On Saturday night at Tim Horton’s Field in Hamilton, the Toronto Argonauts came out flat and the Tiger-Cats didn’t, handing the Boatmen a 27-24 loss that got a lot closer at the end than it probably should have.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Battle of the QEW
The energy in the early stages of this game reflected this having briefly become a one-sided rivalry. Hamilton played with hatred and desperation, while the Argonauts seemed to be going through the motions. One of the main reasons this rivalry may have lost a bit of steam for Toronto is that they swept the Tiger-Cats 4-0 last season, and had a 10-2 edge since the pandemic coming into this one.
While this might not have looked like a rivalry game for Toronto, I’m certain the rematch on Labour Day will after the Argos were out-hit and out-played for at least three quarters. Jamal Peters and Dewayne Hendrix led a group of six former Argonauts on Hamilton’s defence who were flying all over the field.
Early errors
This was a mistake-filled game for the Argonauts, but there were two critical errors in the first half that really set them back.
Their opening drive ended in a punt block that set the Tiger-Cats up on the Toronto nine-yard-line. It didn’t look like Hamilton had much of a punt block called. They sent six against Toronto’s five-man line but with Brian Harelimana and Fraser Sopik in as personal protectors, they shouldn’t have had any issues. Hamilton’s Ante Litre was lined up in the defensive end spot and came around the edge, then made an inside move on Sopik, blowing past him without being touched. There was nothing punter John Haggerty could have done to avoid the block. One play later, Hamilton was up a touchdown.
Trailing 10-0 in the second quarter, Cameron Dukes hurried to the line setting up a quarterback sneak on second-and-one. As Dukes crossed the first down marker, linebacker Kyle Wilson punched the ball out, and halfback Destin Talbert cashed in a 32-yard scoop-and-score to extend Hamilton’s lead 17-0.
QB1
There will be a lot of talk this week about whether Cam Dukes or Nick Arbuckle should start against Winnipeg but head coach Ryan Dinwiddie wasn’t willing to commit to a decision after the game.
“Nick’s played for me, I’ve coached him, I’m comfortable with him. I’m comfortable with Cam too, he’s done a lot of good stuff,” he said. “He’s a young quarterback, we’re not always going to be at our best sometimes. We’ll look at it, but I’m not going to make a judgement until I’ve watched the film.”
Arbuckle came in for Dukes midway through the fourth quarter and immediately led his team on an eight-play touchdown drive, hitting DaVaris Daniels in the back of the end zone from 18 yards out. What’s important to consider is that while Arbuckle certainly looked much better than Dukes and did a great job getting Damonte Coxie involved, he was facing a very different defence.
With a 16-point lead and just over eight minutes remaining, the Tiger-Cats switched to more of a prevent-style three-deep zone, which Dukes never got to see. Arbuckle had a much tougher time on his last possession when Hamilton tightened things up once again.
Carries for Carey
With 11 carries for 66 yards and a touchdown, running back Ka’Deem Carey did just enough to regain the league lead in rushing. He has 429 yards on the ground through six games, 14 yards ahead of Brady Oliveira, and he also has over 100 yards receiving with a touchdown through the air.
With Toronto trailing for so much of this game, Carey’s opportunities were perhaps more limited than they might otherwise have been, but he continues to shine every week for the Argos, win or lose.
Leader of the line
This game marked the return of defensive lineman Jake Ceresna after he missed last week against Montreal with a shoulder injury. He registered two tackles and a sack, but he was in Bo Levi Mitchell’s face all night even though he clearly wasn’t 100 percent.
With Jared Brinkman possibly missing some time and Flo Orimolade at least another week away from returning, Ceresna will be counted on heavily as the leader of Toronto’s defensive line.
Grant for three
There were some extreme highs and lows for return specialist Janarion Grant in this game. For the third consecutive week, he scored a special teams touchdown, a remarkable feat. With under three minutes remaining in a 10-point game, Grant took a punt 96 yards up the middle of the field, juking and weaving through the coverage team before turning on the jets. I’ve only been watching Grant closely for six games, but his field vision, in my assessment, is as good as I’ve ever seen.
Unfortunately for Grant, he also had difficulty handling a few punts, including one that really cost the Argos at the end of the game. Although Mason Pierce was able to recover the fumbled kick, they were pinned back at the 21 instead of starting their final drive from what would likely have been around their own 40-yard-line.
In theory, if everything else had played out the same way as it did, their final snap a few plays later would have been from the Hamilton 41-yard-line, where they would likely have attempted a game-tying field goal instead of a “Hail Mary” from their own 50.
1000!
Lirim Hajrullahu’s field goal and two extra points put him at an even 1,000 points for his CFL career, an outstanding accomplishment especially since he spent the past four seasons in the NFL and USFL.
Unfortunately, Hajrullahu missed a 42-yard field goal at the end of the first half. It was only his second missed field goal of the season, but those three points came back to haunt the Argos at the end of the game.
Interestingly, Ryan Dinwiddie elected to punt from Hamilton’s 45-yard-line late in the fourth quarter instead of sending Hajrullahu out for a 52-yard attempt. The veteran kicker was good from that distance in the pregame warmup, but Dinwiddie may have felt the wind was a bigger issue than I perceived it to be.
Rules rule
The last play of the game ended up being somewhat anti-climatic after what was setting up to be an epic finish, due to the application of an unusual CFL rule.
With 14 seconds remaining in the game and the clock stopped, quarterback Nick Arbuckle fired an incomplete pass but Toronto was flagged for being offside. Unlike in American football, where a 10-second runoff is only applied in a similar situation if the clock was running when the foul occurred, Hamilton had the option to decline the penalty and choose to run the clock as soon as the ball was set. The play was blown in with eight seconds remaining, but Toronto was still in their huddle at the time, presumably thinking there’d be time to run one play before attempting a long game-tying field goal.
Unfortunately for them, the play they called ended up being the final play of the game. The rule may not make a lot of sense when the clock is stopped as it was in this situation but a rule’s a rule, and Toronto can only blame themselves for being offside which led to its enforcement.
Next man up, next man up, next man up
It wasn’t just a tough game for the Argonauts on the scoreboard, they appeared to lose a number of key contributors throughout the course of the game. We’ll need to wait to find out the extent and severity of the injuries, but I’d be shocked if there aren’t two or three defensive starters missing next week against Winnipeg.
Strong-side linebacker Robert Priester was knocked out of the game with what looked to be a shoulder injury after initiating a hard hit on Steven Dunbar. His replacement, Tyshon Blackburn, also came out of the game after getting banged up on the punt coverage team. With cornerback Jonathan Edouard leaving the game with what appeared to be a gruesome arm injury, linebacker Fraser Sopik was left in the unenviable position of playing defensive back.
Perhaps the most concerning defensive injury was to defensive tackle Jared Brinkman who was unable to put any weight on his right leg as he was helped off the field. Brinkman has been playing at an all-star level this season and is the number one reason the Argos have been so difficult to run against.
Up next
After a tough three-game road trip, the Toronto Argonauts (3-3) will return home to BMO Field where they’ll host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2-4) on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. EDT.
