Chris Streveler (17) of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers during the game against the Edmonton Eskimos at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, MB on Thursday, June 14, 2018. (Photo: Johany Jutras / CFL)
It took parts of two days, but not even a couple Acts of God could stop Mike Reilly from showing why he is the Canadian Football League’s Most Outstanding Player.
And it came of the expense of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Reilly threw for 408 yards and a touchdown and rushed for two as the Edmonton Eskimos rallied to outscore the Bombers 11-3 in the fourth quarter for a 33-30 victory in front of an announced crowd of 25,438 at Investors Group Field, in a game that took five hours and 42 minutes to complete due to two lightning delays.
The result, coming in the second-longest game in CFL history to the 1962 Fog Bowl between the Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, spoiled what would have potentially been an eye-popping effort by the home side, which was starting rookie Chris Streveler at quarterback for an injured Matt Nichols.
Streveler completed 15 of 28 passes for 178 yards and three touchdowns against two interceptions while rushing for another 30 yards, but it simply wasn’t enough on a long night in which Reilly was being Reilly.
“He’s a tough guy, we know that. He’s proven and he made the plays to win the game,” said Bombers cornerback Chris Randle. “He was a tough competitor tonight. You’ve got to tip your had to those guys.”
Trailing 30-22 in the fourth quarter, Reilly brought the Esks to within 30-28 with 82 seconds remaining on a one-yard run and then completed a pass to the back of the end zone to Nate Behar for the two-point convert to tie the game. Reilly then completed a 15-yard pass to Derel Walker to set up a game-winning 44-yard field goal with 13 seconds remaining.
It was a crushing ending to a contest that spoiled the debut of Streveler, who showed a lot of promise, but couldn’t out-duel the CFL’s best.
“With the weather delays I don’t think I ever imagined it going like that,” said Streveler when asked to assess his first game as a professional. “Just like any game I think there are some good things that I personally and us as an offence can build on, and also some things that we’re going to need to get better at – myself personally and offensively.
“It stings to lose it like that.”
“I liked his poise,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “I thought he handled the quarterback position as a pro. For his first start as a 23 year old I thought he was very calm and I think he gave his teammates a lot of confidence.”
The two lightning delays totalled two hours and 50 minutes, wreaking havoc on the CFL’s curtain raiser. The Bombers had a little bit of everything against the Eskimos – Streveler found Weston Dressler, Darvin Adams and Drew Wolitarsky for touchdowns while Kevin Fogg returned a missed field goal 110 yards for another score. The defence intercepted Reilly and sacked him once, but was also scorched for a Reilly-to-Walker 101-yard TD.
The Bombers have now been involved in five weather-delayed games since 2016 – four here in Winnipeg and one in Edmonton.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who have been in these situations before where the game gets delayed a couple times,” said O’Shea. “They did come out firing and we certainly had control of the game for a lot of the second half… we just lost it near the end and ran out of gas, maybe.
“Whatever it is… we needed to make one more play.”
THE BIG STAT
70%: For as much as the Bombers defence got after Mike Reilly, he still completed 70 percent of his passes – 32 of 46 – for 408 yards as the Eskimo pivot finished with a 95.2 QB efficiency rating.
FYI
One of the key plays before the lightning delay came on the first play of the second quarter as Ryan Lankford returned a kickoff 55 yards before fumbling, with the mistake recovered by teammate Kyrie Wilson. But Wilson had stepped out of bounds prior to recovering the ball and was flagged for illegal participation.
By rule, the ball was awarded to the Eskimos.
ETC
The Bombers and Esks lined up for the earliest regular season game in league history by one day – the previous record was a June 15 start in 2004 between Saskatchewan and Toronto (21-10 Argos)… Chris Streveler was the first straight-from-college rookie to start an opener since Anthony Calvillo for the Las Vegas Posse in 1994. Calvillo won his start, but dating back to 1959 rookie QBs have now combined to go 4-8 in those games… The Bombers and Eskimos have opened up a CFL season now on four occasions: Winnipeg knocked off Edmonton 29-21 on August 14, 1958, the Bombers opened the 1965 season with a 21-14 victory and on July 29, 1969 the Eskimos crushed Winnipeg 33-0
MILESTONE WATCH
Linebacker Adam Bighill played in his first game as a Bomber and the 100th of his CFL career… Darvin Adams entered the game needing 90 yards for 3,000 in his career and finished with three catches for 46 yards.
NUMBERS GAME
101: The length of the Mike Reilly-to-Derel Walker TD strike in the first quarter.
16/23/20: The length of three TD strikes fired by Chris Streveler: 16 yards to Weston Dressler, 23 to Darvin Adams and 20 to Drew Wolitarsky.
110: Kevin Fogg returned a missed at the end of the first half 110 yards for a touchdown.
NEXT:
The Bombers are now on the road for their next two games – Friday, June 22nd in Montreal and Friday, June 29th in Hamilton. Winnipeg is next at home on Saturday, July 7th vs. B.C.
