CFL slugfest leaves Reilly no worse for wear
He looked like the Mike Reilly of old after Saturday’s game, and he had the stitches to prove it.
The Edmonton Eskimos quarterback had to turn in the same type of gutsy performance that won the hearts and minds of his teammates and fans back when he first joined the team in 2013.
And while he exploded out of the gates in 2016 on pace for a record-setting aerial assault, we saw flashes of the past as the evolved pocket passer resorted back to tucking the ball to leg out a couple of first downs on the way to a 23-20 loss to the Ottawa Redblacks.
“It was a battle, a slugfest. We knew it was going to be,” said Reilly, who completed 25 of 41 pass attempts for 255 yards and an interception, while failing to throw a touchdown for the first time in his last 12 games. “They came out there and played aggressive, we tried to counter-punch, and it came down to a few plays at the end.”
And while he was sacked only twice, he faced constant pressure all night that led to blood, sweat and anger on the sidelines after picking himself up off the turf time and time again. It didn’t help that the Redblacks defence was flagged four times for roughing the passer on the way to 14 penalties for 204 yards — nearly double that of Edmonton.
“It’s football, it’s a violent game, it’s physical, and when you stand back in the pocket, you’re going to take some hits,” said Reilly, calling the bandage job on his face cosmetic — he was cut above his eye early in the game. “It’s their job to get through and hit the quarterback.
“So they did their job, they did it well.”
Eskimos head coach Jason Maas said they dished out as much as they took.
“It was extremely physical on both ends of the ball,” he said. “They hit our quarterback, we hit their quarterback, there were lots of big hits going on out there. It was a great game as far as that’s concerned.
“Mike’s perfectly fine.”