Reilly’s 10th straight win a Grey Cup victory for Edmonton

Reilly also led the Eskimos in rushing with 66 yards.

It was a defensive struggle in the second quarter, with Chris Milo increasing the Redblacks’ lead with a field goal before Reilly connected with Akeem Shavers for a two-yard touchdown before the half. They looked set to retake the lead after a successful fake punt moved them into Ottawa territory but Whyte clanked a 35-yarder of the right upright and the Redblacks to a one-point advantage into the fourth. What I can’t understand is when the rule book takes away from the essence of the game that it is created to enhance. All I wanted to do was to win a championship and that’s all that mattered.

Winning the Grey Cup on Sunday was even sweeter for the Edmonton Eskimos because family members were close at hand.

“We were not built to do this once, with the GM that we have, the coaching staff that we have and the players we brought in”, said Reilly.

Edmonton caught fire when Reilly returned as the starter, reeling off 10 straight wins, culminating with the Grey Cup title.

Talbot says today will be the busiest day of Grey Cup week, as fans trickled in over a few days, but are mostly all leaving at the same time.

The unfortunate truth, however, is that many Redblacks won’t be back to make another Grey Cup bid in what will be the franchise’s third CFL campaign.

The Ottawa Redblacks flew back to Ottawa on Monday after losing to a worthy Edmonton Eskimos team in the Canadian Football League’s championship game at Winnipeg’s Investors Group Field less than 24 hours earlier.

Edmonton players receive $16,000 for the win while the Redblacks get $8,000 apiece.

“At the same time, I’m so proud of those guys”.

The Redblacks’ Henry Burris passed 22-for-29 for 229 yards and was sacked three times. “My teammates all stayed behind me and really supported me… when you get into games like this the only thing you can do is just play as hard as you can and when the game is on the line you’ve got to make sure you make the plays that come to you”. “We are very happy with how everything went from start to finish”.

“They made some plays”.

Patrick Lavoie and Earnest Jackson had Ottawa’s touchdowns.

Edmonton’s Mike Reilly finished the first half with 13 completions on 19 attempts for 175 yards and two touchdowns. Whyte missed a 44-yarder for a single shortly after. While a two-point convert was unsuccessful the 10-play, 88-yard drive was huge as it erased a horrid start for the West Division champions, who fell behind 13-0 before the game was seven minutes old.

“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. His team ran for 72 yards, but, because of three big quarterback sacks, had just 257 yards of net offence.