REILLY HAS THE STATS, BUT HE’D RATHER HAVE THE WINS
All that matters is team performance and the Grey Cup, Eskimos QB says
Mike Reilly is in danger of entering Connor McDavid territory.
Last calendar year, Edmonton’s top two pro sports teams had the Hart Trophy winner in the National Hockey League in McDavid and the Most Outstanding Player Award winner in the Canadian Football League in Reilly.
McDavid led the league in scoring again last season but didn’t win the Hart again because the Oilers missed the playoffs. Reilly is leading his league in numbers again, but the Eskimos have already lost three games and Bo Levi Mitchell has yet to lose a game quarterbacking the Calgary Stampeders.
One difference between McDavid and Reilly when it comes to the ultimate hardware in their league is the definition involved, however.
In the NHL, the Hart goes to the Most Valuable Player. In the CFL, it goes to the Most Outstanding Player.
As the Eskimos hit the halfway mark of the season Saturday against the Montreal Alouettes, it’s impossible to suggest Reilly is not having an even more outstanding season this year than he had last year, when he registered a career-high 5,830 passing yards.
Reilly goes into this game with 2,622, and this is an Alouettes team he put 415 yards in the air against two games ago in Montreal, throwing four touchdown passes and rushing for another.
But there’s another set of numbers that hasn’t gained much notice. Reilly has put himself in the hunt for a Doug Flutie record.
Only Flutie has put together the combination of touchdown passes thrown and touchdowns scored rushing to produce more than 50 in a season. He did it four times.
Reilly goes into the Montreal game with a league-leading 16 touchdown passes thrown, and a league-leading seven more carrying the ball into the end zone, for a combined total of 23.
Flutie twice registered 52, once hit 55 and owns the record of 56 from 1994, when he had 48 TDs by air and eight by land.
Matt Dunigan and Khari Jones hold the record for quarterbacks not named Flutie with 47, with Kent Austin hitting 46, Anthony Calvillo 45 and Henry Burris 43 and 42. Last season, Reilly threw 30 touchdown passes and carried for 12 more to reach 42. Reilly said he finds that stat fascinating.
“Flutie? That doesn’t surprise me,” said the Eskimos quarterback. “In our case, I think it’s a byproduct of our situation this year. We seem to get down to the one-yard line a lot. I’m sure Doug had quite a few 10-yard-plus TD runs. Mine are all the one-yard variety. We happen to have an offensive line that’s pretty proficient in that situation. I happen to be the one who carries it in. It could be anybody who lined up behind those guys and sort of fell in.
“I’m not too impressed by that part of it. What really impresses me is that Flutie was able to do it four times. That’s incredible. That just shows how good he was.”
It’s about the Grey Cup. Every year it’s about the Grey Cup, but especially this year with the Grey Cup here.
Reilly said it speaks to the kind of quarterback you need in this league. Reilly, as most Eskimos fans know by now, is outstanding when it comes to talking about the game and terrible when it comes to talking about himself.
Mention the fact he produced a career-high in yards passing each of the last two years and has a shot at 6,000 this season, and his answer is predictable.
“You have to be blessed with a great offensive line that gives you time,” he said.
“The running back in the offence has to be able to drop back and block. But he has to run the ball, too. And you have to have great wide receivers, which we obviously do. I don’t look at the statistic difference, I look at the things we’re able to do and how dynamic we are.”
Obviously, Reilly looks at these numbers as team numbers. With that in mind, I ask him how 6,000-yards passing would stack up this year.
“Honestly, it doesn’t,” he said. “It’s about the Grey Cup. Every year it’s about the Grey Cup, but especially this year with the Grey Cup here. If we’re rushing for 300 yards a game and I’m only throwing the ball five times a game the rest of the year but we get to play the Grey Cup game in this stadium, it would be great.”