96th Grey Cup
 | This article documents a current CFL Grey Cup Playoff. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses. Initial news reports, scores, or statistics may be unreliable. The last updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
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| Date | November 23, 2008 | ||||||||||||
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| Stadium | Olympic Stadium | ||||||||||||
| Location | Montreal | ||||||||||||
| Referee | Jake Ireland | ||||||||||||
| Halftime show | Theory of a Deadman, Suzie McNeil, and Andrée Watters | ||||||||||||
| Broadcasters | |||||||||||||
| Network | English:TSN/TSN HD, Versus (U.S. station) French:RDS/RDS HD | ||||||||||||
The 96th Grey Cup is being held in Montreal at Olympic Stadium on November 23, 2008. The Eastern Division Champion Montreal Alouettes is hosting the Western Division Champion Calgary Stampeders. This is the first time Montreal has hosted the Grey Cup since 2001, the first time since the 2002 Grey Cup that the host city will play for the Grey Cup, and the first time since the 58th Grey Cup in 1970 that the Alouettes and Stampeders have met for the national championship.[1] Hoping to break the record for highest attendance for a Grey Cup game, the organizers expanded Olympic Stadium to almost 70,000 seats.
Broadcast
This is the first Grey Cup not to be broadcast on CBC Television since they started broadcasting the Grey Cup. In Canada, the game will be telecast solely on TSN and its French-language sister network RDS. In the USA, Versus will telecast the game using the TSN feed and graphics. It can also be seen online at espn360.com.
The game is available in HD on both TSN HD and RDS HD. It is being shown in HD in the United States on Voom HD Networks's WorldSport (where available).
Events
There is a Grey Cup Village much like the one in 2001 at the Dorchester Square. Not all musical events have been released but some of the acts, most of the acts so far are French-Canadian, announced are Porn Flakes, Kellylee Evans, Rock Story, other events are: Véronique Labbé, Guy Bélanger, Take the Boys, White Faze, Marc Parent et Wang Dang Doodle, Angel Forrest, Young Soul, Sylvie Desgroseilliers (Motown Show).[2]
The Montreal Canadiens' decision to retire the jersey of Patrick Roy the same weekend caused controversy, as some felt that the hockey team - the city's dominant sports franchise - was trying to take attention away from the Montreal Alouettes and the CFL during their championship game weekend.[3]
Attendance
The organizers of the 96th Grey Cup want to break the 70,000 attendance mark. The current record for highest attendance was set at the 1977 Grey Cup, also at the Big O in Montreal (68,318). In the 2001 Grey Cup, Montreal had the second-best attendance at 65,255. Last report the pre-sales have sold 63,000 seats. The 96th Grey Cup expects to be sold out.
Tickets were priced from $84 in the balcony to $274 in the platinum section.[4] Tickets had three pre-sale days, one during the 95th Grey Cup, one in December and one during Super Bowl XLII. Regular tickets went on sale in March 2008.
Game summary
Referee Jake Ireland will participate in his 15th Grey Cup game. This will also mark his final game as an official after calling 555 games in his 30-year CFL career.[5][6]
2008 CFL playoffs
Division Semi-finals
East Semi-Final
Date and time: Saturday, November 8, 12:00 PM Central Standard Time
Venue: Canad Inns Stadium, Winnipeg, Manitoba
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edmonton Eskimos | 3 | 18 | 8 | 0 | 29 |
| Winnipeg Blue Bombers | 8 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 21 |
The Edmonton Eskimos claimed the victory on a cold, windy afternoon at Canad Inns Stadium before 27,493 spectators by defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 29-21 to become the first West Division team to earn a playoff win as a crossover squad since the CFL adopted the concept in 1996.
In the first quarter, Winnipeg would take an early 8-0 lead when quarterback Kevin Glenn threw a 78-yard touchdown pass to Romby Bryant, while kicker Alexis Serna earned one point on a missed 23-yard field goal attempt. Before the end of the first quarter, Noel Prefontaine would kick a 23-yard field goal to make it 8-3 Blue Bombers, which would eventually lead to the Eskimos offensive burst.
The Eskimo charge began in the second quarter after a poor Serna punt into a gusting 30-km/h wind caused a 25-yard return by Tristan Jackson to the Blue Bombers' 32-yard line, which eventually led to a A.J. Harris 1-yard rushing touchdown to make it a 10-8 Edmonton lead. Two minutes after Edmonton would take the lead, the Blue Bombers would answer back with a touchdown on a Jason Armstead 93-yard punt return, which became a franchise record to give Winnipeg a 15-10 lead, however the Eskimos would eventually take the game over after that point. Right after a 28-yard field goal by Noel Prefontaine, Eskimos' defensive end Fred Perry would tip and intercept a Kevin Glenn pass for a 31-yard interception return to give the Eskimos a 20-15 lead, which proved to be the turning point in the game. At the end of the second quarter the Eskimos ended up scoring 18 unanswered points and never looked back.
At the 6 minute mark of the third quarter, A.J. Harris would score his second rushing touchdown of the game, which ended Edmonton's scoring in the game and gave them a 29-15 lead. In the game, Eskimos' quarterback Ricky Ray effectively used a short passing strategy to finish the game going 27-of-37 for 303 yards with no interceptions and ran for 25 yards. Ray's favourite weapons in the game were running backs A.J. Harris who rushed for 33 yards on 13 carries and made four receptions for 38 yards, while Calvin McCarty had seven catches for 52 yards. However, the Eskimos defence was the main reason for their victory on Saturday.
Going into the game, the Blue Bomber rushing duo of Fred Reid and Joe Smith was touted to give the home team an edge in the game, but neither of them were able to find the end zone after rushing for a combined 119 rushing yards (Reid, 80; Smith, 39). Even when Winnipeg had a promising drive going late in the third, the Eskimo defence were able to snuff it out after Lenny Williams forced Joe Smith to fumble the ball after a 21-yard gain, which was eventually recovered by Edmonton's Jason Goss. In addition, when Winnipeg had the wind advantage in the fourth quarter they would only manage two Serna field goals to round up their score to 21.
Winnipeg quarterback, Kevin Glenn would only manage 15 completions on 34 attempts for 233 yards and threw for one touchdown and the costly interception to Fred Perry, while Milt Stegall managed 56 receiving yards on 5 receptions, which could possibly be his final appearance in the CFL.
While the Winnipeg season comes to an end, Edmonton will now head to Montreal to face their long-time Grey Cup rivals, the Montreal Alouettes, but this time it is for the right to play in the Grey Cup.
West Semi-Final
Date and time: Saturday, November 8, 3:30 PM Central Standard Time
Venue: Mosaic Stadium, Regina, Saskatchewan
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BC Lions | 7 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 33 |
| Saskatchewan Roughriders | 0 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 12 |
Buck Pierce and Stefan Logan lead the B.C. Lions to victory on Saturday, defeating the defending Grey Cup champions, in front of a sold out and ravenous "Rider Nation" crowd at Mosaic Stadium, 33-12 in the West Semi-Final.
On offence, Lions' quarterback, Buck Pierce completed 23 of 31 passes for 221 yards and threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to fullback, Lyle Green for the game's first touchdown score with just two minutes left in the second quarter. The second Lions' touchdown occurred with just one minute left in the third quarter when quarterback Jarious Jackson, who would come in on 1-yard situations made a trick play and completed a 31-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver, Geroy Simon, who was left wide open. In addition, Lions' running back, Stefan Logan ran for 153 yards on 18 carries in the win.
While the Lions' offence was successful, the same could not be said for the Roughriders who turned over the ball seven times in the game. In addition, quarterback, Michael Bishop struggled by only completing 14 of 27 passes for only 172 yards and threw three interceptions and fumbled the ball twice. Bishop would eventually be replaced by Darian Durant after he threw an interception, which led to the third Lions' touchdown on a 54-yard interception return by Ryan Phillips who recorded two two interceptions in the game. Furthermore, running back Wes Cates only rushed for 23 yards on nine carries, while all the scores for the Roughriders came from field-goals as kicker, Luca Congi went four for four in the game.
With the victory, the Lions now head to Calgary to face the Stampeders in the West Final.
Two days later, Riders QB Michael Bishop would be placed on waivers.[7]
Division Finals
East Final
Date and time: Saturday, November 15, 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
Venue: Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edmonton Eskimos | 7 | 6 | 0 | 13 | 26 |
| Montreal Alouettes | 3 | 16 | 10 | 7 | 36 |
West Final
Date and time: Saturday, November 15, 2:30 PM Mountain Standard Time
Venue: McMahon Stadium, Calgary, Alberta
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BC Lions | 6 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 18 |
| Calgary Stampeders | 0 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 22 |
| Preceded by 95th Grey Cup |
Grey Cup games | Succeeded by 97th Grey Cup |
References
- ^ Cox, Damien (2008-11-16). "Als, Stampeders a fitting East-West final". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
- ^ Grey Cup village is epicentre of festivities, Montreal Gazette
- ^ Hall, Vicki (21 November 2008). "Habs ruffle feathers with Roy ceremony". Calgary Herald. Canada.com. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|curly=ignored (help) - ^ Zurkowsky, Herb (2008-09-26). "Grey Cup tickets going fast". The Snap. Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
- ^ "CFL Officials Named for 96th Grey Cup". OurSports Central. 2008-11-19. Retrieved 2008-11-19.
- ^ Fitz-Gerald, Sean (2008-11-18). "Grey Cup is Ireland's last stand". National Post. Retrieved 2008-11-19.
- ^ "Roughriders place QB Bishop on waivers". CBC Sports. 2008-11-11. Retrieved 2008-11-20.