Ready or not, the 2013 Canadian Football League is upon us.
For the Saskatchewan Roughriders, their Week 1 game is at the Edmonton Eskimos Saturday afternoon at 1:30 pm (TSN, CKRM Rider Radio Network).
And after a 1-1 preseason the question is; are they truly ready?
The Rider Nation was elated at their team's performance in their first preseason game, a 31-24 comeback win at Edmonton which featured five sacks and four interceptions, not to mention a dramatic last-minute touchdown drive by rookie Rider quarterback Tino Sunseri.
Less than a week later the Riders were home at Mosaic Stadium, on Thursday, taking on the defending CFL West Division champion Calgary Stampeders. The Riders didn't look anywhere near as sharp as they did against the Eskimos, as they fell 24-23 to the Stamps.
The outcome of the game is meaningless, so no one's worried about that. However quarterback Darian Durant was mauled repeatedly by Calgary defenders in his nearly three-quarters of work. The Stamps rung up six sacks on the night. Meanwhile the Roughrider defensive front never really got near Stampeder quarterbacks at all, which was a stark contrast from the week before.
Calgary cleared won the battle in the trenches, along the line of scrimmage, and served noticed that they'll be a formidable opponent all season long.
"Yes they did," grimaced Rider GM Brendan Taman. "Both sides of the ball and that's where we lost the game, really. They need to be better there."
The highlight of the game from a Saskatchewan perspective was a 97-yards rushing, two touchdown performance by sophomore tailback Kory Sheets. Other than that, the club wasn't overly sharp. Sunseri threw a 60-yard bomb to Greg Carr in the dying moments which would have set the team up to potentially win the game, but the perfectly-thrown pass went right through Carr's hands.
Que sera, sera.
"Pretty blaise," Taman continued, when asked for an overall assessment of how his team played. "We probably didn't perform as well in a lot of areas as we would have liked. There were a lot of reasons for that but we could have played better. Luckily it didn't cost us two points."
The Roughriders likely came out of that game with more questions than they did answers. They had hoped to sort out their field-goal kicking situation against Calgary but they did get one official attempt. Veteran Chris Milo got the job by default as rookie Brody McKnight was one of two dozen cuts on the weekend.
And that's not all. Veteran slotback Geroy Simon was excited to make his Saskatchewan Roughrider debut Thursday night but he never caught a pass in a quarter of work, and left the game with injury.
Taman says it's a "leg injury" and they'll have to monitor it during the week and then make a decision on Simon's availability by Saturday. A comment about Simon from a CFL scout this off-season has been ringing in my ears since. "Simon will be great for you guys as long as he stays healthy," the scout said. "But if he gets hurt, that's not good. You don't recover from injuries as quick at his age."
However it's too early to sound the alarm bells on that.
And, with a broken leg suffered by starting right offensive tackle Patrick Neufeld in training camp, sophomore Ben Heenan has been thrust into that role to start the season. Heenan welcomes the challenge, but it's not the top unit.
Either way, the Eskimos will be waiting for the Riders come Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium.
Ready or not, the season is here.
