There are still voices out there expressing concern over Mike Reilly playing in the wake of suffering a concussion, but the Edmonton Eskimos’ quarterback has moved past the drama and is focused on Saturday afternoon’s game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
With the plan this week to allow Reilly to use his entire skill set, Reilly spoke earlier this week about getting back to the aggressive, mobile style he’s used all season. Part of that, he said, is taking his first big hit in a game.
“It’s like the first game of the season and you come out and you’re ready to get that first bit of contact out of the way because it’s been a long time since you had it,” Reilly said. “You’re generally not live in training camp and it’s nice to get those first couple of hits out of the way.
“That being said, you’d love to go the entire game and not be touched the entire time, but if you get hit, which is going to happen in the course of the game, it’s always nice to get it done early and keep relaxed and play football.”
Reilly also spoke about the caution that the Montreal Alouettes’ defence showed against him at points last week in his first half of action. Reilly only had two moments in that first half that saw him take contact. Mike Edem was flagged for a late hit and linebacker Kyries Hebert hit Reilly with a clean tackle. The Alouettes had chances to up their physicality on Reilly last week but often held back on contact unless it was fully required.
“I felt like there were a couple of times where their guys could have played on the edge of the whistle in the sense that the ball had come out but if they were to hit me it would have been a 50/50 chance of a late hit or a roughing the passer,” Reilly said.
“I think that they were trying to be smart because the refs were aware that I have taken a ton of hits and some of them have been late, after the whistle, and there have been penalties and there have been fines. I think that the refs did a good job of communicating to us. I could hear after the ball was thrown a lot of times on plays when there was guys in they were telling them, ‘hold up, hold up,’ or there were guys wrapping me up and hitting me in the chest area, which is fine, it’s all totally legal.
“I don’t think they necessarily changed their style of play. They still came after us, they were still aggressive and they took their hits when they could, but at the same time they knew that if they played beyond the whistle or hit me anywhere above the shoulder pads that the refs were going to throw the flag. I think it was a combination of things. They were trying to play, good, respectful football, still aggressive and they were playing smart too.”
Check the audio link up top for the full conversation with Reilly on those topics and for his take on how refs are calling games for quarterbacks.
