The Montreal Alouettes won the Grey Cup over Winnipeg
The Grey Cup was a thriller on Sunday in Hamilton and the Montreal Alouettes came away with their first CFL championship since 2010.
The Alouettes toppled the favored Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 28-24, when Cody Fajardo found Tyson Philpot with a 19-yard touchdown pass with 15 seconds left.
The Alouettes, who ended their season with eight straight wins, went 83 yards on their championship-winning march.
Fajardo was named the Grey Cup MVP. He threw for 290 yards and 3 touchdowns while completing 21 of 26 passes.
A team that was without an owner until March and saw numerous free agents depart because of the franchise’s uncertainty, won its last eight games following a narrow mid-September defeat to Toronto. In the process, the Alouettes beat the best team in the East Division — the Argonauts in last weekend’s division final on the road — then stunned the Bombers, first in the West Division with a 14-4 record.
Those were Montreal’s only two victories against teams with winning records.
Penn State cornerback Daequan Hardy is showing up something big vs. Ohio State with multiple NFL teams in attendance.
It should come as no surprise that Saturday’s matchup between Penn State and Ohio State is on the radar of every NFL team… and it’s not just people watching Buckeyes receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.
20 NFL teams in attendance at the Penn State/Ohio State matchup:
ATL, BUF, CAR, CHI, CIN, DEN, DET, IND, KC, LAC, LVR, MIA, MIN, NE, NYG, NYJ, SF, TB, TEN, WAS
Teams with multiple representatives present: Bills, Commanders, Lions, Panthers, Patriots, Raiders and Titans
There’s all kinds of talent on both rosters, and early on in this game, it was Penn State cornerback Daequan Hardy who showed up with two passes defenses as Ohio State tried to get the ball in the end zone. No dice, said Mr. Hardy.
Coming into this game, Hardy had allowed six catches on 15 targets for 36 yards, 20 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, two interceptions, one pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 1.0.
Hardy also had two punt return touchdowns against UMass.
James Letcher Jr. with a spectacular TD return of a missed field goal for Montreal against Edmonton
James Letcher Jr. collected a missed field goal in the CFL game on Saturday in the game between his Montreal Alouettes and the Edmonton Elks and was off and running.
He finished the play 125 yards later, tumbling into the end zone.
Yes, the CFL, where you can see a 125-yard return of a missed field goal.
Letcher played college ball at Washburn — nicknamed the Ichabods. He was an eight-time All-American selection and had a trio of kickoff return TDs in college.
None will be as memorable as this play for sure.
It wasn’t close to the longest missed field goal return in CFL history:
131 – Boyd Carter/Dave Mann (1958) (Carter for 15 yards, then lateral to Mann for 116 yards and TD)
130 – Ken Hinton (1977)
129 – Bashir Levingston (2007)
129 – Dominique Dorsey (2009)
129 – Tristan Jackson (2012)
129 – Trent Guy (2012)
Jeshrun Antwi kicked and then recovered the football. The Montreal line couldn’t be more than one yard downfield when he kicked it (Rule 5, Article 9), and only he or other onside players (behind the ball when kicked) could recover it without having to worry about a no yards penalty.
The Edmonton Elks have lost 20 straight home games
The Edmonton Elks have been so bad in CFL play they have never won a home game with their current nickname.
The last time Edmonton won a game at home was in October 2019 when they went by a different moniker. And on Thursday, the Elks equaled a futility mark with their 20th straight home loss.
Overall, after the 37-29 loss to the Hamilton Ti-Cats, the Elks are 0-6 in 2023.
Their current 20-game home losing streak topped the NBA’s longest home losing streak when the Dallas Mavericks managed the feat during the 1993-94 season.
The Elks claimed the CFL’s longest home losing streak on Oct. 1, 2022, when they lost 25-18 to the Montreal Alouettes for their 15th straight home loss, surpassing the Ottawa Rough Riders who lost 14 home games in a row between July 19, 1987 to October 22, 1988.
That loss also surpassed the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, who lost 14 straight during the 2003-04 season in the pre-Sidney Crosby era, and the NFL’s longest-home losing streak which was shared by the 1988-89 Dallas Cowboys and 2008-2010 St. Louis Rams.
The 20th-straight loss at home equaled MLB’s St. Louis Browns, who lost 20 home games in a row in 1953.
They won’t be home again until July 29 against the B.C. Lions and then Aug. 10 versus Winnipeg.
The loss to the Ti-Cats wasn’t as painful as the previous one.
Edmonton led 11-3 with 3 minutes left. Saskatchewan managed to tie the game and then C.J. Sims, an American player, forgot the rules in the CFL.
When the football isn’t returned out of the end zone the kicking team is awarded a point, a rouge.
Needless to say one of the Elks was, um, rouge-faced with embarrassment.
Edmonton Elks player Christian Saulsberry was fatally shot in Memphis
Edmonton Elks wide receiver and kick returner Christian Saulsberry was shot and killed in Memphis on Saturday.
According to the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department, Saulsberry was shot in the leg and abdomen while at a birthday party.
He turned 25 on Monday.
The team released a statement:
EARLY SATURDAY MORNING, THE EDMONTON ELKS WERE DEVASTATED TO LEARN OF THE DEATH OF RUNNING BACK CHRISTIAN SAULSBERRY AFTER HE WAS SHOT IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE. FIRST AND FOREMOST, OUR HEARTS GO OUT TO HIS FAMILY DURING THIS INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TIME. OUR CONDOLENCES ARE ALSO EXTENDED TO HIS FRIENDS, INCLUDING THE MANY TEAMMATES AND COACHES BOTH HERE IN EDMONTON AND ELSEWHERE, THAT HE IMPACTED THROUGHOUT HIS FOOTBALL CAREER.
CHRISTIAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR FOOTBALL TEAM BOTH ON THE FIELD AND IN OUR LOCKER ROOM WERE SIGNIFICANT DURING HIS ONE SEASON WITH THE GREEN AND GOLD. HIS POSITIVITY AND ENERGY FOR LIFE WILL BE DEARLY MISSED.
Our hearts are heavy with the news of the passing of a member of our CFL family. Christian Saulsberry will be dearly missed by his family, friends, teammates, coaches and loved ones. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who knew him, and all those who were inspired by him.
Saulsberry, a native of South Haven, Miss., played in eight games for Edmonton in 2022. In his lone CFL season, Saulsberry was a return specialist for the Elks. He had 635 yards on kickoff returns and 235 punt return yards.
Saulsberry was a two-time All Gulf South Conference selection at West Alabama, where he led the team with 1,223 all-purpose yards during his senior season in 2019.