DICKENSON EARNS MVP AWARD

By Michael Petrie, Calgary Herald

Monday, November 20, 2006  

B.C. QB savours first Grey Cup victory as starter, On any other day, Dave Dickenson would have been fuming in the locker-room. But with the Grey Cup in his midst and champagne flowing all around, he happily tolerated a so-so personal performance.

"I've played 100 games better than this game," said Dickenson, who bashfully accepted outstanding-player honours after his B.C. Lions beat the Montreal Alouettes 25-14 to win the 94th Grey Cup on Sunday.

"I guess what happens as a quarterback is you get the credit when you win as a team, and when you lose, you take all the blame." Dickenson completed 18 of 29 passes for 184 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions, while earning a $10,000 payout for the award. Strangely enough, this was the lowest yardage of any complete game he played this Canadian Football League season and only the third time all year he failed to throw for a touchdown.

"I threw the ball pretty well but I got out of my rhythm after a quarter-and-a-half and we never really got it back as an offence," said Dickenson. "They subbed me in and out of the game a little bit. Honestly, I think it took me a little bit out of my rhythm, my timing. "But that's what the game plan was, it worked and we got the championship."

Coming into the game, much fuss was made about Dickenson's past and the fact he hasn't won a Grey Cup as a starter, despite posting some of the best statistics in CFL history. He was the league's MVP in 2000 and he's never started for a team that won fewer than 11 games, but winning the big one had eluded him.

He put that topic to rest by competently handling the Lions' offence and receiving massive support from the defence and special teams.

The other talking point has revolved around his future. Going into the final year of his Lions contract, there was much conversation about whether head coach-general manager Wally Buono would dish out $400,000 to retain the oft-injured pivot for another season. That, too, is now moot, because Dickenson is believed to have signed a contract extension through 2008.

"Hopefully we can keep most of our guys together next year, contract-wise, and we'll be charged up for another run," he said.

Dickenson, 33, also won a Grey Cup with the Calgary Stampeders in 1998, when he pinned a football and Mark McLoughlin kicked it from beneath his fingers and through the uprights on the game's final play in Winnipeg.

He took the Stamps back the following season but was ineffective, playing with a dislocated shoulder and a broken bone in his shoulder blade.

In 2004, the Dickenson-Casey Printers quarterback sideshow imploded in a Grey Cup loss to the Toronto Argonauts.

On Sunday, it wasn't a perfect performance, but a perfect ending.