Dynasty Denied By 'Team Of Destiny' As Montreal Win Grey Cup

By Chris Lawton

The 110th Grey Cup is in the books, and the CFL has a new champion in the Montreal Alouettes. As we have seen, this is the first time the two clubs have faced each other in a Grey Cup game, and they gave us a good one, with Montreal running out 28-24 winners.

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This meant that, for now, talk of a Blue Bombers Dynasty was put on hold as Winnipeg have now lost in back-to-back Grey Cup games, following back-to-back championship wins.

As for Montreal, they have been on quite the run. At one point this season they were 6-7 and had not beaten a team with a wining record. They played through the rest of the regular season schedule to finish 11-7, and then went 3-0 in the playoffs. That included a 27-12 East Semi-Final win over Hamilton, defeating the record setting 16-2 Argonauts 38-17 in Toronto, and finally defeating the pre-game favourite 14-4 Blue Bombers in the Grey Cup game itself. That after being 10-0 down and 17-7 down at the half. Not to mention getting the winning score with 13 ticks on the clock. No wonder they felt like a team destined for the Cup!

When you consider that during the regular season the same Als had lost 47-17 and 17-3 to Winnipeg is shows just how far they have transformed on their journey to taking home the Grey Cup this year.

Veteran QB Cody Fajardo had his ‘coming out’ moment in this game. The 2019 West Division MOP was named Grey Cup MVP following a contest that saw him throw for 291 yards, three touchdowns and one pick. The MVP moments really came with the game on the line. Following an 8 yard loss sack he moved the Als down the field, having kept things moving with a 13-yard run of his own and big gain passing to Cole Spieker on a critical third down.

Tyson Philpot was the recipient of the game-winning catch with 13 seconds left went on to be named the Most Outstanding Canadian in the game.

For the neutral, this was another exciting and fun to watch Grey Cup game. Can’t wait for next year. Is it June yet?

Feature Image Credit: CFL

CHRIS LAWTON

CFL ANALYST

Chris originally started following the NFL with the ‘first wave’ of fans when it was shown on Channel 4 in the 1980’s. He has been a keen supporter of the Miami Dolphins since 1983. Chris first encountered the CFL in 2016 and instantly fell in love with the Canadian game. He has been writing about the CFL 2017. Chris has a degree in history, postgraduate degree in librarianship and can be found on twitter as @CFLfanUK

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