But after days of friendly trash talk and high hopes, Edmonton Eskimo fans left the CFL’s championship game with bragging rights as they beat the Ottawa Redblacks in a nail-biting game by a score of 26-20.
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Receiver Kenny Stafford banged two cans of beer together and shook them as he stood by the door to the Edmonton Eskimos locker-room.
Edmonton won its 14th Grey Cup title, but its first since 2005.
Ottawa had mounted a 13-0 lead by 6:09 of the first quarter, but Edmonton climbed back and went ahead 17-16 at halftime on a two-yard touchdown catch by rookie running back Akeem Shavers, who had five catches for 26 yards and eight carries for 37 yards.
Reilly finished 21-of-35 passing for 269 yards and two touchdowns.
The Edmonton Eskimos won their first Grey Cup in 10 years on Sunday after beating the Ottawa RedBlacks 26-20 in a tight defensive battle in freezing temperatures in Winnipeg.
The drive was aided by Edmonton head coach Chris Jones challenging an incompletion that was ultimately changed to pass interference against Ottawa’s Brandon Sermons. “I think through the 4-14 season we learned how not to win, we learned how to lose the close games”.
Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly was at his elusive best as a runner, too, with a total of 66 yards, and that had some impact on slowing the Redblacks pass rush.
After a 69-yard rouge by Grant Shaw that made it 19-18, the two teams each had a possession before Shawn Whyte, who missed two field goals all season, missed his second of the game, hitting the upright and scoring nothing on the final play of the quarter.
“We had opportunities there at the end to make plays both offensively and defensively”, echoed coach Rick Campbell. “It’s our second one in Winnipeg and we had a marvelous time”, he said.
“I wanted to get it for my family, the guys in this locker-room, and for the city of Ottawa”. All I wanted to do was to win a championship and that’s all that mattered. “And that’s what make it so disappointing to get this far and not get it done”.
“We had a great season, that’s what we had”, fullback Patrick Lavoie said.
Ottawa regained the lead in the third on Chris Milo’s 33-yard field goal.
“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”.
Adarius Bowman and Shavers scored Edmonton’s touchdowns.
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The thinking from those around the league is the rich Roughriders could pay Jones well north of $500,000 per season, which would make it hard for him to say no. CFL insiders also told the Sun this season that Jones and Eskimos GM Ed Hervey aren’t exactly BFFs. “That was my number-one thing, getting to the zeroes, and we did it, and now we’re celebrating”.
