Reilly puts friendship over divisional rivalry
Eskimos quarterback thrilled to watch good friend Lulay tame the Tiger-Cats
Mike Reilly has nothing against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Honestly. A week ago, he was even pulling for them to beat the B.C. Lions. Right up until former teammate and longtime friend Travis Lulay got into the game, that is. The 33-year-old veteran Lions backup quarterback and one-time Canadian Football League most outstanding player came in for Jonathon Jennings and threw for 436 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed for another, to lift the Lions to a 41-26 win. “Any time that a Western opponent is playing an Eastern opponent, you hope that the other division gets the win because it’s just better for you in the win-loss column,” said Reilly, the Edmonton Eskimos quarterback who had his turn against the Ticats on Thursday. “But any time I get a chance to see him play, I always hope that he does really well and I was excited for him to get his opportunity. “I wasn’t surprised, by any means, he’s still one of the best players in the league over there, so I think for a lot of the young guys who have only been in the league for a year or two, they see Jennings go down and go, ‘Oh, B.C.’s backup is going in.’ And then he lights it up. How did that happen? “That’s not a backup quarterback, that’s a former MOP, and obviously, a very good friend of mine, so I was happy to see him do well. “I still wish they would have lost, but I was happy to see him play good.” Because Lulay came in off the bench after the first play instead of officially starting the game, his 436 passing yards set a league record for a backup performance. At the same time, the league determined it was one of four extreme cases where the backup quarterback will now be credited with the win instead of the starter. One of those games includes when Matt Nichols relieved Reilly on Aug. 23, 2014, completing 15 of 28 passes for 178 yards, two interceptions and a touchdown in a 41-27 win over the Toronto Argonauts after Reilly was injured on an opening-snap sack. Meanwhile, Reilly was sporting an all-time record of 37-27 as a starter heading into Thursday’s game. Thursday’s 31-28 comeback win for the Eskimos at Tim Hortons Field improved their record to 4-0 and dropped the Ticats to 0-4. And it wasn’t the first time the Eskimos have come up against a winless opponent this season. The stars had to have been aligned for the league’s last unbeaten team to have faced two opponents that were still looking for their first win of the season in back to back games, after playing against the Ottawa Redblacks last week. “Those are always the most dangerous teams to play against,” Reilly said. “I said that, with Ottawa coming into our house, you’re playing against a hungry team. Every team should be hungry to win every single week, but when you haven’t had the success in the winloss column, it’s not necessarily a desperate team, it’s a hungry team that you’re playing against, and they’re dangerous. “It’s always been tough to go and play in Hamilton, it was a short week for us and for them, and we’re the ones travelling back east. It’s a game that, if you don’t come out prepared and ready to go, you’re going to get smacked in the mouth.”
NOT QUITE PERFECT
One reporter slipped up this week when asking Eskimos head coach Jason Maas about his team’s perfect start to the season, including both pre-season games. “We did lose in the pre-season, we lost to Calgary in the first game,” Maas corrected the scribe, noting that his squad fell 36-35 to the visiting Stampeders after electing to go for a two-point conversion at the end of the game, instead of settling for a tie. “We don’t forget those. Or, we try not to.” The last time the Eskimos lost in the regular season was a 32-25 loss to B.C. on Oct. 22, 2016, putting their win streak at five in a row coming into Thursday’s tilt.
HAVE HANDS, WILL TRAVEL
Before kickoff, the Eskimos moved veteran slotback Adarius Bowman from the one-game injured list to the six-game list after hurting his hamstring a week earlier. Regardless, all eyes were on Bryant Mitchell to see how he would fare in place of the reigning receiving-yards leader. “I hope so,” said the 6-foot-2, 198-pound Mitchell, a Northwestern State product who came off the practice squad to start his first CFL game in last year’s regular-season finale. “It’s exciting. This is the first time I got to travel with the team, for real. “Every other time it was the preseason.”