Jordan Lynch scored on a quarterback sneak with just over three minutes left, providing the winning points as the Edmonton Eskimos won the Grey Cup 26-20 over Ottawa in Winnipeg.
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The 103rd Grey Cup is being played out in Winnipeg between Edmonton and Ottawa today, but you wouldn’t know it here in Vancouver.
Back-to-back pass interference/illegal-contact penalties aided the Eskimos on their game-winning drive, moving the ball from the Edmonton 35 to the Ottawa 10-yard line. Akeem Shavers hauled in the two-point convert pass from Reilly to make it a six point edge.
Ottawa got to the quarterback a league-high 62 times this season and allowed a CFL-low 70.8 yards rushing per game.
Shavers, who the Eskimos noticed at the same off-season workout in Texas where they discovered rookie wide receiver Derel Walker but didn’t bring to training camp because the Redblacks signed him first, joined Edmonton’s practice roster on August 24.
To make it this far after only two years in the CFL is a dream come true, he said. Ottawa (12-6) finished atop the Eastern conference after winning just two games in its inaugural 2014 season while Edmonton (14-4) finished tied with Calgary for the league’s best record but secured top spot in the standings based after winning the season series with the Stampeders. The second one came after a successful challenge by Esks head coach Chris Jones. After that, though, Burris led a surgical drive, completing three straight passes to Maurice Price, Greg Ellingson and William Powell, having Powell run for seven yards, and then hitting Williams for 22 and Patrick Lavoie for a three-yard touchdown on a perfectly-read blitz. The RedBlacks led 13-10 after the first quarter.
In the first quarter, the Redblacks took an early 13-0 lead with touchdowns on their first two possessions before momentum shifted in Edmonton’s favour. “They found ways to make plays and to get us off the field …” But we had ample opportunities to go down and put this game out of reach. Ottawa was up 19-18 after three.
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The Eskimos settled down after that as Reilly drove the ball down the field and Sean Whyte booted a 25 yard field goal. However, Reilly then produced a remarkable eight-play, 88-yard touchdown drive, capped off with a two-yard pass to Shavers. A week after stunning the Hamilton Tiger-Cats with a 93-yard fourth quarter touchdown to win the East Final, Burris took a sack with just over two minutes to play and Ottawa was forced to punt. On the final play of the third quarter, Whyte banged a 35-yard field goal off the upright.
