Preseason pro football games are generally, in a word, weird.
And the inaugural Northern Kickoff in Fort McMurray Saturday night between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Eskimos really was no different. 聽In a way, it was weirder than most.
Don鈥檛 get me wrong 鈥� travelling to the northern-most game in CFL history was an absolute delight and the 100,000 locals treated it like a mini-Grey Cup! 聽The festivities were highlighted by an attempt for a Guiness World Record for the highest-attended ribbon cutting ceremony and CFL Commissioner Jeffrey Orridge and the Grey Cup itself were on hand for the spectacle.
But once the smoke from the pregame fireworks drifted off into the Boreal Forest, we were left with a bizarre scene.
The game itself started as a snoozer, tied 0-0 after the opening quarter. 聽However the Eskimos were ignited by rookie quarterback James Franklin in the second quarter who put his team into a 14-11 by halftime.
The wonky new CFL rules were unveiled for the first time in this game and it had many scratching their heads. 聽Even those on the field! 聽When the game鈥檚 first touchdown was scored (a one-yard plunge by Franklin), all 24 players were gathered around the five-yard line for the point after convert, huffing and puffing with their hands on their hips. 聽Officials had to tell them to go out to the 25-yard line where the kick will now take place.
Were they not prepared for this? 聽Perhaps they were but you can鈥檛 fault them for old habits that were formed聽from the moment they began playing football.
Sophomore Roughriders quarterback Brett Smith then took his turn to shine, engineering 13 points in the third quarter to give Saskatchewan a 24-17 lead going into the fourth.
As back-and-forth games go, this one had it all and it had to have thrilled the 11,825 fans in attendance. 聽(3,175 short of a sellout). 聽The Eskimos turned up the heat in the final quarter, blitzing Rider quarterback Tino Sunseri five times on 14 plays which led to an interception and the eventual game-winning drive for Edmonton.
Game over: Edmonton 31 Saskatchewan 24
"There was some good and there was some bad in that game,鈥� Rider coach Corey Chamblin explained afterwards. 聽鈥淥f course there was a lot of penalties, adjustments to the new penalties and all that. 聽But for the most part I saw some winning football out there, I saw some losing football, and that's what preseason is. 聽We just have to build on that winning football and continue to grow."
Chamblin referred to the penalties which were an eyesore for the national TV audience. 聽Coaches generally get mad when the length of the football field is given up in penalties. 聽However on this night the teams combined for 55 penalties for a whopping 450 yards! 聽(Or over four football fields). 聽That had to be some sort of record.
See why this night was strange?
But each team had a job to do and that was to evaluate the players they had in uniform. 聽For the Riders, that was 77 while the Eskimos dressed 65. 聽Chamblin was asked how and when he planned to make his first wave of cuts.
鈥淲ell the first thing is I鈥檓 gonna get some sleep!鈥� Chamblin huffed, referring to the team鈥檚 hectic schedule of late. 聽鈥淭hen I鈥檒l sit with the coaches and get their grades. 聽A lot of guys did a lot of good things but we have to trim the roster.鈥�
And trim they did, releasing 11 players on Sunday night and reassigning four more to their university or junior football programs.
Of the 11 who were cut adrift, three were veterans including Tino Sunseri who didn鈥檛 take long to edit his Twitter profile correcting his years in Saskatchewan and putting up a profile pic of his college days at Pittsburgh. 聽Linebacker Joash Gesse and defensive end Ryan Wellman were the other veterans let go as the team headed into Week 3 of training camp in Saskatoon.
Not much stock could or should be put into the overall team鈥檚 performance in Fort McMurray because it simply wasn鈥檛 a normal game.
However things will get a little more real in Friday鈥檚 preseason finale when the Roughriders host the Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders at Mosaic Stadium at 7:30 pm (TSN, CKRM Rider Radio Network).
