Durant to sit out Roughriders' season finale

Chris Jones' first season as the Roughriders' head coach was anything but smooth and it will not be any easier when they close out the season at B.C. Place.

Thanks to a matador style of blocking from the offensive line and running backs, the Riders are left a little thin at quarterback.

Darian Durant didn't practice all week because of the lumps he took last Saturday.

Six sacks took their toll as it was decided Friday morning that Durant will sit this last one out. He didn't even make the trip to Vancouver.

Jake Waters was sacked once by the Lions but it was enough, leaving the Riders' backup with a reported separated shoulder.

That leaves the Riders with Mitchell Gale, G.J. Kinne and Brandon Bridge.

Gale is listed as the starter but the Riders will use a qb rotation similar to what we saw last week with Durant and Waters.

The majority of the playing time is expected to go to Gary Joseph Kinne III.

G.J., as he prefers, hasn't seen any real action since a NFL pre-season game a year ago and it wasn't even at quarterback.

He caught two passes playing receiver for the Eagles.

His last qb action was two years ago in a pre-season game for the Jets.

"I've never played in a CFL game before so I guess I will kind of find out when I get in there." said Kinne after the Riders' final practice at Mosaic Stadium on Thursday, which shouldn't leave Riders' fans brimming with confidence come Saturday night.

But Chris Jones is a glass half-full type of guy.

"We've practiced pretty heavy for three straight days and G.J. had two out of three good days. He's certainly a competitor, he's got good wheels and seems to know where to go with the football."

Which is all any football fan can ask for, but knowing and doing are two different things.

If Kinne or Gale were to work behind a first team protection unit it might be a fair evaluation, but the group they've had in there has surrendered 17 sacks over the last three games.

"Put forth a thousand times better effort than we did the last game." said centre Dan Clark looking forward to making amends in the last game of the season.

"I take it very very personal, definitely keeps you up at night thinking what can I do better in certain situations that are better for everybody on the offensive line."

As for potentially protecting a young guy like Kinne who has never played in a CFL game before...

"First thing I say to him, it's your team, lead us."

It will interesting to see how that works out for them.

Game time 5:00 CST.