‘We didn’t get the job done and they did’
Despite the collapse of his team late in Sunday’s Grey Cup, Bo Levi Mitchell still had a chance to tie or win the game in the final minute. Down 27-24 and driving his team down the field, he opted to take one shot at the end zone before settling for a game-tying field goal.
However, his target, Marken Michel, wound up being doubleteamed, allowed Matt Black to intercept, sealing the Grey Cup upset for the Toronto Argonauts.
It was Mitchell’s first turnover of the playoffs.
“Just like last year after the Grey Cup I wanted the ball in my hands and I didn’t get it done,” said Mitchell, referring to a running play by backup Andrew Buckley that forced the Stamps to settle for a field-goal that sent last year’s Grey Cup to an ill-fated overtime against Ottawa.
“We’re going to try to force overtime, but we had the big play to KJ (Kamar Jorden to get it to Toronto’s 24-yard line). Now we’ve got plenty of time to put the ball in the end zone for a shot at it. I saw Matt run back there and I thought I could put it over top of him, but I just didn’t put enough into it.”
Despite wintry conditions and tough footing Mitchell had a better outing than last year’s Grey Cup, completing 33 of 45 passes for 373 yards and two touchdowns. He outplayed Ricky Ray and was the undisputed MVP of the game until the final few minutes.
“You’ve got to look at it for what it is — it’s last game of the season,” said Mitchell in a quiet dressing room. “There’s no credit in this game no matter how good you play or any one group played or an entire group together played as a team. At the end of the day we didn’t get the job done and they did.”