The Toronto Argonauts suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday night, falling 33-31 on the game’s final play. They will now be forced to check their rearview mirror as the gap between the two teams has closed significantly over their last four games. Despite their struggles, the Tiger-Cats have swept the Argos in their three-game series.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Less continues to be more
Chad Kelly threw for 322 yards in each of his first two games back from suspension and followed that up with a 463-yard performance, but his two more modest outings have been his best games. On Friday night, he completed 17-of-26 passes for 255 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He scored two touchdowns on the ground and made good decisions all night, the only exception being an early pick. Kelly and the offence moved the ball well and kept the numbers on the scoreboard moving, only turning to their punter twice all night.
Despite his solid play, Kelly had a horrendous start to the game, missing his first four passes, one of which was intercepted. After that, he settled down and rattled off 12 straight completions, including a touchdown pass, and ran another score in himself from three yards out.
Pounding the ground
Head coach Ryan Dinwiddie has been determined to stick to the running game over the past two weeks and it has worked effectively. After amassing 165 rushing yards against the B.C. Lions last week, Toronto piled up 139 yards on the ground against Hamilton. The impact of running successfully, especially in the early stages of the game helped the Argos move the football with consistency and opened up receivers off play action.
Instead of feeding Ka’Deem Carey repeatedly, Dinwiddie split the backfield carries as evenly as he has all season. Carey ran the ball seven times, Dan Adeboboye six times, and Deonta McMahon five times. All three backs have different skill sets and using them this way is an effective means of keeping the defence guessing.
Dialing up Daniels
DaVaris Daniels surpassed 6,000 receiving yards for his career with a 118-yard performance on four receptions. He had his longest gain of the season on a 66-yarder where Chad Kelly found him in behind coverage.
Unfortunately, what fans may remember most about Daniels was a missed connection between he and Kelly in the game’s final minutes that would likely have won the game for the Argos. Daniels was wide open in the endzone, but Kelly rushed his throw with defenders closing in on him, stumbling as he escaped the pocket, and the ball sailed about a yard too far.
Wynton’s return
Linebacker Wynton McManis was able to suit up for the Argos for the first time since July 27 against the Blue Bombers when he suffered a groin injury. The 30-year-old has become Toronto’s most vocal team leader this season and is one of the best defensive players in the CFL, so his presence on the field was obviously missed over the last six games. He led all players with eight tackles, but it sometimes felt like the rest of the defence was waiting for him to make a play instead of looking to make big plays themselves.
Brinks Truck
McManis wasn’t the only big name to return for Toronto this week. Nose tackle Jared Brinkman, who injured his ankle against the Tiger-Cats back on July 20, had missed the past seven games.
Brinkman isn’t a player whose stats will ever jump off your screen, but he might be the best run-stopper in the league. He was used sparingly in his return to the lineup, registering only two tackles and failing to stand out significantly as he works to get comfortable again on his ankle.
The longest yard
The defensive highlights for the Argos came on five consecutive plays at the end of the third quarter. Hamilton had a first-and-goal situation from the Toronto one-yard line and were unable to score a touchdown on five straight attempts.
Fullback Ante Litre was stuffed on three consecutive runs, but an offside penalty on the third-and-goal attempt gave the Tiger-Cats a new set of downs. Litre then lost yardage on each of the next two plays before Hamilton conceded and kicked a 10-yard field goal. If the Toronto defence had played with this same intensity all night, the result of the game would have been quite different.
Uncovered
After turning in a great performance against the B.C. Lions last week, the Toronto secondary had one of their worst games of the year. Bo Levi Mitchell was unstoppable and while he deserves credit for an outstanding performance, it was the Toronto defensive backfield that allowed it to happen.
There were, what looked to me, like four busts in coverage that led to big plays from the Tiger-Cats. Mitchell hit Shemar Bridges on a 45-yard bomb down the right sideline on a play that looked like Robert Priester failed to secure coverage overtop. Cornerback Benji Franklin was clouding or trailing Bridges all the way downfield, suggesting Priester had deep coverage to that side, but he never made it over there, allowing Bridges to make the catch. He was initially ruled in for a touchdown, but the command centre marked him out of bounds at the two-yard-line.
On three other occasions, it appeared as though no Argos defenders covered the flats, leaving a Hamilton receiver all alone for an easy completion. The most critical of these errors came on the game’s final second. On third down and three, trailing by a point, the Tiger-Cats were forced to go for it from midfield. James Butler found himself alone in the left flat after the two receivers to that side cleared the defenders out.
To my eye, the coverage by Toronto looked soft all night, even on plays when there weren’t busts. The Argos defensive backs were playing well off the Tiger-Cats receivers, allowing Mitchell to pick them apart with short but easy completions. The benefit of giving a cushion is the tendency not to allow big plays to hit but with the way Mitchell was playing, I think they’d have been better served running tight man coverage, forcing the receivers to beat them instead of allowing him to work his way patiently down the field.
Granted
For the first time all season, all-star return specialist Janarion Grant didn’t suit up for the Argos due to a chest injury. Dave Ungerer III handled punt return duties, while Dan Adeboboye and Deonta McMahon took care of kickoffs.
Among players with 10 returns or more, Grant is tied for the league lead with 16.2 yards per punt return and is second in the CFL in kickoff return average with 25.1. In his stead, Ungerer III averaged 7.5 yards per punt return and McMahon averaged 16.3 yards per kickoff return. Neither of them can be faulted, but it shows the impact of having a dynamic returner like Grant. Even one big return might have been the difference in this game.
Broken streak
Lirim Hajrullahu’s streak of 14 straight made field goals came to an end in the second quarter when he missed a kick from 45 yards out. The ball sailed out of the end zone, but connected with the upright en route, so no rouge was recorded and Hamilton got the ball at their own 30-yard-line.
Hajrullahu’s streak may actually have been more impressive than 14 straight field goals. In fact, before this miss, the veteran kicker hit 25 of his last 26 attempts, and that one miss was a game-winning rouge where connecting on the field goal wasn’t the objective. In a two-point loss, a missed field goal stands out, but no kicker can be expected to hit every kick regardless of what kind of streak they may put together.
Rare home loss
This was the second biggest crowd of the season at BMO Field and there was a sort of stunned silence after the game, as Argos fans aren’t accustomed to seeing them lose at home. Toronto has the second-best home record in the CFL since the lost season of 2020. With a mark of 25-7 as the home team over that span, they trail only the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who have remarkably lost only four games in the same period.
The Boatmen are 5-2 so far this season at BMO Field, but both losses have now come against East Division opponents. They’re 5-0 against the West Division but have now lost home games to both Hamilton and Montreal. They host the Alouettes and the Redblacks in their final two home games.
Upon further review
The Argonauts appeared destined to win the game when a pass interference penalty was thrown on Richard Leonard against receiver Makai Polk. Having watched the replay, I’m convinced Polk slipped instead of being interfered with. Hamilton head coach Scott Milanovich challenged the play and the ruling was reversed, leading to a Toronto field goal instead of a touchdown, which was likely the difference in the game.
As upsetting as the result may be for Argos fans, this is how the command centre is supposed to work. I feel they’ve been hesitant to overturn calls since they drew so much negative attention earlier in the season, but this was a game-changing play and the call on the field was clearly incorrect.
Up next
The Toronto Argonauts (7-7) now get set to host the league-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2-1) in the rubber match of their three-game season series next Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. EDT. The Alouettes won the first matchup at BMO Field 30-20, while the Argos came out on top in Montreal 37-18.
