Sanchez owed thanks for dumb B.C. penalty

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/10/2010 (5810 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HALLMARK doesn’t make cards for such occasions but, if it did, Terrence Edwards would gladly put his name on one addressed to B.C. Lions cornerback Davis Sanchez.

And it would go something like this:

‘The Winnipeg Blue Bombers would sincerely like to thank you for providing the spark in one of their most compelling and astonishing victories of 2010.’

The Bombers were trailing 32-14 in the fourth quarter when Steven Jyles connected with Edwards for a 15-yard TD that ignited a stone-cold Winnipeg offence. Edwards spiked the ball after the score; Davis took exception and amid the melee took a roughing penalty and followed it up by a taunting infraction on the convert.

“He was jawing at me, ‘Don’t spike the ball on his guy,'” said an irate Edwards afterward. “But his guy (Lions defensive back Anthony Reddick) was talking to me and I’m not going to sit there and let you verbally abuse me. I scored a touchdown. If you don’t want me to spike the ball, stop me. But that’s him. Thanks for sparking this team.

“(Sanchez) is one of those guys that talks but doesn’t do too much. He’s always around the crowd. That’s him. I played with him in Montreal… thanks for sparking us. We scored a touchdown and he had nothing to do with the touchdown, he was on the other side, and he came and basically attacked me.

“So, thanks. This team rallied around that and we came out with a victory.” The score was Edwards’ 11th of the season and his only catch of the game. But the way his teammates rallied after the score with Davis jawing at them and pointing to the scoreboard also spoke volumes.

“It only takes one person to make a play and the momentum swings,” said Edwards. “I felt like I made that play at the end to spark us and then everybody starting making plays. We felt like we could do it. After that Dorian (Smith) got a key sack, J.J. (Jovon Johnson) made his (punt return), Fred (Reid) made runs and then (Deon) Beasely ended the game with a touchdown.

“I feel like I’m a leader. I’m a captain and my one catch sparked this team to victory.”

“That’s the one thing you know about this team: it’s a resilient bunch,” Doug Brown added. “It’s the strongest-minded 4-10 team in the history of the CFL.

“At one point when it was heading into overtime I was thinking, ‘This better not be a new way for us to lose a game this year.’ But finally it came together and it’s one of those games where you really don’t have enough game balls to give out afterward.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca