Eskimos lose Reilly to left-knee injury
A difficult loss to start the Canadian Football League season became even harder to swallow on Sunday when the Edmonton Eskimos announced that starting quarterback Mike Reilly is out “indefinitely” because of a left-knee injury.
Reilly, 30, was hurt on a low hit by Toronto Argonauts defensive end Cleyon Laing in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s 26-11 Canadian Football League loss at Fort McMurray.
The Eskimos’ statement said Reilly would undergo tests this week to determine the severity of the injury.
The game at SMS Stadium —technically a home game for the Argonauts as their current stadium, Rogers Place, is unavailable for their use — was just the second time Reilly played since rehabilitating a multitude of leg injuries suffered late in the 2014 season. He also saw limited action in the Eskimos’ final pre-season game at Vancouver against the B.C. Lions.
Saturday’s game also marked the third time in as many years that Reilly has been injured by Laing, who was flagged for roughing the passer when he made contact with the QB’s knee. Laing also gave Reilly a concussion in a 2013 contest and hurt the pivot’s thumb in a scramble for a loose ball at Commonwealth Stadium in 2014.
Backup quarterback Matt Nichols is expected to assume starting duties in Reilly’s absence.
Third-string QB Jordan Lynch and James Franklin, who is on the practice roster, are the other signal-callers in the Eskimos’ stable.
The Edmonton Eskimos’ dud of a game in a 26-11 loss to the Toronto Argonauts in the season opener on Saturday takes a back seat to quarterback Mike Reilly’s knee injury.
But it is a concern that the Eskimos were flat in every aspect on Saturday at Fort McMurray. They were outplayed from the opening kickoff in an ugly first half and eventually lost because of Toronto backup quarterback Trevor Harris’s brilliant 24-of-27 passing display for 347 yards and three touchdowns.
The Eskimos offence put together only 242 yards of net offence to the Argos’ 461 and looked out of sync the vast majority of the game. Reilly’s 26-yard touchdown pass to receiver Kenny Stafford was one of the very few offensive highlights.
Reilly looked for the big play repeatedly before being injured, throwing into double or triple coverage sometimes, and had one interception saved from his resume by an Argos’ penalty.
When there weren’t misfires, there were discipline issues. Reilly found slotback Adarius Bowman for a 54-yard touchdown in the second quarter, but the play came back with a holding call on offensive lineman Andrew Jones. The Eskimos took 22 penalties for 120 yards to Toronto’s 19 for 125.
The offensive line gave up only three quarterback sacks, but Reilly was pressured all day. He twisted and injured his left knee on the second sack, when Euclid Cummings wrapped him up and Reilly tried to escape.
“I felt like in all three phases, they did a better job than us,” Eskimos head coach Chris Jones said. “They executed in all three phases. We need to coach our guys better. I don’t think we did anything (Saturday) that looked like we deserved to win the football game.”
Reilly, running back Chad Simpson and kick-returner Skye Dawson all fumbled the ball.
For the Eskimos who were a part of last year’s 12-6 team, the six-month off-season was excruciatingly long. A win away from playing for the Grey Cup and a budding rivalry with the Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders loomed large during the off-season. It’s a matchup the fans have spent just as much time waiting for.
The consensus on Saturday was that the Eskimos’ focus wasn’t on the bigger picture this year. “It was mental, all mental,” offensive tackle Tony Washington said. “We weren’t disciplined. It wasn’t that we came out flat. We were killing ourselves (with mistakes). We were overplaying and we were overexcited. That’s the thing that killed us.”
“I definitely don’t think we over-thought it,” said Bowman, who had six catches for 61 yards. “As a group, we could have been a lot smarter about the decisions we made during the game and with those (proper) decisions, I think we’d execute a lot better.
“Toronto showed up and played a great game. There’s still a lot we need to go back and fix.”
There is a lot to fix and, thanks to a Women’s World Cup-enabled early bye week, there isn’t time to fix it. The Eskimos aren’t practising again until Sunday, when players return from their first of two weeklong breaks in the schedule.
That might be goodnews for Reilly, who’ll undergo testing this week to determine the severity of his knee injury, but for an offence, defence and special teams unit that could use a few hard days of practice after coming out flat like it did on Saturday, it’s terrible timing.
“I have full confidence in what the coaches will do offensively, defensively and on (special) teams,” Eskimos general manager Ed Hervey said about the layoff after a poor showing.
“You have to give Toronto credit, too. They played really well. But we’ll be ready to go.”