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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Back-to-back pass interference penalties aided the Eskimos on their game-winning drive, moving the ball from the Edmonton 35 to the Ottawa 10-yard line.
Slotback Adarius Bowman led the Eskimos’ receivers with four catches for 73 yards and a touchdown, and he picked up the game-clinching first down with a four-yard run.
Two plays later, the ball was in the end zone and the Eskimos, playing in their record 25th Grey Cup, won it for the 14th time, 26-20.
“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”. “I think through the 4-14 season we learned how not to win, we learned how to lose the close games”. The city’s last CFL championship came in 1976 with the former Rough Riders.
“We’ll celebrate it, recoup for a couple of months but then the work gets that much harder because we’re not built to do this once”, Reilly said. I’m so proud of those guys and so proud to coach them.
The Redblacks advanced to the championship game in their second season in the league.
The Ottawa Redblacks’ dream lasted deep into the fourth quarter of the 103rd Grey Cup game, and then it died on an instant replay of an incomplete pass.
Ottawa head coach Rick Campbell said he wasn’t angered by the officials’ call.
Talbot says today will be the busiest day of Grey Cup week, as fans trickled in over a few days, but are mostly all leaving at the same time. That warrants a tip of the hat to head coach Chris Jones, who is 26-10 in two seasons, is a two-time runner-up as Coach of the Year and now has a Grey Cup ring as the boss. “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”.
The Redblacks’ Henry Burris passed 22-for-29 for 229 yards and was sacked three times.
Patrick Lavoie and Earnest Jackson had Ottawa’s touchdowns. “PI calls that were very questionable”, said Ottawa kicker Chris Milo.
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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. Two plays later, after Reilly shook off a tackler and connected with Nate Coehoorn just outside the endzone, Lynch leaped and reached in for the winning TD. While a two-point convert was unsuccessful the 10-play, 88-yard drive was huge as it erased a horrid start for the West Division champions, who fell behind 13-0 before the game was seven minutes old. “We play for one another and that’s why we came out on top”. I’ll fight to the death for that man and everyone in that locker-room will to.
