On Friday night in Winnipeg, the Toronto Argonauts defeated the Blue Bombers 14-11, clinching a playoff spot and, at least for the moment, moving into second place in the East Division. They are a point ahead of the Ottawa Redblacks, who play in Montreal on Monday afternoon.
Here are my thoughts on this wire-to-wire Argos win.
The toughest place to play
This is only Winnipeg’s fifth loss at home since the cancelled 2020 season, which is the best in the league by a few games. Toronto is second with seven home losses, though they’ve also lost two home playoff games over that stretch, something Winnipeg hasn’t done, so Princess Auto Stadium is unquestionably the toughest place to play in the CFL.
This sellout crowd gave Toronto everything they had at the start of the game, but Winnipeg’s inability to generate significant scoring threats left them without a lot to cheer about. If Toronto has Grey Cup aspirations, they know the path there will have to go through Montreal, a tough place to play in its own right, so winning in a hostile environment like this could go a long way toward building confidence.
Bye week business
In his almost four seasons as a head coach, Ryan Dinwiddie has a 10-1 record coming off a bye week. This is an outstanding mark and a testament to his staff’s planning and preparation.
This wasn’t by any means a perfect game for the Argos, but their plan in the first half was excellent. They opened the game by forcing a two-and-out and then followed that up with a seven-play, 72-yard touchdown drive to establish a lead they’d never relinquish. Dinwiddie’s only loss after a bye came in his rookie season, and he’s logged 10 straight wins in these situations since then.
The Toronto Sack Exchange
At the closing bell, the Toronto Sack Exchange tied a season-high seven sacks, equaling the number they had in B.C. a few weeks ago against the Lions. This number was so impressive because the Argos didn’t need to send the house to generate pressure. Three, four, and five-man pressures were enough with defensive linemen Jake Ceresna, Derek Parish, Jared Brinkman, and Ralph Holley all registering a sack, Flo Orimolade notching two, and halfback Mark Milton also contributing with a sack-fumble.
Zach Collaros didn’t get caught holding the ball too long, rather Toronto’s defenders collapsed the pocket almost instantly, taking advantage of left guard Liam Dobson in particular. The Argos dressed a season-high nine defensive linemen for this game. After surrendering five first-half sacks, Winnipeg adjusted to a quick passing attack in the second half, which yielded better results in terms of keeping Collaros upright, but a final sack by Flo Orimolade set up a third-and-17 situation that led to the end of the game.
In their two games against the Blue Bombers this season, the Argos have tallied 12 total sacks and created nine turnovers. That’s a winning formula.
Third-and-ballgame
With the game on the line and Winnipeg facing a third-and-17 situation, Zach Collaros scrambled for 16-and-three-quarter yards, which essentially ended the ballgame. Linebacker Wynton McManis made a sensational play, extending fully to force Collaros out of bounds short of the sticks.
Credit must also be given to the veteran quarterback who came within inches of converting a first down that would almost certainly have led to a game-winning field goal attempt. Winnipeg head coach Mike O’Shea challenged the spot to no avail. Having watched that replay at least a dozen times from multiple angles, I have no idea where that ball should have been spotted.
If it had been spotted several yards short of the first down or a yard past the marker, I’m not sure I’d have had any way of knowing it was incorrect, so credit must be given to the officials for making a call and standing by it. Those few inches were what separated these two teams in their first matchup, and they did so again on Friday night.
Carrying the load
The Toronto offence going cold seemed to coincide with running back Ka’Deem Carey coming out of the game. Carey was averaging eight yards per carry in the first half but only got the ball once in the second half before coming out of the game with back spasms.
The Argos scored only a single point in the second half. Deonta McMahon ended up with 22 yards on six carries, and Dan Adeboboye picked up four yards on three carries. Toronto’s inability to run the ball effectively without Carey will have to be monitored, especially if he’s out for an extended period.
Quiet night for Kelly
Chad Kelly is now 1-0 against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, never having started against them before Friday night. He played relatively mistake-free football but didn’t do as much as we’ve come to expect from him.
Since his return from suspension, Kelly has averaged well over 300 yards per game, but he finished this contest a modest 16-of-23 for 203 yards and a touchdown. Though his quarterback efficiency came in at 111.3 and he engineered an outstanding opening touchdown drive, Kelly wasn’t in a celebratory mood post-game.
“I don’t really look at the positives only scoring less than 20 points, not really a good night by the offence. There’s a lot of things we need to work on, it’s the fine details. We just got to keep getting better in practice, focus up in the film room and try to fix things.”
Dropping the ball
Chad Kelly’s first half, while not spectacular, was mistake-free. He completed 10-of-13 passes for 113 yards and a touchdown, but two of those three incompletions were rare drops from his most reliable receivers.
DaVaris Daniels appeared to get both hands on a deep ball down the sideline, which would have set the Argos up with a first down well inside Winnipeg’s 30-yard-line. Instead, they ended up punting. Dave Ungerer III also dropped a pass on a play he’s made dozens of times. Chad Kelly hit him with a frozen rope at Winnipeg’s 23-yard-line, but the ball bounced off his hands. Lirim Hajrullahu hit a field goal on the next play, but the Argos were moving the ball well at this time, and there’s reason to think this drive might have ended in a touchdown had he hung on to the football.
A glaring need
This is a very good Toronto Argonauts football team and they’re absolutely in contention for their 19th Grey Cup, but the one glaring hole on the roster is a short-yardage quarterback. Cam Dukes and Nick Arbuckle are perfectly capable backups, but neither should be looked to on third down and one.
Dukes came into this game for two quarterback sneaks and failed on both occasions. Kelly was successful on four of six quarterback sneaks, but he was stopped on the most important one of those attempts at the goal line and you never want your starting quarterback taking the kind of hits he took on those plays.
A short-yardage specialist is an absolute must on a CFL roster given how often these situations arise. The difference can be seen in the absence of Winnipeg’s specialist Chris Streveler, who is out for the season with an injury. He is among the most prolific short-yardage quarterbacks in the CFL, and without him on Friday night, the Blue Bombers turned the ball over on downs at Toronto’s one-yard-line.
If Toronto can’t find a specialist for these situations, they need to rethink how they attack third-and-short situations. Chad Kelly is too valuable to the team to have him taking hits to the head from linebackers on these plays.
Oh snap
With long snapper Adam Guillemette out due to a back injury, Toronto signed Simon Chaves this week to snap in his place. The University of Guelph wrestler’s long snaps were on point leading Hajrullahu to a perfect night with two field goals on two attempts and one extra point on one attempt.
Additionally, punter John Haggerty cleanly fielded seven snaps and got them all away for a 50-yard average. Chaves had a clutch long snap with 10 seconds remaining in the game where Haggerty was able to score a rouge to put the Argos up a field goal with only a few seconds remaining. On the other side of the ball, Sergio Castillo missed two of his three field goal attempts.
Fun with flags
The Argos were penalized seven times for 76 yards, compared to two Winnipeg penalties for 25 yards. One took away a Toronto scoring play and one led directly to Blue Bomber points.
The first was right guard Anthony Vandal’s unnecessary roughness penalty which took the Argos out of field goal range and led to head coach Ryan Dinwiddie screaming at him on the sideline. The second was a questionable pass interference penalty that really didn’t have a lot of contact to it. I could have seen it being ruled accidental pass interference but instead, it went down as a 26-yard penalty that set Winnipeg up first-and-goal from the one-yard line. The Blue Bombers scored a touchdown two plays later.
Best on best
In 2024, the Argos seem to be at their best against the best competition. With Friday’s win, the Argonauts have a 9-7 record, but they’re 7-3 against playoff teams and 2-4 against non-playoff teams. They’re 5-1 against the West Division’s playoff representatives, including 2-0 against both Winnipeg and B.C., and they’ve also got two wins against the league-leading Montreal Alouettes.
For the record
Ka’Deem Carey’s 39 rushing yards put him over 1,000 yards on the season. With four more rushing yards, Carey will move into 10th all-time for rushing yards in a season by an Argo.
Janarion Grant’s 200-plus return yards put him over 2,000 all-purpose yards on the season. While this is an outstanding achievement, he’s still almost 2,000 yards short of setting an Argos record. Both Pinball Clemons and Chad Owens logged over 3,000 yards on multiple occasions with Owens holding the team record at 3,863 total yards.
Lirim Hajrullahu’s two field goals put him up to 51 on the season, all alone in second place and just four field goals short of Lance Chomyc’s team record of 55. Hajrullahu’s 92.7 completion percentage would be second-best in team history behind only Boris Bede, who hit 94.9 percent of his field goals last season.
Nemesis
Is it possible the Argonauts are now the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ nemesis? I know the Roughriders are and have been the Bombers’ rivals, and that’s not changing any time soon, but perhaps no one has given Winnipeg more trouble in recent years than Toronto.
The Argos are 2-0 this season against Winnipeg, winning with both Nick Arbuckle and Chad Kelly, with the Bombers sandwiching an eight-game win streak in between those losses to Toronto. And while Winnipeg has thoroughly dominated the Argos at home, not having lost there since 2015 before Friday, Winnipeg has only managed to beat Toronto once since 2018 outside Manitoba, which, of course, includes a Grey Cup loss to the Argos in 2022.
Next up
The Toronto Argonauts (9-7) close out their regular season home schedule next week at BMO Field against the Ottawa Redblacks (8-6-1) at 3:00 p.m. EDT. This game was originally scheduled to kick off at 4:00 p.m. EDT, so fans going to the game are reminded to update their calendars.
