ARGOS CAPTURE GREY CUP
Wacky plays too much for Stamps
This is what makes the Canadian Football League wonderfully unique, a treasure north of the border. Once again the Grey Cup delivered in drama, and in snow.
With flakes falling from the skies on Sunday in the nation’s capital, and in front of 36,154 fans at TD Place stadium, the Toronto Argonauts beat the Calgary Stampeders 27-24. This will be gut-wrenching for the Stampeders who are left with a bunch of woulda, shoulda, couldas — and a fumble that was devastating.
It was Bo Levi Mitchell versus Ricky Ray. The Argonauts QB, in winning his fourth Grey Cup, threw for 297 yards. Mitchell was very good, with 373 yards in completions.
The back-breaker? With less than five minutes remaining, Calgary’s Kamar Jorden fumbled on the Toronto one-yard line and the ball was scooped up by Cassius Vaughn, who sprinted 109 yards into the Calgary end zone. Declan Cross caught the two-point convert pass: tie game, 24-24.
After a 32-yard field goal by Lirim Hajrullahu with 49 seconds left, Jorden caught a long one to give Calgary the ball at the Argos’ 30 — but Mitchell tossed an interception and it was game over.
Said Vaughn, with the Argos hugging and screaming all around him: “I was thinking, score, My team needed it. That’s who I needed to be at that moment. I wasn’t going to get caught.”
“I let my team down and now I have to live with the consequences,” a shaken Jorden said moments after the game.
“It’s not on that one play,” Mitchell told TSN. “Just like last year, I said I wanted the ball in my hands at the end of the game.”
The Argos weren’t given much of a chance, but the underdogs showed plenty of heart.
“Calgary’s a great team,” Vaughn said. “Everybody said Calgary was going to win. In the media day, they were asking, ‘Do you really have a chance? Are you supposed to be here?’ Hell yeah, we’re supposed to be here. They weren’t better than us.”
“Defences win championships,” Ray said. “Tonight, that was the story — they made two huge plays and really won the game for us. It felt like this year was too special for it to end any other way for us.”
An army of snow shovellers and a couple of plows tried to keep key areas of the field uncovered. After Shania Twain finished her halftime set and her stage setup was removed, the game was delayed while some bigger snowplows removed a dusting of snow from the surface of the turf.
“What better way to win a Grey Cup than in the snow,” Vaughn said. “It’s the most Canadian thing you can do, win one of these in the snow.”
The Stampeders took a 6-0 lead into the second quarter. After a 29-yard pass completion to DaVaris Daniels, Jorden found some open space and jogged into the end zone from 33 yards out. The two-point conversion failed when Mitchell’s pass ricocheted off the crossbar.
Following a terrific line-drive punt by Rob Maver, a kick which bounced out of bounds on the Toronto 10-yard line, Ray looped a pass just over the hands of defensive back Tommie Campbell and DeVier Posey, who initially stumbled off the line of scrimmage, raced 100 yards for a touchdown. Hajrullahu missed the convert kick. The catch set a record for the longest catch in Grey Cup history, a yard better than Pat Woodcock’s 99-yarder from Anthony Calvillo in 2002 with the Montreal Alouettes. Posey had seven catches for 175 yards and was named the game’s most outstanding player.
“It’s amazing, man,” Posey said. “I love that group of guys.”
With 10:08 left in the second quarter, Calgary’s Jerome Messam plowed his way into the end zone. The Stampeders got the two-point convert on a catch by Daniels.
Later, Maver booted the ball through his own end zone after a snap sailed over his head in his own territory, giving the Argonauts a safety and two points.
With 20 seconds left in the first half, Calgary’s Juwan Brescacin fumbled and the ball sat on top of the snow for a couple of seconds before the receiver managed to pounce on his own drop. It gave the Stampeders an opportunity to boot a field goal and Rene Paredes connected from 39 yards out on the final play of the half. It was 17-8 at the break.
The Argos cut into the lead on their first possession of the second half when James Wilder Jr. leaned into the end zone on a two-yard run. Ray found Cross open for the two-point convert and it was 17-16.
The Stampeders, after a coach’s challenge on pass interference, got the ball on the Toronto sixyard line with 6:19 left in the third quarter. Messam swung out of the backfield and caught a touchdown pass from Mitchell. The convert gave the Stampeders an eight-point lead.
“We wanted to get to the fourth quarter and be competitive in a game against a great football team. That was our goal,” Toronto head coach Marc Trestman said. “We had some luck along the way, but we also had some bad luck.”
What better way to win a Grey Cup than in the snow … It’s the most Canadian thing you can do.