93rd Grey Cup

November 13

MONTREAL – The perennial powerhouse Alouettes boasted four 1,000-yard receivers for the second consecutive season (and second time in CFL history). But they finished a mere second in the East Division behind the defending champion Toronto Argonauts. As a result, they were forced to defend the hard surface at Olympic Stadium against the fourth-place team in the West Division, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who took the third spot in the East Division after finishing higher than the Ottawa Renegades.

A remarkably low crowd of 31,199 turned out to watch the Alouettes stomp on the Roughriders in the first half, leaping out to a 24–0 lead on three Anthony Calvillo touchdown passes to Terry Vaughn, Ben Cahoon, Thyron Anderson and a Damon Duval field goal. By contrast, Saskatchewan quarterback Marcus Crandell struggled badly in the first half, after getting the start over Nealon Greene. The Roughriders offense helped the Alouettes by producing three turnovers.

After the embarrassing first half, Saskatchewan head coach Danny Barrett opted to leave Crandell in to start the third quarter. Crandell began to get over his struggles as the Alouettes sat back on their big lead, and threw a touchdown pass to Jamel Richardson early in the third quarter to give Roughriders fans some hope. But another touchdown pass to Jason French in the fourth quarter was the only other scoring the Roughriders could produce, and Duval hit two more field goals to send Montreal to Toronto for the East Final.

CALGARY – Every advantage seemed to belong to the Calgary Stampeders in their Battle of Alberta playoff date against their fiercest rival, the Edmonton Eskimos. The Stampeders were playing at home and were on a roll, having won seven of their last eight games. Moreover, they had humiliated the Eskimos the previous week in a game that could have allowed the Eskimos to finish first in the West. As if that weren't enough, Edmonton's star quarterback Ricky Ray was ice cold, having gone six games without a touchdown pass.

Sure enough, in front of a rabid home crowd, Calgary began to beat on Edmonton early. Three field goals by Calgary's leadfooted kicker Sandro DeAngelis put Calgary up 9–0 through the first quarter, while running back Joffrey Reynolds ate the Eskimos defense for lunch. The Eskimos allowed another fourteen points in the second quarter. In part, thanks to a massive 63-yard run by little-used Tony Stallings, who had 93 yards on only four carries. Reynolds scored the touchdown that Stallings set up, and quarterback Henry Burris added another on a goal-line plunge before the half.

The Eskimos would have been in deep trouble if not for kicker Sean Fleming, who nailed four field goals in the second quarter to give Edmonton a chance. But it was 23–12 Calgary at the break and things were not looking good for the Eskimos. Edmonton quarterback Ray had continued to struggle getting into the end zone, but the deficit was not his doing. The defense had let him down, he had not turned the ball over, and he had been victimized by dropped passes, particularly a would-be touchdown pass dropped by Trevor Gaylor. However, Edmonton coach Danny Maciocia tried to change the momentum by putting backup quarterback, and former starter, Jason Maas in for the second half (in contrast to Saskatchewan coach Barrett's decision to leave his quarterback in during the previous game).

With Maas under centre, the Eskimos began to claw back into the game. Calgary was held off the scoresheet in the third quarter while Fleming pounded his fifth field goal and added a rouge punt into the endzone. In the fourth quarter, Edmonton completed the comeback. The Eskimos started the fourth quarter with a devastating 93-yard clock-killing drive, finishing it up with a one-yard touchdown from fullback Mathieu Bertrand to tie the game at 23. The Stampeders began to roll on the next drive, but a fumble by Reynolds broke Calgary's back, and a touchdown pass from Maas to Jason Tucker gave the Eskimos their first lead. Deangelis and Fleming swapped field goals but Calgary could not come back, and the Eskimos advanced to the Western final.

November 20

TORONTO – During the 2004 CFL season, the Toronto Argonauts stunned Montreal at their own field, taking a 26–18 victory over the favoured Alouettes in the East final. The Argonauts went on to take the Grey Cup, and the Alouettes came into Toronto looking for revenge.

Early on, it looked like they would not get it. Toronto had come to party, as a team which has suffered attendance problems in recent seasons drew a near-sellout crowd of 44,211 through the turnstiles. The unusual fan attention may have motivated the Argonauts early, as their experienced quarterback Damon Allen started on a roll. First, Allen scored the first points of the game with a one-yard touchdown run. Then, he threw a strike to receiver R. Jay Soward, who went 43 yards to the endzone. He then went to the stands, grabbed a bag of popcorn, and shared it with teammate Robert Baker in a rather novel showboating touchdown celebration.

That would be the high-water mark of the game for the Argonauts. In the second quarter, Damon Duval hit two field goals to make the score 14–6 at the half. Devastatingly, for the Alouettes, starting running back Robert Edwards went down in the second quarter with a rib injury. Backup Éric Lapointe came into the game and would become the key cog of Montreal's offence in the second half.

Montreal's defence began to catch on to Allen in the second half and the Toronto quarterback began taking hits and throwing ill-advised passes. He ended up with two interceptions and a fumble, while the Argonauts added three other fumbles to make a total of six turnovers. Lapointe scored three second-half running touchdowns for Montreal while quarterback Anthony Calvillo put in a mediocre 190 yards for a team renowned for aerial pyrotechnics. Allen's 273 yards left Calvillo in the dust, but Montreal did not commit a single turnover in the game. Only a single Noel Prefontaine field goal in the third quarter accounted for Toronto scoring after the first half. Damon Duval hit four field goals to add to Lapointe's three touchdowns giving Montreal a Grey Cup berth and a 33–17 victory.

VANCOUVER – On the heels of his benching against Calgary, it seemed likely that Edmonton head coach Danny Maciocia would leave Ricky Ray as the backup for the West final against the British Columbia Lions. However, Maciocia said mid-week that Ray would start, leaving Jason Maas on the bench. In B.C., Dave Dickenson unsurprisingly got the start over former Most Outstanding Player Casey Printers, leading some to joke that four of the CFL's best quarterbacks would be in this game.

In contrast to their previous game against Calgary, Edmonton started out strong against British Columbia. They racked up two Sean Fleming field goals, a rouge punt through the endzone, and a one-yard touchdown plunge by Ray to notch fourteen first-quarter points. This compared to a single Mark McLoughlin field goal for B.C. Another Ray touchdown run in the second quarter gave the Eskimos a 21–3 lead before Casey Printers, sent in on a short yardage situation, scored a one-yard touchdown run of his own to narrow the lead to 21–10 at the half.

Ray had looked good in the first half, but ran into trouble not always of his own making. He threw an interception to Barron Miles that bounced off Edmonton receiver Trevor Gaylor's shoulder pads and lost a fumble on a bad exchange. Two turnovers that produced ten points for the Lions. Meanwhile, Dickenson briefly got in a groove, nailing Geroy Simon with a ninety-yard touchdown toss, the longest in Lions playoff history. After another McLoughlin field goal and a rouge punt by Duncan O'Mahony, all of a sudden the game was tied at 21 after the third quarter.

To start the fourth quarter, Maciocia decided to make a quarterback change for the third consecutive game. He sent in Jason Maas to replace Ray, whose 17 of 28 for 207 yards, along with two rushing touchdowns, a fumble, and an interception, were acceptable but not fantastic.

Maas's arrival seemed to spur on the Edmonton defence, as they shut Dickenson down the rest of the way. Dickenson threw an interception directly into the hands of Edmonton linebacker Steven Marsh. It was only his sixth interception that season and set up a Maas 15-yard pass to Trevor Gaylor to make it 28–21. The far-from-sellout but boisterous crowd of 37,337 grew restless and British Columbia coach Wally Buono sent in his backup, Printers, to great applause.

However, aside from a dramatic 47-yard pass to Paris Jackson, Printers was ineffective. After the toss to Jackson, Printers promptly threw an interception to Keyou Craver at the goal line. The Eskimos went two-and-out and opted to have Derrell Mitchell concede a safety rather than have Sean Fleming punt out of his own endzone. This pulled the Lions to within five points. The game ended on a controversial non-call, in which Casey Printers threw the ball up for Geroy Simon, however, he was bumped on his way to the ball, and the pass ended up being incomplete. Some argue that the Edmonton defender was merely exercising his fair right to the ball. Others argue that he interfered with Simon, while some suggest that the ball was not catchable at all. Regardless, the referees did not throw a flag, and Edmonton went on to win the Grey Cup.