After beginning Friday night on the sidelines, Michael Reilly started the second half at quarterback for the B.C. Lions.
Canadian QB Nathan Rourke played the first half. He completed 6-of-11 passes for 119 yards with one touchdown and one interception, which was taken back for a major by Roughriders defensive back Nick Marshall. The Leos were tailing 32-9 at halftime.
With less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Reilly left the game. He completed 17-of-24 passes for 203 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions while helping the Lions get back into the ball game. It was 32-22 when Reilly left in the final frame.
Reilly was listed as the starter on the depth chart and warmed up at Mosaic Stadium, but it was Rourke who took the field for the first series of the game against the Roughriders.
During camp Reilly was dealing with shoulder soreness, which caused him to miss a handful of sessions. On Sunday, July 18, Reilly underwent an MRI on his right shoulder and arm to rule out a serious setback. Overuse during training camp has the Lions treating Reilly as a starting pitcher.
The Lions put Reilly on a “pitch count” wanting his arm as “live” as possible to begin the year, but it didn’t go as planned. Reilly was listed with a right elbow ailment on the team’s injury report entering Week 1.
The 36-year-old Reilly started 16 games for the Lions in 2019, but his first year as the starter in B.C. was cut short due to a broken wrist. Prior to the injury, he was the last healthy starting quarterback league-wide. He passed for 3,897 yards, 20 touchdowns versus 15 interceptions while completing just under 70 percent of his attempts as the Lions went 5-13 and missed the playoffs.
The six-foot-three, 230-pound signal caller won the league’s Most Outstanding Player award in 2017 when he threw for a career-high 5,830 yards and 30 touchdowns. He’s been a part of two Grey Cup winning teams, including leading Edmonton to a CFL title in 2015, earning MVP honours in the 103rd edition of the three-down championship.
Reilly started his CFL career with the Lions in 2010 and he’s been in the league for 10 seasons. He has completed over 66 percent of his passes for 31,522 yards with 168 touchdowns against 99 interceptions and rushed 637 times for 3,366 yards scoring 52 majors in 155 games.
