Toronto Argonauts’ head coach Ryan Dinwiddie will be haunted by several ‘what ifs’ following his team’s 33-31 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, but he has no regrets about not running the ball to kill the clock on their final drive.
“Run the ball when we got into field goal range? I thought we had a good plan and we were executing it,” Dinwiddie bristled when asked about his clock management post-game. “You second-guess that throw to DaVaris? Was he open? He was pretty open, right? I could have blown the game over, so that’s why we called that play.”
Trailing by two late in the fourth quarter, the Argonauts found themselves in field goal range at the Hamilton 21-yard line after a 14-yard scamper from running back Deonta McMahon. That would be the last time the team went to the ground, as quarterback Chad Kelly threw back-to-back incomplete passes to force a field goal.
On first-and-10 with 1:11 remaining, Kelly faked the handoff to McMahon and escaped left, losing his footing as he evaded pressure. Though he managed to stay upright, the resulting end-zone shot was clearly affected as he threw the ball well over the head of a back-pedalling DaVaris Daniels, who was eight yards away from the nearest defender.
“We hit DaVaris on that one, it probably changes the game. Just tough, man,” Dinwiddie mused. “That was a zone read, run-pass option. They gave us a pull key, we pulled it. We knew what we had. Those are the plays you’ve got to make to win football games.”
The pivotal incompletion was the only target that Daniels failed to haul in on the day, as he caught four passes for a season-high 118 yards. According to his head coach, getting the ball to the 2023 East Division all-star was a point of emphasis entering the game. The fact he was targeted with the game on the line was by design.
“We’ve got to get him touches. DaVaris is a gamer,” Dinwiddie said. “He made a big play on that corner ball, he made a lot of good plays and he’s getting invested in the running game too, as far as blocking and doing those things. We don’t have a fullback right now, so all those receivers are doing the dirty work.”
Following the missed touchdown, Toronto went back to the air and Makai Polk drew a pass-interference penalty that would have set the Argos up with a fresh set of downs. However, Hamilton challenged the ruling on the field and the command centre overturned it, believing the receiver slipped of his own accord on the dodgy BMO Field turf. Lirim Hajrullahu connected on the go-ahead field goal but the three-play sequence took just 15 seconds off the clock on a final drive that lasted just over a minute.
The Tiger-Cats’ offence took over with 48 seconds remaining and Bo Levi Mitchell moved the ball with impunity to set up Marc Liegghio for a 47-yard walk-off winner. The veteran quarterback finished the night 31-of-40 for 362 yards and a touchdown — a statline that Dinwiddie felt was much more detrimental than his failure to run the ball.
“The defence was too soft. It looked like seven-on-seven out there. Shoot, I think anybody could’ve went out there and completed 80 percent of their passes, all they were throwing were drag routes for drill,” he said.
“They’re throwing go balls into Cover Two. We’re going Weak Cloud and they’re forcing the ball in there, and they get it. I didn’t think our secondary had their best performance. Obviously, got to see it, look at it, and go from there but it was just disheartening. I just think we didn’t bring the juice and you see what happened with it.”
With the loss, the Argonauts have been swept by the Ticats and are now just two games up for the final playoff spot in the East Division. No team in the CFL has been eliminated from postseason contention at this stage and a tight West Division race will also bring the threat of a crossover. Dinwiddie knows that his team cannot afford to flounder in their final four games.
“Our backs are against the wall right now. We’ve got to win at least two, maybe three (to make the playoffs),” he acknowledged. “It’s unfortunate we lost to (the Ticats) three times, they’re right on our heels, but I think we’ve got to find a way into the playoffs. It starts next week with getting a win and then we’ve got to run off a few different ones.”
“We’ve got two big Western opponents. We’ve got Montreal and Ottawa coming here. We’ve got four games to get it corrected and we’ve got to at least win two of the four, probably, to get in.”
The Argonauts (7-7) will return to action on Saturday, September 28 when they host the first-place Montreal Alouettes (10-2-1).
