REGINA, Sask. - Marcus Crandell’s 73-yard touchdown pass to Adrius Bowman in the fourth quarter put the final nail in the Eskimos’ coffin as the Saskatchewan Roughriders kicked off the season with a 34-13 win over Edmonton.

The defending Grey Cup champion Riders broke open a close game with 18 unanswered points in the fourth quarter in front of a sold out Mosaic Stadium.

“They think a big guy can’t move - I can move when I need to,” said Bowman, a rookie from Oklahoma State, who is six-foot-four, 219 lbs. “I’m high in the sky right now. I’m just excited that these guys got a win.”

Crandell said his scoring pass to Bowman, which made it 27-13, was a turning point in the game.

“That’s how we thrived all last year - on big plays - and we just waited for that moment.”

Crandell passed for 278 yards and two touchdowns while Wes Cates rushed for 86 yards and two touchdowns, including a 12-yarder with under three minutes to play.

Crandell, who replaced Kerry Joseph, the league’s outstanding player last season after he was traded to the Toronto Argonauts, said he wasn’t out to prove anything.

“We came out and we fought hard and stuck in there and put up the W - it feels good,” Crandell said.

The Roughrider’s rookie head coach Ken Miller was satisfied with his first CFL victory.

“When you have great effort like that …. we have three areas that we want to be successful in,” Miller said. “We want to be successful in ball security and we tied them in that area. We want to be successful in field position. I think we won that one. Then we want to be successful in number of big plays and big-play ratio, and I think we had more big plays than they did. As long as we do those three things, we should be successful or be in a position to win games.”

Despite an excellent start, the Eskimos failed to put the ball in the end zone. On the first drive of the game, quarterback Ricky Ray completed eight-of-eight passes, setting up an 18-yard field goal by Noel Prefontaine.

Prefontaine was successful on four of five field goals, the longest was 54 yards that came at the end of the third quarter.

“We have to find a way to score majors and not just field goals,” said Eskimos head coach Danny Maciocia. “That was a disappointing part of the football game. If we would get a few touchdowns, the outcome might have been different.”

The Roughriders responded on their first possession with touchdown. On third and one near midfield, Crandell kept the ball and moved the chains. Four plays later Crandell connected with D.J. Flick for a 33 yard pass for the major.

Crandell would completed 19 of 29 passes.

The Roughriders defence started pressuring Ray in the second quarter, after John Chick swatted the ball from Ray leading to an Eskimos recovery.

Ray completed 25 of 37 passes for 249 yards.

“Don’t worry, there was no quit out there, we have a good solid team and a team of vets,” said Edmonton defensive lineman Dario Romero. “I’ve always said, ‘You learn more from losing than winning.’ So we can take this as a wake up call and set the pace. We don’t like to lose. We don’t play to lose. We don’t get paid to lose. So we’re here to win.”

Going into half-time Saskatchewan was up 9-7 after picking up a safety and a single. Cates would add the Riders second touchdown of the game in the third quarter with a 10 yard run to take the lead 15-10.

Roughriders kicker Luca Congi would later connect on his first field goal of the season in the fourth quarter from 36 yards out.