The Canadian Press
When I was thinking about topics for this week’s Monday Morning Quarterback, it dawned on me how long we’ve been doing this column. Our first MMQB was published here on CFL.ca in June 2011, which means we’ve been doing this for the vast majority of the decade.
As the 2010’s are coming to an end, it just seemed fitting to make the last column of this decade a bit of a look back.
Player of the Decade: Bo Levi Mitchell
Bo’s entire CFL career to date has been played this decade, which is a good tipping point to go along with all that winning. Since taking the reins as Calgary’s full-time starting quarterback in 2014, Mitchell has been the league’s most consistently elite player.
Mitchell’s resume for the decade is marked with all kinds of highlights, including a pair of Most Outstanding Player nods (2016, 2018) and two Grey Cup wins (2014, 2018). When you factor in his two additional Grey Cup appearances, two All-Star selections, and two Grey Cup MVP nods, it becomes somewhat hard to argue with what Mitchell has accomplished this decade.
If you were to choose one word to describe Mitchell’s eight years in CFL, would there be anything better than “win”? Mitchell holds a number of league marks based on winning, including the fastest quarterback to 60 wins (72 starts) and most consecutive wins by a starter (14).
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Mitchell’s CFL story started in 2012 when he joined the Stampeders as an unknown, fresh-faced 22-year old with a Texas drawl and a noticeable swagger. He showed a ton of promise in limited action over his first two seasons and, while somewhat controversial at the time, was rightly promoted to Calgary’s starter prior to the 2014 season.
The Stamps went 15-3 and won a Grey Cup in Bo’s first year as starter. Since that time, they’ve failed to win less than 13 games in each of Mitchell’s six years at the helm. He has won titles, set records, and forged a Hall of Fame career this decade. What’s really scary is the fact Mitchell will only be 30 when the 2020 season starts. Knowing what he’s already accomplished, it won’t be a shocker if he’s in contention for our next “Player of the Decade” in 2029.
Team of the Decade: 2011 BC Lions
An 11-7 regular season record doesn’t jump off the page as all-decade stuff. But to fully get the scope of what the Lions accomplished en route to winning the 99th Grey Cup, you have to look beyond their final win-loss record…but not much further.
A quick stroll down memory lane will help you recall one of the greatest turnarounds in recent memory. The first half of BC’s 2011 season didn’t give many signs of an impending Grey Cup Champion, seeing as how they started a dreadful 1-6 and looked completely lost.
After starting nine games the year before, Travis Lulay began the year on top of the Lions’ depth chart and didn’t look like a future Grey Cup MVP. In fact, Lulay got yanked in a Week 7 loss to Winnipeg, which seemed to be the catalyst he needed. At 1-6, something clicked and BC went on an absolute tear; they won eight straight games and 10 of their last 11. Even more impressive was the fact nine of those 10 wins came by more than one possession. The Lions were throttling teams and entered the post-season in as dominant form as I can remember.
Travis Lulay emerged as one of the decade’s great quarterbacks after a Grey Cup win in 2011 (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
BC hammered Edmonton in the Western Final before winning the Grey Cup at BC Place in front of almost 55,000 people. As a result, the Lions became the first team in CFL history to win a Grey Cup after losing their first five games while Lulay went on to win the 2011 Most Outstanding Player Award.
The 2011 Lions completed one of the greatest turnarounds in league history and were an unstoppable force entering that year’s playoffs. BC capped it all off with a title, which is why they get the nod as team of the decade.
Championship Game of the Decade: 104th Grey Cup
The most memorable title game of the 2010’s has to be the 2016 showdown at BMO Field between the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa REDBLACKS. For so many reasons, Ottawa’s monumental upset will go down as one of the most entertaining Grey Cup games in quite some time.
It starts with the epic mismatch, at least on paper. With a 15-2-1 regular season record, Calgary tied a franchise mark and finished one off a league record for most wins in a single season. Ottawa, on the other hand, finished 8-9-1 on top of an inferior East Division. With the Stamps boasting the 2016 Most Outstanding Player (Bo Levi Mitchell), Canadian (Jerome Messam), Offensive Lineman (Derek Dennis), and Rookie (DaVaris Daniels), this looked like a severe mismatch.
Then there was the Henry Burris story, which was compelling across the board. Burris was beyond motivated going up against a Calgary team he steered for so long. He had redemption on his mind, too. The 104th Grey Cup was Burris’s third trip to the big game in four years, but his teams had fallen short in both recent tries: 2013 with Hamilton and 2015 with Ottawa.
With his status very much up in the air in pre-game warmup, Burris did eventually take the field and turned back the clock in epic fashion. At the age of 41, Burris threw for 461 yards and three touchdowns and, with a pair of rushing scores, finished the game with five total majors. Burris was precise all night long and deadly inside the red zone.
And, forgetting all the compelling storylines, let’s not forget how bonkers the game itself was. While Mitchell and the Stamps offence sputtered out of the gate, the REDBLACKS opened up a 20-7 halftime lead and had it up to 27-7 early in the third quarter. That’s when Calgary woke up and turned this into a classic.
The Stampeders scored 23 of the next 29 points to get within a field goal late in the fourth quarter. Down 33-30, Calgary had moved the ball all the way down to the Ottawa two yard line with 40 seconds remaining. Opting to give the ball to their goal line ace Andrew Buckley, REDBLACKS defensive back Abdul Kanneh made a shoestring tackle for the ages to keep the Stamps out of the end zone. After a Rene Paredes kick to tie it, off to overtime we went.
It took Ottawa just four plays to score six on their opening possession of overtime, with Ernest Jackson putting his team back out in front 39-33 with an 18-yard strike. Three plays later, the game was over, as the REDBLACKS forced a trio of incomplete passes.
The win capped off an incredible rise for expansion Ottawa. After posting a dreadful 2-16 record in their inaugural campaign, the REDBLACKS won their first Grey Cup in just their third year of existence, a year after losing to Edmonton in the big game. Henry Burris got the ultimate swan song and we got a football game that will be hard to soon forget.
