Lynch successfully converted the third-and-one situation to cap a five-play, 78-yard drive.
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He also connected with Akeem Shavers for a two-point convert on the game-winning touchdown. “I got to see him at his lowest point, some points I really wouldn’t see him at again because I know how much of a competitor that he is. It was just a matter of time before we put it all together”.
“Every team in this league is disappointed except for Edmonton this year”, said Campbell.
“That’s just part of football”, he said. “We weren’t able to do that”.
“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.
It was a dramatic finish in Winnipeg before a sellout crowd of 36,634, the second-smallest Grey Cup attendance since 1975. Only Toronto (16) has won more. By the end of the half, however, Burris was just 12-for-16 for 150 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Two Winnipeggers, Eskimos defensive linemen, Eddie Steele and Don Oramasionwu, both Kelvin High School and University of Manitoba graduates, got to raise the Grey Cup for the first time. But in 2013 he endured a 4-14 season with Edmonton before the Eskimos hired Jones.
“The league supports and encourages the presence and participation of the Algonquin Loggersports Team on the field at the Grey Cup game”, the CFL said in a pre-game statement. “We’ve battled through serious adversity all year and we got it done today”.
“It’s something that’s special and something I’ll never take for granted”. Its last win was November 28, 1976, when the Rough Riders defeated Saskatchewan 23-20. But after falling behind 13-0 early in the first quarter, the Eskimos outscored the Redblacks 26-7. The game-time temperature was -5 C, with a wind chill of -10 C…
Edmonton Eskimos head coach Chris Jones celebrates on the sidelines during his team’s victory over the Ottawa Redblacks … “To come back in the fourth quarter and win the Grey Cup was a credit to this team and to the guys I play with”.
Dressed in team colours with a bright, fuzzy red-haired toque, Maisonneuve said they have loved every minute of the party. “The offence of the Redblacks, they came out on fire, but we made our adjustments, man, we proved why we were supposed to be here, and we won the Cup”.
“That’s what it means to me”.
An educated guess is that 14 of 46 players on the Redblacks’ active roster for the Grey Cup game can become free agents if they’re not re-signed by mid-February, including Lavoie, defensive tackle Shologan and eight others claimed in the December 2013 expansion draft. They looked set to retake the lead after a successful fake punt moved them into Ottawa territory but Whyte clanked a 35-yarder of the right upright and the Redblacks to a one-point advantage into the fourth.
The 40-year-old Burris was 22 of 29 for 220 yards.
Thankfully, this time around the video replay got it “right”, but for my money (and my time!) I’d prefer to have the officials make the judgment calls on the field in real time and reserve the video replays for the big screens in the end zones. But we had ample opportunities to go down and put this game out of reach.
“They made some plays”.
Following a half-time performance by the band Fall Out Boy, Edmonton took the ball to start the second half after deferring to open the game.
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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. Whyte missed a 44-yarder for a single shortly after. “Like Coach Jones always says, there’s going to be some ups and downs, and it showed throughout the whole game”. I’ll fight to the death for that man and everyone in that locker-room will to.
