Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell, who charmed everyone in Winnipeg with his displays of wit, was reminded during Sunday’s post-game media conference that his father, Hugh, had coached the Eskimos to a Grey Cup loss against the Montreal Alouettes in 1977 before leading them to titles in each of the next five years. Only the 1996 Argonauts, who won 11 more games than the year before, have had a bigger one-year turnaround in CFL history.
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It was a dramatic finish in Winnipeg before a sellout crowd of 36,634, the second-smallest Grey Cup attendance since 1975.
Reilly took the Eskimos from their own 21 to the endzone with the half’s final possession, using all but the last 12 seconds before hitting an uncovered running back Akeem Shavers from three yards out, the second time in three plays the Edmonton running back had been left utterly alone.
Edmonton Eskimos head coach Chris Jones celebrates on the sidelines during his team’s victory over the Ottawa Redblacks … That result of the call, gave the Eskimos the ball at the Redblacks’ 10-yard line.
Ottawa’s last Grey Cup appearance was in 1981 when it lost 26-23 to the Eskimos.
Two plays later, short-yardage quarterback Jordan Lynch punched it in for a touchdown and the winning points in Edmonton’s 26-20 win.
The game was a disappointment for Redblacks fans who thought their team might be crowned champions at the end of their second season.
Before the end of the first quarter though, Edmonton and former Lions quarterback Mike Reilly would claw out of the hole first with a field goal followed up with a 22-yard strike to Adarius Bowman to cut the deficit to 13-10.
Shamawd Chambers was honoured to haul in the Most Outstanding Canadian player award in Sunday’s Grey Cup. But we had ample opportunities to go down and put this game out of reach. “Like Coach Jones always says, there’s going to be some ups and downs, and it showed throughout the whole game”.
Eskimos general manager Ed Hervey said Monday that he’s “most proud that our culture of the Edmonton Eskimos is back”.
“The Grey Cup continues to be one of Canada’s most popular sporting events, drawing hundreds of thousands of fans from across our great country each year”.
In 2012, the Calgary Stampeders and league came to a compromise on the team’s mascot for the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto. “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”.
“Adversity; we’re used to it, and we practice these types of situations at practice all the time”, he said.
To make it this far after only two years in the CFL is a dream come true, he said.
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“Yeah, I don’t think I woke up this morning doing my workout at about 5 a.m. thinking, ‘Man, I hope we’re down 13-0.’ That’s not how we planned it”.
