Team bolts out of gates in pre-season

OK, so it might not have been perfect — just ask Edmonton Eskimos head coach Jason Maas — but if you were only going to have one week of training camp to prepare for Sunday’s pre-season opener against the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders, you’d happily take the 35-12 win in front of the home fans at Commonwealth Stadium, which will play host to the East and West Division champions in November’s Grey Cup once the 2018 season is all said and done.

Here are five factors to consider as the Eskimos took the first step on the journey they hope will lead them right back home: 1.

Most outstanding

It was supposed to be the first chance for Mike Reilly to shake off a little bit of the off-season rust that tends to accumulate, as the Eskimos took to the field against players wearing different coloured jerseys for the first time since the West Division final in Calgary. Instead, Reilly appears to have picked up right where he left off as the Canadian Football League’s most outstanding player of 2017. Two offensive drives: Two touchdowns; completing five of six pass attempts for 69 yards, including a textbook 20-yard hanger into the basket of wide receiver Duke Williams, who didn’t have to break stride in the end zone. That’s a perfect passer rating of 158.3, for anyone who’s counting. Yes, it was against Saskatchewan’s backup defenders, but Reilly doesn’t put together their game day rosters.

2.

Mr. Two-and-out

What do you say to the opposing quarterback you just sacked on back-to-back snaps while standing over the defeated lump that’s about to head back to the sideline while the punt team takes over? According to new Eskimos pass rusher Gerald Rivers, nothing. But what the six-footfive, 255-pound defensive end could have said as a former member of the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams is, ‘You’re lucky there are only three downs.’ Instead, Rivers chose to focus on his teammates.

“I’ve got to put a lot of big ups on my interior defensive linemen for making him step up and my secondary making him have to hold the ball a little bit longer,” said the 27-yearold native of Georgia, who obviously hasn’t been slowed down too much by the major hip surgery undertaken as a member of the Houston Texans two years ago. His were the only two sacks in Sunday’s game.

3.

End-zone shutout

How happy was head coach Chris Jones after his offence was kept out of the end zone against the most recent team he led to a Grey Cup championship in 2015? Well, considering quarterback Marquise Williams — the back-to-back target of the aforementioned Rivers — was one of four Roughriders released a day after he completed three of seven passes for 32 yards and an interception in the losing effort, it looks like we have our answer.

“I was hoping we would have a stronger performance,” Jones said of his backup crew, after leaving the majority of his starters at home. “But that is where we are. We are not going to hide from it.”

4.

Backfield battle

The battle in the Eskimos backfield is as fierce as expected, only it’s not between the players we initially thought, or over the starting position. Right now, the race to watch is which American running back will earn the opportunity to back up C.J. Gable, who suddenly found himself the lone member of the stable with any professional experience following the release of John White, Travon Van, LaDarius Perkins and Marion Grice earlier this month.

5.

Fans in the stands

With a crowd of 28,374 announced at Commonwealth on Sunday, the Eskimos’ pre-season game was a bigger draw than the 27,244 who turned out in Winnipeg to watch the Eskimos win the West semifinal on Nov. 12, 2016 against the Blue Bombers. And it’s significantly higher than last year’s league average of 24,644.2.