Just because Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly had a long touchdown run last week doesn’t mean he is suddenly going to turn into a running fool.
Reilly, whose career rushing totals of 2,469 yards rank third among CFL QBs during the past 10 years, has run for only 292 yards this season. Only Hamilton Tiger-Cats pivot Jeremiah Masoli has rushed for more.
When Jason Maas became the Eskimos head coach two years ago, he had several conversations with Reilly about how important it was for the quarterback to be healthy enough to help the team win all season long, especially late in the year.
“You’ve got to pick and chose your moments,” said Reilly, 32, whose mad dashes into the opponents’ defence have become more infrequent during the past two seasons. “As the weather gets colder, as the games get more important, it becomes more imperative to do what’s necessary to win football games.”
So don’t be surprised if Reilly takes off during Saturday night’s 8 p.m. game at Vancouver in an attempt to help the Eskimos maintain sole possession of third place in the West Division. The Saskatchewan Roughriders, 9-7, are currently tied with the 9-6 Eskimos after upsetting the Calgary Stampeders on Friday, in the process ending the B.C. Lions’ 20-year playoff streak – the second-longest in CFL history to the Eskimos’ 34-year run from 1972-2005.
“Just understanding that it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality,” Reilly continued. “It does become more effective when you don’t do it as often and then, all of a sudden, you take off and run. So, yeah, there was really just one scramble I had in that game (against the Toronto Argonauts), but it goes for 28 yards for a score. The last time we played Toronto, I don’t know if I ran at all or, if I did, it was once or twice, so they weren’t necessarily expecting it on that type of play.
“When I do take off, my mindset hasn’t changed. I’m going to be aggressive. I’m going to try to get the most out of it.”
There are a couple of other key factors that affect how much Reilly runs during a game. One is having a better understanding of the offence and becoming more comfortable dumping off the ball to running backs or hitting receivers on backside routes, things that Anthony Calvillo and Ricky Ray have thrived on over the years.
“That takes time, that takes years, to be honest with you,” Reilly said. “The better you get at that, the less often you have to rely on taking off to run because there’s other answers.”
And then it depends upon what the defence is doing. Sometimes a blitz or a stunt along the defensive line may take away some of the QB’s options, but maybe that play doesn’t take into account the quarterback’s ability to escape the pocket.
Another change for Reilly is he tries to keep his eyes downfield when he starts to run in case one of his receivers can get open with the extra time. In the past, the wide receivers would immediately start blocking because they knew Reilly was about to run, but now they know if they can get open, there may be an opportunity for him to throw the ball downfield.
“Brandon Zylstra has caught a ton of scramble drill balls as have a lot of other guys on our team,” said Reilly. “That’s just as effective of a way to make a defence pay by (me) getting out of the pocket. It’s just a matter of finding which things work best against which team.”
Of course, Reilly has also had another good season throwing the football. With only 145 passing yards, he would become just the sixth QB (Warren Moon, Doug Flutie, Kent Austin, Calvillo and Ray are the others) to reach the 5,000-yard mark in back-to-back seasons. He currently leads the league with 4,855 passing yards.
Reilly, who needs just 141 passing yards to pass Moon on the CFL’s all-time passing charts, can also tie Flutie’s league record of 14 300-yard passing games in a season if he can accomplish the feat in each of the last three games, which would also mean obliterating Ray’s Eskimos record of 5,663 passing yards.
“Not a big deal personally,” Reilly said. “Just a big deal because it means we’ve been effective with our offence in being able to move the ball down the field through the air. And that’s a 12-man effort. That’s the offensive line giving me time, that’s running backs in the protection, that’s wide outs getting to their landmarks and things like that.”
Reilly said he expects the Eskimos to pass for more than 5,000 yards every year because of their talented receiving corps and aggressive offensive schemes. The club record would be nice, he said, but the most important thing is to play well and defeat the Lions for a third time this year to continue building for the playoffs.
“Last year, we were on pace for that as well,” Reilly said about the club record. “Adarius (Bowman) was on pace for a franchise record. And then the last game of the season didn’t matter and we didn’t play.
“It’s whatever is best for the team. If we need to throw the ball these next three games and we end up getting over those numbers to be successful, great. If we run the ball a ton and we don’t hit those numbers, but we’re successful and we win, that’s just as good. And if we end up sitting down at the end because the game doesn’t matter and (Maas) wants to keep everybody healthy, I won’t be happy with it because I always want to play, but I will definitely agree with doing whatever is best for the team.”
Veteran runningback C.J. Gable, who was recently acquired in a trade with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, rushed for 215 yards during his first two games with the Eskimos. He actually has three consecutive 100-yard rushing performances for the first time in his CFL career, including his last game with the Ticats.
Unfortunately, Gable tweaked something during practice this week and will sit out Saturday’s game.
“We wanted to monitor him and be careful with him,” Maas said.
That means rookie LaDarius Perkins, who has run for 319 yards during seven games this season, enters the lineup for a third time this season. He rushed for more than 100 yards in his debut, but didn’t get as many opportunities in future games when the Esks often fell behind early and had to pass the ball.
Perkins noticed that Gable was “patient with his runs” and will also attempt to match his teammate’s ability to protect the quarterback.
“You want to have a balanced offence,” Reilly said. “I do look at the numbers and appreciate them because of what we’ve been able to do in the pass game. But our offence is best when we have a good rushing attack as well, which has been shown the last two games when we’ve won. So we want to try to stay as balanced as we can.”
Wide receiver Vidal Hazelton, who was leading the Eskimos in receiving yardage when he suffered a hamstring injury on Aug. 17 at Winnipeg, returns to the lineup to join a receiving corps that includes four international receivers in the league-leading Zylstra, Derel Walker and Bowman.
Hazelton was initially placed on the one-game injured list, but later re-injured his hamstring during practice and had to go on the six-game list.
“I was really down about getting hurt that first time because I felt like I was having a really good season,” he said. “I had a daughter on the way. Coming into the season, I had the mindset that I might miss the birth. That hamstring was a blessing and a curse.”
Because of his injury, the Eskimos allowed Hazelton to return to New York a little early for the birth of his daughter, Avielle, on Sept. 14.
“I got a chance to see my little girl be born,” said Hazelton, who continued to do his rehabilitation exercises while he was back home. “That gave me a refreshing feeling.”
Also among the 14 lineup changes for Saturday’s game was offensive tackle Joel Figueroa and defensive back Chris Edwards moving to the one-game injured list along with rookie receiver Duke Williams, who got bumped by Hazelton.
Bowman led the league in receiving last year, but has all but disappeared since returning from the injured list in September. He has one catch for 16 yards on nine targets over the last two games – the lowest two-game total of his CFL career – and only five catches for 57 yards during the last four games.
“In terms of those decisions, that’s not up to me,” said Bowman, who insists he is completely healthy. “It’s part of the business. I play. That’s what I do. I haven’t gone anywhere. I’m going to do my role every week.
“We just won two games and that’s always better than six losses.”
To replace Figueroa on the offensive line, the Eskimos shifted Colin Kelly from right tackle to left tackle and added veteran D’Anthony Batiste at right tackle for his third game of the season.
“He’s started a lot of football games protecting me, so when he gets back into the lineup, there’s a huge level of comfort there on my end as well as the other four guys up front,” Reilly said about the 35-year-old Batiste. “They’ve all played a lot of football with D’Anthony and he does a great job for us.”
Also back on the field is rookie Canadian cornerback Arjen Colquhoun, who’ll be wearing No. 17 after giving up No. 36 to fellow defensive back Aaron Grymes upon Grymes’ return from the NFL.
“When Arjen is on the field, that’s a ratio-changing position for us,” Maas said. “We’re allowed to play different spots different ways.”
For example, international middle linebacker Korey Jones can play the entire game instead of sharing the position with 2017 draft pick Christophe Mulumba-Tshimanga.
SHORT YARDAGE: Defensive end Odell Willis had a playing streak of 76 consecutive games end last week when he was a healthy scratch. He returns to the starting lineup Saturday after missing only the fourth game in his nine-year CFL career (three of those situations have been coaches’ decisions) … Reilly has thrown a touchdown pass in each of the last six games … The Eskimos have lost five consecutive games at BC Place after Labour Day dating back to 2011 … The Lions have lost seven of their last eight games.