On Friday night, the Toronto Argonauts dominated the B.C. Lions 33-17 at BC Place, collecting their first win in Vancouver since 2017. There were contributions on offence, defence, and special teams, but it was Toronto’s defensive line that served as the difference-maker.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Matching up
The Argos match up extremely well against the B.C. Lions. In fact, given how they’re constructed, Toronto is far better off playing the Lions than they are the Tiger-Cats or Stampeders — which might sound strange on the surface since B.C. is clearly the best of those three teams.
The simplest way to explain it is that Toronto is good at attacking what the Lions do poorly. The Argos have a great pass rush and they can shut down the run with their front four. While the Lions have a number of weapons, their poor offensive line limits their ability to use them against Toronto. In two games against the Lions this season, Toronto has 13 sacks and has allowed only 122 yards rushing.
On the other side of the ball, the Lions have struggled to cover sideline-to-sideline and can have issues against good running teams, while the Argos are great at spreading the ball around and initiating a balanced attack. In their two games, the Argos have scored 68 points on the strength of 285 yards rushing to go along with four touchdown passes.
The Toronto Sack Exchange returns
I normally start these articles by highlighting the offensive side of the ball, but I’m going to stray from tradition and lead with the positional group that deserves the most credit for Toronto’s win. The defensive line for the Argos played as well as I’ve seen them play in the Coach Dinwiddie era. It’s not even that they notched a season-high seven sacks, which is impressive enough in its own right. It’s that they initiated relentless pressure on just about every Lions’ passing attempt.
Defensive tackle, Ralph Holley, who started the season on Toronto’s practice roster, was credited with three sacks, and is now tied for the league lead with seven. Robbie Smith had two sacks of his own, with defensive end Derek Parish and Jake Ceresna each adding another.
It was Ceresna in my view who gave the Lions the most trouble. He gave B.C.’s guards fits all night, bull-rushing through them and weaving around them seemingly at will. If there were such a thing as a sack assist, Ceresna would have had at least three of them, forcing both Nathan Rourke and Vernon Adams into the arms of his teammates on several occasions.
Secondary second
Ask any defensive back how much they appreciate a great performance from the defensive line, and I promise you a smile will light up their face. An effective pass rush makes a defensive back’s job significantly easier. The Lions are a dangerous team offensively with an array of weapons, and the fact that the Argos held the combination of Nathan Rourke and Vernon Adams to 185 passing yards speaks to both the defensive line’s success as well as the secondary’s.
Due to the pressure Toronto’s front four was creating, they weren’t forced to blitz very often, allowing the linebackers to assist significantly in coverage. Furthermore, the Argos love sending halfbacks and sometimes corners on blitzes to get extra pressure, but there was little call to on this day. Instead, the Argos frequently positioned their defensive backs at the first down marker and looked to come downhill, knowing the ball would have to come out quickly.
Coverage was great downfield most of the night. There were one or two plays when Justin McInnis found a soft spot in between zones, but the fact that no defensive back made more than two tackles tells you what a quiet evening they had. Toronto allowed a total of 12 pass completions — an astonishingly low number against the Lions. DaShaun Amos had another great night in coverage in what has been an all-star-level season for the veteran halfback. He picked off Vernon Adams late in the game on an overthrown ball deep in Argos territory and did well to secure it as he rolled to the ground.
Easy as one, two, three
It can be tough on a defence when the opposing team changes their quarterback mid-game. Teams spend all week preparing for a particular QB and when a different player comes into the game with a different skill set, it can be a difficult adjustment.
Vernon Adams isn’t your typical backup QB, so when he came in to start the second half in relief of Rourke, I’m sure some Argos fans held their breath. Adams was arguably the league’s MOP favourite when he was replaced by Nathan Rourke a few weeks ago, but the Argos gave him an even tougher time than they did Rourke.
Rourke completed six of 12 passes for 110 yards, getting sacked three times, and added a touchdown on the ground, while Adams went four of seven for 75 yards, was sacked four times, and threw an interception. For B.C.’s final two drives, with the game well out of reach, Chase Brice got in the game and completed two of four passes for 32 yards and a touchdown.
Less is more
After throwing for 1,107 yards through his first three games and launching 56 passing attempts last week, Chad Kelly’s 18-of-28 for 268 yards passing statline seemed very tame by comparison, but this might have been his best outing. Kelly kept the ball out of harm’s way all night, not only throwing safe passes but protecting the ball well when under pressure –- and he was under pressure a fair bit. He kept two hands on the ball in the pocket and took a quick peek behind him before setting to throw outside the pocket on a few occasions. Clearly, ball security was a focus at practice all week.
What made Kelly so difficult to defend on this night was that he used his legs efficiently. When you take out his quarterback sneaks, Kelly had four carries for 46 yards, including three first downs and a touchdown. The Lions linebackers, who were forced to take hard read steps as a part of defending Toronto’s rushing attack, were fanning out at full speed once they diagnosed a pass, leaving a lot of open space in front of Kelly. When he wasn’t running, he still managed to put those linebackers in conflict by stepping up in the pocket and challenging the line of scrimmage, thus bringing the linebackers back in before throwing downfield.
Late, but not late enough
Chad Kelly was only sacked twice, but he took a number of hard hits after releasing the football. I found myself instinctively checking the ground for flags on at least four of these occasions, but none were thrown.
I don’t think any of the hits on Kelly were egregiously late, so I don’t really have a problem with flags not being thrown, but Mathieu Betts in particular pushed the limits of what referees will typically allow. Betts was B.C.’s best player by a wide margin, and he did well to get in Kelly’s face all night, altering passes even when he wasn’t able to get his hands on Kelly.
Ground-breaking
I’ve been critical of Ryan Dinwiddie for abandoning the run prematurely on a few occasions this season, including last week in Ottawa where Ka’Deem Carey got only three first-half carries. Against the Lions, he was determined not to stray from his game plan.
Carey had eight first-half carries for only 14 yards, but these runs took a toll on the Lions’ defence and paid dividends in the second half. Carey finished with 11 carries for 41 yards and Toronto as a team had 36 rushes for 165 yards. When you remove Kelly and Dukes’ combined eight quarterback sneaks, the Argos were averaging 5.4 yards per carry.
Polk-a-dot door is open
Rookie receiver Makai Polk has set career highs for receiving yards in back-to-back weeks. After logging a season-high seven catches for 105 yards against the Redblacks last week, he hauled in six passes for 116 yards and a touchdown against the Lions.
Both his touchdown and the play that set it up showed what a playmaker this young receiver can be. With under 30 seconds remaining in the first half with Toronto clinging to a 12-10 lead, Chad Kelly found Polk just inside the numbers 25 yards downfield. Polk took the ball another 26 yards all the way down to the Lions’ 11-yard-line. On the next play, with the clock running, Kelly scrambled to his left as the play broke down and directed Polk toward the corner of the endzone. The rookie receiver found open space in behind coverage and settled in to make the touchdown catch.
It was the play of Makai Polk that led to Toronto releasing Rasheed Bailey after their sixth game of the season. At that time, Bailey was Toronto’s leader in both receptions and yards, but Polk had shown flashes in limited playing time. Now, more than three-quarters of the way through the season, Polk is clearly one of Toronto’s most dangerous weapons, a single catch behind Damonte Coxie for the team lead and also second on the team in receiving yards.
Time after time
The Argos scored on five of their first seven drives, including each of their first three, but their first four scores were all field goals, allowing the Lions to hang around. The good that did come out of those long drives is that they were all time-consuming, and by the second half, the extra time spent on the field started to take its toll on the Lions’ defence. The Argos dominated the time of possession battle 38:25 to 21:35, which led directly to the Argos being able to run the ball successfully in the game’s later stages.
Range of emotions on specials
There were great, good, and bad contributions from Toronto’s special teams units, taking special teams coordinator Mickey Donovan through a range of emotions on the sideline.
The great was Lirim Hajrullahu’s perfect six-of-six field goal connections, just one off the team record. The good was an 80-yard punt return from Janarion Grant that would have gone the distance were it not for the tracking skill of T.J. Lee. The bad was a blocked punt by Patrice Rene on which no one even looked in his direction, let alone attempted to block him. That would almost certainly have turned into a Lions touchdown were it not for punter John Haggerty alertly collecting the football despite being surrounded by Lions.
Banged-up bookends
The B.C. Lions definitely got the worst of it, but this was one of those games where it felt like a different player went down with an injury on every series.
The concern for Toronto over the next week will be the status of their two tackles. Left tackle Isiah Cage suffered an injury on Chad Kelly’s touchdown run late in the third quarter and didn’t return to the game. Left guard Ryan Hunter slid over to left tackle, and Dylan Giffen filled in at the vacated guard spot. With just under five minutes remaining in the game, right tackle Dejon Allen went down with an injury as well, forcing Landon Rice into the game. Allen would return for the team’s final series, but his status will also need to be monitored this week.
Five and climbing
This was Ryan Dinwiddie’s 43rd win as a head coach, which ties him with Scott Milanovich for fifth all-time in Argos history. That he’s been able to achieve this before the end of his fourth season, especially considering his first season was a shortened one, is remarkable.
The Argos finished in first place in the East Division in each of his first three seasons. His team finished tied for the most wins in CFL history last season with 16, and he won a Grey Cup in 2022. If he returns to the Argos next season, he will almost certainly pass Don Matthews’ 49 and Leo Cahill’s 54, but he’ll need a few more years to catch Pinball’s 68 or Bob O’Billovich’s 89.
Up Next
The Toronto Argonauts (7-6) return home for the first time in almost a month to take on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (3-9). The Argos are 5-1 at home, but have lost both of their games against the Tiger-Cats this season.
