CFL: Preseason Week 2

Eskimos 37 - Riders 7

What can you say about Thursday's game that hasn't already been said about Britney Spears? It was painful to listen to and involved a variety of people repeatedly scoring with very little effort. Now, although I don't like seeing a game this lopsided, you do have to put it in perspective. We didn't dress 14 of our regular starters and the ones that did dress didn't play the whole game, whereas Edmonton played their starters for the majority of the game. I won't spend too much time dwelling on the game but here's a few things I did take away:

• Anton McKenzie has stepped up big time and is ready to be an impact player

• Congratulations to Carl Berman and Stu Foord who played their way onto the team

• Congratulations to Chris Getzlaf and Tad Kornegay who played themselves off the roster

• Apparently we still haven't addressed 2 major concerns from last year... coverage on kicks and covering crossing routes.

• I warned you about Ricky Ray getting hurt. Although it turned out to be a minor injury, I wish I could have been there to see Maciocia's life flash before his eyes as Ray laid there on the field.

• Wayne Smith managed to take 2 consecutive penalties despite not even dressing for the game, or even being in the same province for that matter. Come on Wayne you gotta be more disciplined than that. You gotta show some veteranism (as Carm would say).

Although it was a fairly uninspiring performance by the Riders, we need to put it behind us. With out veterans back in the line-up, a stadium full of supporters, this Saturday will be a completely different story.

With the final preseason game out of the way, it was time for the easiest part of any coach's job... the cuts. Now while we weren't able to cut everyone we wanted to we did cut a lot of people.

Bagley you're cut. Bake, Burnett and Verdon you're cut. Bradshaw, Chatelain, Curvey, Dokes, Zelinski and Freeman you're gone. Heard, we liked your hustle... that's why it was so hard to cut you. Congratulations to the rest of you, you made the team! Except Hernandez, Hicks, Kornegay, Lynch, Marshall, Orban, Stratton and Whitley. You guys are cut.

Now everyone give me 5 laps and hit the showers. Oh Griffin, you don't have to... you're cut.

Given that we haven't yet declared our 7 man practice roster, I expect that a few of these guys will be sticking around town. However, competition for those spots got a little more heated with news that 4th overall draft pick Keith Shologan was released by the San Diego Chargers and has been in contact with Eric Tillman about joining the Riders. Now we didn't expect Shologan to show up in Riderville until sometime in September but it looks like he'll be here sooner than expected.

Elsewhere in the CFL...

First overall draft pick Dylan Barker will likely miss the rest of the season after breaking his leg during preseason action. I feel bad for Barker and was looking forward to see him in action this season. Someone should have told him though, if he really didn't want to play for the Ti-cats there are less drastic ways of going about it.