the Saskatchewan Roughriders hope, when the Edmonton Eskimos visit Regina for their CFL regular-season opener.

The Roughriders certainly don’t want to repeat their no-show of Thursday evening, when a handful of veterans and a group of uninitiated rookies lost 37-7 to the Eskimos in the preseason finale for both teams. The game was played before 33,508 fans at Commonwealth Stadium.

“In a game like that you have to look for the bright spots?” said Roughriders head coach Ken Miller. “We had some players show us they have the ability to play: (Newly arrived defensive lineman) Jimmy Verdon showed us he has ability. Overall we didn’t perform very well in any area — offence, defence or our kick game. We had a mix-and-match group on the field at any time and it showed.”

Edmonton led from the get-go with starting quarterback Ricky Ray leading the Eskimos to 10 points on their first three possessions. The Roughriders countered with Darian Durant and Steven Jyles, the quarterbacks vying to back up starter Marcus Crandell, alternating throughout the contest. Crandell was in attendance, but he didn’t play.

Neither Riders quarterback managed a touchdown drive, with Jyles coming the closest before underthrowing a receiver in the end zone and having it intercepted. Jyles has thrown four interceptions in two preseason games.

“That wasn’t the way we had it planned?” said Miller, when asked about his quarterback rotation.

“We wanted Darian to play the first quarter and Steven to play the second quarter and alternate some in the third quarter, with Drew Tate playing the fourth quarter. But Drew’s shoulder flared up in pregame, so the alternation thing became an animal of its own throughout the fourth quarter. In retrospect, that’s something I would have changed in how we went about evaluating our quarterbacks.”

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