Redemption Day for Ricky Ray!

In one of the most memorable days in Grey Cup History, one statistic tells it all, Ricky Ray played a complete game when it counted. The Edmonton Eskimo quarterback, who had been pulled in two previous playoff games this year, went the distance and led his Edmonton Eskimos to Canada’s Holy Grail of Football. In a thrilling finale to the CFL season, Ray’s Eskimos prevailed over the Montreal Alouettes 38-35 in a game that went deep into the CFL’s unique overtime format.

Ray took charge of his Eskimo offence and put points on the board in overtime to claim the victory. While the first half was a rather humdrum affair, the second half more than made up for it. With end to end excitement and big plays galore, both Ray and the Alouettes Anthony Calvillo traded offensive weapons in their bid to claim the Cup.

Ray was named the games MVP and was most deserving of the honour, having put aside the controversy generated the last two weeks. He went to work and methodically put his game plan into effect. Short hitch passes, long bombs, crushing runs he used the majority of his line up to move the Eskimos down the field, even taking the ball in himself to answer Montreal scores almost point by point.

By the end of Ray’s work day he had a remarkable 359 yards in passing, completing 35 of 45 passes. In fact his stats would have been even more impressive, if a few of his first half passes had been caught by the normally sure handed Eskimo receivers. The Eskimos day was aided by a spectacular record breaking 96 yard, kick off return by Tony Tompkins, (and something he actually predicted on Saturday) picking up important points when it looked like Montreal was planning a replay of last weeks Eastern final comeback.

From the second half kick off on, the viewer was on the edge of their seat wondering which of the gunslingers would be the last to lay down their arms. In the end, it was double shot by Calvillo that proved to be costly. In a mental error, Calvillo rethrew a ball that he caught off of a rebound; a violation of the rule book providing a costly penalty that seemed to put the Als on their heels for good. Calvillo's move resulted in a few Als fans painting him as the goat of the game, but in reality it was only with Calvillo's stable hand on the offense that the Als were close.

From that point in Overtime though, it was time for the Edmonton defence to shut down the Alouettes offence, which it did quite successfully in the last gasp moments of the overtime.

Once again the CFL delivered on its usual spectacular finish to the regular season. It would be hard to think of a more exciting finish to a championship game, than that provided by Ray, Calvillo and their team mates on Sunday afternoon.

For Ray it marks a final exclamation point on any questions of his ability to put away the big win. His stats tell the story of this one, passing yardage, ball control and points on the board. All will go a long way to making Sunday the day that the Eskimos finally became Ray’s team, his MVP trophy a testimony to his place in the CFL history books and in the every growing library of Eskimo lore.

The above posting first appeared on my Twelve Men on the Field blog, for more information about Canadian football check it out!