Last year, the Saskatchewan Roughriders wished they were able to get a handle on their defense. This year, they wished were able to get a handle on their opponent’s.
The Riders were preparing to celebrate a Grey Cup victory last year at Calgary’s McMahon Stadium when Montreal Alouettes kicker Damon Duval missed a field goal at the end of the fourth quarter. However, when the Riders were penalized for having too many men on the field, Duval was good for a second attempt and the Alouettes slid into the top spot 28-27.
On Sunday, the jolly green giants found themselves face-to-face with the Als in the final once again, only to fall short 21-18.
The 98th edition of the Grey Cup, which took place at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, was yet another nail-biter to fans.
Playing in front of a large crowd, mainly composed of Rider fans who had travelled with the team from the semi-final in Regina, to the West Final in Calgary, onto the Grey Cup in Edmonton, the Als opened the scoring.
Ten minutes into the first quarter, Als running back Avon Cobourne scored on an opening drive with a 3-yard run. After a single from Duval, running back Wes Cate got the Riders on the board with a one-yard plunge that capped-off an eight-play 75-yard drive, and closed the gap 8-7.
The game was a bit of a snoozer in the middle two frames with back-and-forth field positioning battle – the teams combined for 11 punts. The Riders scored a field goal and a punt single in the second, and late in the third, the Als a 22-yard field goal from Duval tied it up 11-11.
The fireworks finally came out in the fourth quarter. Duval added his third field goal of the night from 42 yards out. Montreal started their next drive on their own 29-yard line, with quarterback Anthony Calvillo driving his team down the field in a series of deep connections with all-star wideout Jamal Richardson. To cap it off, Cobourne bulldozed his way up the gut for his second touchdown of the night and increased his team’s lead 21-11 with just under ten minutes left in the game.
But the Riders refuse to go out without a bang. With less than five minutes left, , Rider’s pivot Darian Durant connected with All-Canandian Andy Fantuz on a 31-yard pass, bringing Saskatchewan to first down. It was offensive lineman Mark Parenteau who caught the ball from Durant in the final stage of the play and narrowed the margin 21-18.
Both teams came in on the game from a great season. Riders’ pivot Darian Durant led the CFL in passing this season with 5,542 yards and was the league’s top rushing quarterback with 618 yards. Saskatchewan also featured a pair of 1,000-plus yard receivers in Andy Fantuz and Weston Dressler, a leading tackler in Barrin Simpson and an interception king in James Patrick.
The Allouettes have been the model of consistency of the decade. Pivot Anthony Calvillo finished with over 4500 passing yards yet again, the ninth time he had done so in the past 10 years. Veteran wideout Ben Cahoon became CFL’s all-time leading reception leader at 1,017.
The two teams teams, however, reached the Grey Cup from very different journeys. The green and white narrowly edged out the BC Lions in a double overtime thriller before winning another close contest in Calgary 20-17 in the West Final. The Alouettes, on the other hand, had the seat secured in the third quarter of the East Final, a game in which they easily annihilated the Toronto Argonauts 48-17.
With the win, the Alouettes become the first team to repeat as Grey Cup champions since the Argos 1996-1997 back-to-back show.
