Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
We shouldn’t be making this connection, not this late, not at the start of Mike Reilly’s fifth season with the Edmonton Eskimos. Even from his first year in Edmonton, that four-win campaign in 2013, it was all right in front of us. From the day he arrived in Edmonton, Reilly was the quick-witted, stubble-laden charismatic man in a stylish hat that wowed audiences with his escapability. No matter how high the odds seem stacked against him — down eight with the fourth quarter dwindling; down five with 1:43 to go; trapped in second-and-long with the pocket fast collapsing — Reilly has always been able to find a way to give his team a chance. Over the years, he’s only gotten better at it.
As my colleague Kristina Costabile yelled out in the office last week, with this year’s CFL guide and record book held over her head, Reilly was the league’s most clutch quarterback in 2017, with six game-winning drives. Matt Nichols and Ricky Ray were the next closest to him, with four (how’s that for some Esks QB legacy?).
Eskimos’ Mike Reilly dashing his way through the Winnipeg defence in what would become the longest game ever played in the CFL. (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
I made the long overdue connection on Thursday night, watching Reilly work his way up and down a water-logged Investors Group Field in Winnipeg. It might have been around the time that he scrambled, lost and regained his balance, dodged a defender or two and kept a crucial drive going that it occurred to me.
Mike Reilly is Indiana Jones.
After watching Reilly bounce around and make first downs out of what looked like nothing, I went to the tape. Watch Indy in one of the most iconic moments of the series, when he’s outrunning a boulder with the golden idol in his hands. You tell me who he looks like.
Watching him escape a rolling boulder and somehow emerge in the middle of a tribe with sharpened weapons pointed at him is like watching Reilly, idol tucked under his arm as well, burst through the d-line and land in the middle of a team’s secondary.
For fun, I played Reilly’s 2017 highlight reel on mute with the Indiana Jones theme playing behind it. You might never watch his highlights any other way again.
https://www.cfl.ca/2018/01/25/tbt-reillys-mop-season/
Of course, there are some obvious differences. Indiana Jones is an archaeologist and Reilly is, aside from a Grey Cup champion and MOP-winning quarterback, a mechanical engineer. Jones has a noted fear of snakes, while Reilly’s feelings on reptiles are to date unknown. Watching them in action in their respective fields, they almost look interchangeable at points. As Reilly has settled into the prime of his career, he seems more confident and capable of pulling off the impossible, week after week. Jones ran from boulders and dodged booby trap-laced underground dwellings in pursuit of rare artefacts. Reilly dodges the likes of Adam Bighill, Charleston Hughes and Shawn Lemon in pursuit of the Grey Cup.
Watching Sean Whyte’s 44-yard field goal sail through the uprights in the wee hours of Friday morning, I could hear the Indiana Jones theme and pictured Reilly reaching back under a closing stone door to grab one of his perfectly-styled hats. The league’s best escape artist and his teammates did it again.
LOOKING AHEAD
We’re still five days away from what I’d call the biggest game of Week 2. While Calgary got the win in Week 1, neither they or the Argos were likely happy with the full 60 minutes of tape that they produced this weekend to kick off the season.
The Stamps’ offence looked sluggish against the Ticats for most of their Saturday game. The Argos’ offence struggled through almost all of their Friday night loss to the Riders, with Ricky Ray throwing a very uncharacteristic pick-six. That turned a we’re-still-in-this five-point game into a 12-point affair with 7:14 left.
If you know the Stamps, you should expect them to take steps forward from their slow start last week. The Argos, and Ricky ray in particular, as Don Landry pointed out this morning, won’t likely make a mistake like that again in a game this season. One of the big things the Argos will need to correct is the protection of their veteran QB. After his trip to Saskatchewan, Ricky Ray could very well give you a detailed report about the pores in Charleston Hughes’ nose. No QB should ever have this information. For what it’s worth, with the d-line that Saskatchewan has this year, Ray won’t be the only one in the league able to supply this kind of detailed info.
The other aspect of this game that I can’t wait to see is James Wilder Jr. vs. Alex Singleton. You’ve got one of the best running backs in the league going up against who I’d peg as the best linebacker in the league. I’d also settle for seeing this matchup in a wrestling ring. I know Singleton would be down. Wilder? Maybe we can find out this week.
