Toronto Argonauts’ head coach Ryan Dinwiddie is taking a hard line with his football team following their 39-32 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday night.
“I’ve never really got after those guys, this is the first time I’ve had to after a game. Pretty embarrassed by it. I thought it was selfish play, selfish penalties,” Dinwiddie told the media in an impassioned post-game rant. “I told those guys, ‘Someone’s going home tomorrow.’ Heads are rolling. I ain’t putting up with that stuff no more.”
“I think that might open up some eyes. We gotta come and do the work. These guys are getting paid, this is their job. They need to come here with some purpose. It’s coaches as well. It’s not a good atmosphere right now. We’ll get it fixed — we’re men and we’re pros, we get paid to do this — but I’m not happy right now.”
The Argos fell behind 24-10 early in the third quarter before staging a furious late-game comeback. Backup quarterback Nick Arbuckle found receiver Kevin Mital for an eight-yard touchdown in the final minute, then connected with Dejon Brissett on the two-point convert to tie the game at 32 with 23 seconds remaining.
That wouldn’t matter, as Toronto came out a man short on the ensuing kickoff and allowed Saskatchewan’s Mario Alford to race 99 yards for the winning score.
“We didn’t stay in our lanes. They had a blatant block in the back that they missed — I couldn’t challenge that. We had 11 guys on the field too, and we had a chance to huddle up and get everything squared away,” Dinwiddie said. “Special teams, I thought, was pretty bad for the third week in a row. We’ve got to get that fixed.”
Alford’s highlight reel major brought an end to a chaotic contest marred by penalties, with much of the rough play kicked off by an illegal cut block against Toronto defensive back Kenneth George Jr. that forced him to be carted off the field. Saskatchewan led the way with 18 infractions for 178 yards, but the Argos weren’t far behind with 11 penalties of their own for 129 yards.
“We had more penalty yards than our freaking offence, all right? And they all were selfish ones,” Dinwiddie insisted.
“They were chirping all game — fine. We talk with our pads. We got involved in the chirping game, and it cost us. We had selfish penalties, that’s the one thing I hate. Ain’t about you, it’s about the team, and we ain’t even close to being there. We don’t know how to not lose games. It’s not about winning games, not losing games.”
While the flags hurt, the Argos were guilty of several other unforced errors. The team was stopped at the one-yard line on consecutive plays late in the second quarter, which resulted in a turnover on downs and a 56-yard Saskatchewan field goal before the intermission.
Dinwiddie appeared to attribute the stops to the play of the team’s offensive line, which also surrendered four sacks. In particular, he had some choice words for one of the team’s guards, though it is unclear if he was referring to Ryan Hunter or Anthony Vandal.
“I thought we got beat up front,” he said. “We’ve got one of our guards who’s 280 pounds. I don’t know what he did all offseason.”
“We had one six-yard hitch where we didn’t even have time to throw that. Week 1 and Week 3, I thought our o-line got physically beaten. … We have a veteran o-line, it doesn’t look like it right now.”
The two-time Grey Cup-winning head coach also held his defence to account for their performance, calling out the big plays surrendered. Toronto allowed one run of over 20 yards, which resulted in an A.J. Ouellette touchdown, and three passes of over 30 yards, including a 70-yard catch-and-run touchdown from Dohnte Meyers.
“The offence battled. The defence, every time we got a score, got in the game, we’d give up an 80-yard touchdown drive. We’re not playing collectively,” Dinwiddie said.
“It was the whole game. As soon as we’d get a drive together, we’re not playing all together. The defence has got to step up too. It wasn’t anything crazy that they were doing, they didn’t have it schemed up. They’re just playing pitch and catch.”
The loss dropped the Argonauts to 0-3 on the season — the team’s worst start since Dinwiddie took the job in 2020. Dinwiddie isn’t ready to panic but indicated that what he’s preaching in practice isn’t showing up on the field.
“We carded this stuff. We went through these looks exactly how they do it, and then it doesn’t translate on game day,” he said. Well, sometimes guys might have to lose their jobs. The selfishness — I’d rather play with less talent and guys who want to take care of each other.”
“I think the guys that we’ve got know the potential is there, but potential don’t mean squat. We’ve got to go out there and prove it. We’ve got to come together as a team. Last year is gone, we’ve got a lot of new faces. Doesn’t matter, no excuses. We had injuries. No excuses. We’ve got to find a way to win that game. That game was winnable, and we gifted them too many yards.”
Toronto will attempt to get back to their winning ways when they return to action on Sunday, June 29 against the Ottawa Redblacks — hopefully with franchise quarterback Chad Kelly back under centre.
