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It may be his first game back in Commonwealth Stadium since leaving in off-season free agency, but Mike Reilly has faced the Edmonton Eskimos before.

In fact, in his first-ever Canadian Football League start back on Oct. 19, 2012, he completed 19 of 28 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns, after starting things off with an interception on just the second snap of the game.

He also ran four times for 43 yards on the way to a 39-19 win at BC Place Stadium, giving him a perfect 1-0 record as a starter against the Eskimos.

“I’m not going to let you jinx that, man,” Reilly said with a grin Thursday, while preparing to make his first ever visiting start against the Eskimos at Commonwealth Stadium. “It has been a long time since I’ve been on the visiting sideline at this stadium. I know them pretty well, they obviously know me pretty well, but there’s been a ton of changes in Edmonton since last year, just as there has been in B.C.

“That’s the challenge of the first month of the season, is you don’t have a lot of film on guys and you’re just trying to figure out what their identity’s going to be. They don’t even know it yet. We don’t really know ours, you build that in the first third of the season. So it’s been more about getting us prepared to play our football and whatever they throw at us, make adjustments during the game.”

Email: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge