Quarterbacking was a season-long issue for the Saskatchewan Roughriders last year.
Darian Durant seemed to be the answer when he took over from Marcus Crandell and ran off a five-game winning streak before he was injured.
Coming off their Grey Cup win in 2007, the Roughriders rattled off six straight wins before the injury bug hit their receiving crew.
After a 12-6 second-place finish the team was bounced at home by B.C.
With Crandell now retired and here as a guest coach for the Riders, the battle for No. 1 on the team hardest-hit in the CFL free-agent market has an added urgency.
"The thing is, we played mostly rookies for three quarters," said Riders coach Ken Miller. "That was our goal to put our young players in situations and put them in for an extended period of time so we'll be able to evaluate them properly.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to find some beauty in this game. I don't seem much beauty at the moment."
The Riders offence gained just 200 yards and an Eskimos offence that netted 509 yards made it a long night for the Green Riders.
"Steven Jyles in that no-huddle drive at the end of the half (netting the only Saskatchewan TD), I thought that was really special and really our only bright point on offence.
"He looked good. Other than that, we were a little bit tentative.
"Darian, statistically, was seven out of 12 and made some really good throws. Darian is a good quarterback and he's going to build on this game."
The only bright spot for Miller was losing to new Esks.
"I told Richie congratulations and that's the last one he'll get from us," said Miller.
Giving up three picks in key situations didn't help their cause, either.
"One of the things you really should look at is turnovers," said Miller.
"One of our goals was to win the turnovers battle and we didn't do that. When you do that, it's a matter of concern."
