Akeem Shavers’ two-yard touchdown reception with 12 seconds left on the game clock gave the Edmonton Eskimos a 17-16 halftime lead over the Ottawa Redblacks in the 103rd Grey Cup.
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What bothers me so much is that both teams played great, yet – for better or for worse – they are sharing the headlines with video replay.
Centre Jon Gott, top, and punter Ronnie Pfeffer of the Ottawa Redblacks exit the plane in Ottawa after returning from a loss in the Grey Cup game at Winnipeg.
It was a hard way for the RedBlacks to lose after a punishing physical effort against the favoured Eskimos, but in the end, the greatest one-year turnaround in the history of the Canadian Football League had a sour ending.
“It’s not about what I’ve been through personally, it’s what our team has been through”, Reilly said. We have to thank our host committee and all of our 800 volunteers for helping us to put on the best Grey Cup ever. Reilly also led the Eskimos in rushing with 66 yards.
Jones, who won his fourth Grey Cup in seven appearances as a coach, became only the third second-year head coach to win the Canadian Football League championship since 1994. Then the Eskimos dispatched the defending champions 45-31 in the division final. That’s tough to say, that this might be the last time we see each other maybe, and we finished like that, losing the Grey Cup. “For them being able to see us win a championship and be involved in it”.
Edmonton’s winning five-play, 78-drive was aided by Eskimos coach Chris Jones’ successful challenge of an incompletion that was changed to pass interference against Ottawa’s Brandon Sermons.
“We were not built to do this once, with the GM that we have, the coaching staff that we have and the players we brought in”, said Reilly. “They found ways to make plays and to get us off the field …”
The keys, Kanneh said, are to learn from mistakes and to correct them.
“For me, it was re-connecting, re-introducing our players to this community and getting them to understand how important they are to this community and how important this football team is to this community”.
Jones said on Sunday night that if Reilly had stayed healthy at the end of 2014 season, the Eskimos might have won the Grey Cup a year ago.
For the seventh time this season, the Eskimos outscored their opponents in the fourth quarter – 8-1 this time – to come back from a 13-0 deficit and outscore Ottawa 26-7 over the final 55 minutes.
One of the Stampeders touchdown horses was allowed on the sidelines at the Rogers Centre but wasn’t permitted to gallop along the sidelines when Calgary scored due to safety concerns and a lack of space.
One Redblacks player who won’t go anywhere, and shouldn’t, is quarterback Henry Burris. “We are very happy with how everything went from start to finish”.
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“I think it stems from the way we practice”, Sherritt said.
