By: Justin Boone
With all apologies to my friend Nick Setta, any Grey Cup that has more than half the points scored by field goals is going to be a slight disappointment from an entertainment perspective. Especially when the game features two dynamite offences like Calgary and Montreal.
The letdown was amplified by the collective sigh of disappointment throughout Montreal after the game. With Anthony Calvillo’s storied season, Als fans seemed poised to bring home the prize that had eluded them three of the last five seasons. Make it four of six.
Sandro DeAngelis was a perfect five for five in three-point attempts, outscoring Montreal by himself, en route to winning the game’s Most Outstanding Canadian award. The kicking display brought a smile to the face of Ticats Account Executive Brian “the Iceman” King, who is a big time soccer fan and friends with Sandro from their days growing up together in Niagara Falls. In fact after Sandro’s performance, I think Brian might be inspired to sharpen up on his field goal kicking, he is after all the ticats emergency kicker (Extreme emergencies only). We’re talking apocalyptic.
Sandro’s longest kick on the day was a 50-yarder. Aside from Jamel Richardson’s 55-yard catch and run play, that 50 yard field goal was one of the biggest plays of the game, and there in lies the problem. I’m not anti field goals, I love a good low scoring defensive battle, but this game wasn’t that at all. It seemed to lack those memorable big plays that we’ve come to expect in Grey Cup games. Both offences seemed content taking what was given to them underneath, moving the ball downfield, and then when the drive stalled they took the points.
While the game wasn’t an instant classic, Montreal was a tremendous backdrop for the week. When they hosted the Olympic games in 1976, the city opened up their wallet and came through with one of the best ever. It was no different for this year’s Grey Cup and kudos to everyone involved from the CFL, to TSN, to Montreal itself for putting on a championship week worthy of country’s attention.
I’ll also be forever impressed by the turnout of fans from coast to coast. Driving down the QEW for last year’s Grey Cup in Toronto was one thing for Ticats fans, but making the trip to Quebec is a whole different ball game. The Black and Gold faithful were representing TigerTown around the city. I caught up with plenty of them at the East Meets West Bash, and you’ll be able to check those photos out in a gallery posted on Ticats.ca in the coming days.
As I checked out of the hotel yesterday morning, I looked over at the Grey Cup Festival, which was ready to be dismantled and the Countdown to the 96th Grey Cup clock was shut off… only 364 left until Calgary in 2009.
