ESKIMOS 40 ALOUETTES 20
MONTREAL – Mike Reilly has joined some select company in Edmonton Eskimos history.
A 346-yard effort on 25 completions not only helped the Eskimos post a third straight win with a 40-20 victory over the Montreal Alouettes on Monday afternoon, but it put Reilly past the 5,000 passing yards mark for the season.
Only Warren Moon (1983), Ricky Ray (2005 and 2008) and his current head coach Jason Maas (2004) have hit that milestone while wearing Eskimos green and gold.
“Our offence has been in development all year but we started from the beginning knowing we would have a dangerous passing attack, with our schemes combined with the weapons we have at the wide receiver position,” Reilly said. “We knew we’d be able to throw the ball.
“The thing that I’m excited about more than the passing yards is what our running game has been able to do the last month or so. That makes things so much easier for us offensively. It takes a lot of pressure off our guys up front and it keeps the defence on their toes.”
Reilly threw touchdown passes to Brandon Zylstra and Chris Getzlaf and ran one in himself for Edmonton (8-7), and John White ran in two TDs while gaining 145 yards on 19 carries against an unusually porous Montreal defence. Sean Whyte added two field goals.
The Eskimos’ single-season passing record is 5,663 yards by Ray in 2008 and Reilly has three games left to try to break it. Edmonton is going into a bye week, so his pursuit starts Oct. 22 on the road against the B.C. Lions.
“It’s pretty sweet for Mike,” said Maas. “He’s deserving of that honour, but it also says a lot about your offensive line and your offence as a unit.
“It’s not just him throwing it. Mike is what makes it all run. It’s a cool thing to be part of that club and obviously he has a chance to get something no other Eskimo has and that’s 6,000 yards. That’s pretty cool.”
Brandon Rutley and Samuel Giguere had TDs for Montreal (4-10), now 1-1 since Jacques Chapdelaine replaced general manager Jim Popp as head coach two weeks ago. The Alouettes have not won back-to-back games this season, while 40 points is the most they’ve conceded.
Rakeem Cato completed 20 passes for 268 yards, but was not as sharp as he was while throwing four TD passes in a win against Toronto in Chapdelaine’s debut as head coach.
“Not being able to sustain offensive series is a situation where, the way we’re built right now, it’s a lot of pressure on one young man (Cato),” said Chapdelaine. “If the young man cannot produce for different reasons, it’s not like I can turn around to a Travis Lulay – you know, a veteran – or something like that.
We’ve got young quarterbacks now. It would have been unfair to take Rakeem out to put another guy in. It’s not like Rakeem had a bad day.”
(Canadian Press)
