105TH GREY CUP RANKS AMONG ALL-TIME BEST
This one had snow, big plays, big turnovers, Shania Twain and another dramatic finish
It was a classic in Grey Cup Canadiana in the grand tradition of the Fog Bowl, Mud Bowl, Ice Bowl and all those other signature games in the storied history of the game.
And it was a Canadian classic in the way most Grey Cups have been great games with great endings — unlike most Super Bowls.
And this maybe, just maybe, has to rank as the greatest one of them all — better than Edmonton in 1987 and Saskatchewan in 1989.
The 27-24 loss was the second “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” conclusion for the Calgary Stampeders in the last game of the season. After seven straight years of a different team winning the Grey Cup, the Argos became the first to do it again.
In the end, it was also a great story as Ricky Ray brought the Toronto Argos back, with some big play heroics from DeVier Posey and Cassius Vaughn, to take the lead for the first time in the game on a 45-yard field goal following a 49-yard, seven play drive.
And what a way to put it away as Matt Black intercepted Calgary’s last gasp effort in the end zone to stop a heroic comeback attempt by quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell.
Has there ever been a better Grey Cup game?
With the win, Ray became the first quarterback in history to start and win four Grey Cups.
What do you want from a football game?
Yes, it was played in winter weather conditions more meant for a broomball game and there were some embarrassing moments for the organizers, but mostly it was another November to remember, an “I was there” game to add to the legend and lore of the 105-year-old grand national football championship.
It began, almost two hours before game time, as an idyllic snow globe scene. The snow kept coming and the scene turned into Hamilton in 1996, a game that made Downtown Eddie Brown a national name and Jake’s Mistake, the non-call on Doug Flutie’s fumble by referee Jake Ireland, a mistake that cost the Edmonton Eskimos and gifted the Argos a Grey Cup.
There were even overtones of the famed Staples 1977 game in Montreal in which Tony Proudfoot discovered a staple gun in the bowels of Olympic Stadium that resulted in an Alouettes Grey Cup and, in many ways, inspired the five-in-a-row Grey Cup run of the Eskimos to follow.
It was, before game time, sort of slapstick.
While Ottawa staged a spectacular Grey Cup Festival, despite predictions of snow during the week, the organizers were left unprepared at the park. There were only two mini-tractor scrapers on the property. Twodozen people with shovels were at work, too. Meanwhile, four others had snowblowers in hand.
At one point, one of the mini tractors barely missed mowing over one of the shovel-pushers causing an “Oooh” press box reaction equalled by only one play in the first half.
At the beginning of the game, they concentrated on clearing the snow off the sponsor signs on the field. Then the snow started to accumulate and they attempted to remove some of it with next to no success.
It wasn’t quite the load the Eskimos and Ottawa Redblacks played in here during the postseason last year. But there was enough to create some early highlights.
On the second play from scrimmage following a sack, Cleon Lang performed what can only be described as a sliding snow angel celebration. A teammate threw a snowball at him.
On third down and four from the 33 with 3:34 left in the first quarter — with Jason Maas screaming at his TV set “What are they doing?” one assumes — Mitchell threw to the flat for Kamar Jordan, who took it to the house for the first touchdown of the game.
It must be noted Calgary failed to get the two-point convert.
A 100-yard Ray pass to Posey to beat Tommie Campbell 40 seconds into the second quarter established a new Grey Cup record for longest pass. But after that ... If Ottawa provided a few hiccups, they gave Shania Twain a jaw-dropping entry when she was brought in by dogsled and provided one of the best Grey Cup halftime shows since, well, Shania in Edmonton and the halftime act the last time there was a Grey Cup here, The Tragically Hip.
It was by no means over at the half. Few CFL games are.
While Shania was performing with the winter wonderland snow scene picture-perfect behind her, a convoy of hastily organized large-edition snow scrapers readied to clear the snow that more or less stopped the minute she walked off the stage.
In the second half this winter carnival turned into an actual football game and ended as one for the ages.
Ray opened the second half with a 71-yard Toronto drive finished off by James Wilder Jr. and followed by a two-point convert. But Mitchell took the Stampeders 88 yards with Messam finishing up.
A fumble and a 109-yard return by Vaughn was the cherry on top of the Sundae.
It was mind-blowing from snow-blowing start to end.