Grey Cup Champions 2013

For franchise whose history is littered with heartbreak it was nice to finally get our storybook ending. No doubt, no stress, no controversy… just a team going out in front of a once in lifetime Rider home crowd and doing what they were expected to, win. It’s moments like this that remind you of why you have held faithful to this team through all the aforementioned heartbreak.

The Mosaic atmosphere was unreal. It was already kinda loud during warm-ups when only a handful of fans were in their seat. And it got taken to a whole new level when the Riders hit the field… and it didn’t stop until sometime this morning. My voice is long gone, my head is pounding, my liver hates me, I have barely slept and I am still happy beyond belief.

You need your best players to have their best games when it matters most and that was certainly the case on Sunday. Sheets was unreal, Simon proved why we brought him in, Dressler was Dressler, our lines were dominant and above all Darian Durant played like a champion and finally earned the ring he is so deserving of. He simply was not going to be denied. John Chick was a beast. Defense as a whole was solid. Simply put our best players played their best football and that alone would have been enough to secure our 4^th cup… the deafening crowd was simply a huge bonus.

Unlike ’07 most of our “grizzled vets” already have a ring so there are 3 people who I think are deserving above all of their rings

1)    Durant for obvious reasons

2)    Dressler. Just further cements his continuing legacy as one of the best receivers in franchise history.

3)    Bagg. Passed on a chance to play for the ’07 to go back to school and has fought like warrior even since to overcome countless injuries.

I won’t bother breaking down the game much beyond that. Let’s just take time to revel in an epic grey cup party week, a historic game and most important the fact that the Grey Cup once again calls Saskatchewan home! What a truly unbelievable season. There will hopefully be more cups in our near future but there will not be another like this one. This says it all…

Note the midget barely visible behind Durant is Dressler… someone should have gotten him a stool or something.

Random thoughts:

-       Really surprised that Austin did not even try the LeFevour or Masoli packages. Also surprised at why they even bothered dressing Gable for how little he was used. For as good of a coach as Austin is, I thought those were glaring errors.

-       Burris standing idle already chastising his teammates while everyone else dove for the live ball on that botched snap was classic Henry.

-       Loved seeing Neal Hughes get the chance to ice the game… and do so with authority

-       That fumble straight to Sheets in stride is the definition of needing to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good.

-       My body is glad it won’t have to go through this all again for a while