Markham receiver top Canadian at Grey Cup

Especially when they dug themselves into a small hole after trailing 13-0 in the first quarter.

The CFL champion Eskimos flew home from Winnipeg Monday morning, landing at the Edmonton International Airport just before noon. “We are proud that we qualified for the finals”, he said. “We’re a fourth-quarter team, a second-half team, and that’s what we do”.

However, the Grey Cup still remains among Canada’s most-watched sports events. This year we finally learned how to win the big ones.

“I thought I saw (pass interference) and I saw for sure illegal contact but I couldn’t get them to tell me for sure so then the clock starts up”, said Jones, who registered his first successful challenge in the West Division final.

Edmonton Eskimos head coach Chris Jones celebrates on the sidelines during his team’s victory over the Ottawa Redblacks … Only the 1996 Argonauts, who won 11 more games than the year before, have had a bigger one-year turnaround in CFL history.

“It’s not luck, man, it’s hard work”. But we had ample opportunities to go down and put this game out of reach.

“We were not built to do this once, with the GM that we have, the coaching staff that we have and the players that they brought in”, said Edmonton quarterback Mike Reilly. As long as he can stay healthy, we can compete with everybody in the league, we can beat everybody in the league.

While we’re at it, let’s review every down of football ever played and we will find numerous holding and DPI penalties.

The RedBlacks could lose starting defensive linemen Justin Capicciotti and Keith Shologan, who are both Canadian, receiver Chris Williams, defensive backs Brandyn Thompson and Jovon Johnson, linebackers David Hinds and Damaso Munoz, and offensive linemen J’Micheal Deane and Colin Kelly. They never got the ball back.

“I think it’s probably due to the fact that people are probably cheering against Edmonton as much as it is for the Redblacks”, he laughed. “You go to Super Bowl, you see jerseys of the two teams who are in the game and that’s it”.

The lead was five, after a missed field goal by Whyte and a Milo kick from 26 yards, but Reilly took the Eskimos from their own 21 to the endzone with the half’s final possession, using all but the last 12 seconds before hitting an uncovered Shavers from three yards out, the second time in three plays the Edmonton running back had been left utterly alone. He also credited their fourth-quarter success to their preparation.

“You could pull tons of positives out of this year”, defensive tackle Keith Shologan said, “but right now all we’re thinking about is we just lost the Grey Cup”.

Adarius Bowman and Shavers scored Edmonton’s touchdowns.

“For them to be on the field with the confetti flying and seeing that Grey Cup and being able to give me a hug, that meant a lot”, said Reilly.