Reilly looking forward to rare showdown
Esks QB fired up to face Lions’ Lulay, an ex-teammate
It’s the Canadian Football League’s version of a total eclipse.
For as much as Mike Reilly and Travis Lulay have been around over the past decade, it’s a rare sight, indeed, to see the two quarterbacks square off against one another in a game.
But the stars are aligning Thursday at BC Place Stadium, where Reilly’s Edmonton Eskimos will put a three-game winning streak up against Lulay’s B.C. Lions, who sit last in the West Division standings after dropping four of their last five.
The two former teammates, who played together in Vancouver from 2010-12, will square off against each other as starters for just the fourth time since Reilly was traded to Edmonton ahead of the 2013 season.
“They’re both from the Northwest. When they were here, they were very competitive but yet they were great friends,” said Lions head coach Wally Buono. “And I still think they’re great friends.
“Has Travis helped Mike? Has Mike helped Travis? It’s kind of like the chicken and the egg thing.”
In the CFL paradox, Lulay came first, arriving in 2009, one year ahead of Reilly.
But in their time as starters in the league, the comparison is striking, both in good times and bad.
“We’ve both been through a lot in our careers,” Reilly said. “Both won Grey Cups, both won MOPs, we both missed significant time from a knee injury.
“And I’ve been lucky enough to kind of stay healthy outside of the first half of that 2015 (season), not to say I haven’t experienced what he’s gone through to some degree. But he’s a guy that is a great leader for his football team.”
Both on the field and off. Unfortunately for Lulay, all the injuries he’s faced in his career meant he’s had to be off it more often than not whenever the Lions have faced Reilly.
“I’m excited to see him out there on the field playing,” Reilly said. “We haven’t got to play as much against each other as I think both of us wanted to back when I first got to Edmonton.
“He’s had a few injuries. In ’15, I had an injury that kept us from playing against each other, but it’s always great to battle against him. He’s one of the best in the league, in my opinion. I always tell you guys I like to play against the best and he’s one of them, but I always like to see him struggle when he plays against us, too.”
All joking aside, the fact that Lulay’s been able to bounce back multiple times from potentially career-ending injuries is a victory in itself.
“There have been a couple of times where I’ve wondered if I’d ever see him play again,” Reilly said. “I won’t say that I’m surprised that he’s still playing because I know him well enough that he’s going to fight through anything that he possibly can, but there have been some devastating things that have happened, and lesser guys probably wouldn’t still be playing."
Where bragging rights are concerned, it comes down to who’s won more head-to-head games.
“We’ve only had a handful, right?” said Lulay, who was a groomsman at Reilly’s wedding.
“It’s fun, stuff we talked about years ago and we’ve just had a handful of times to get after it. I think in ’13, we played against each other a couple times, but up until last year, we hadn’t directly squared off.
“They got us at home last year, so we’ve got Mike coming into our house this week. I owe him one.” So, who’s got the upper hand? “I don’t know,” Reilly said, whose lone regular-season win against Lulay came in Week 6 last year by a score of 37-26. “I don’t know what the win-loss record is against each other.
“I remember that I beat him in a pre-season game early in my career as an Edmonton Eskimo, and he never heard the end of that until he beat me in a regular-season game, and then it was like, ‘OK, I don’t want to talk about this anymore.’
“I don’t know what the record is, I’m sure that they ’ve all been pretty good games. I remember playing against him, having a good battle in Edmonton, it was fun to watch him play well, have me play well and have it come down to the end.”
Lulay’s memory is no better, either.
“I guess the short answer’s ‘no’ because I don’t know it off the top of my head,” said the Lions quarterback, who holds a 2-1 regularseason advantage over Reilly by a combined score of 74-60, thanks to back-to-back wins in 2013.
“I know he won the last one and I know tomorrow is fair game, so that’s what I’m worried about.”