The Toronto Argonauts are no longer undefeated, losing their first game of the season to the Calgary Stampeders 20-7 on Friday night. The Argos also lost their starting quarterback, their leading tackler, and their best run-stopper.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
The ankle beat
Chad Kelly’s ankle injury doesn’t seem like one that will keep him out for an extended period of time. Even so, I imagine I’ll be on the “ankle beat” for most of this week.
The injury occurred early in the second quarter. Left tackle Trevon Tate and left guard Ryan Hunter got their signals crossed on a stunt where Calgary’s Julian Howsare looped from the opposite side and got a free run at Kelly. Howsare appeared to land on and then roll off Kelly’s foot, which probably twisted the ankle awkwardly.
In terms of severity, I think it’s important to note that Kelly stayed in through the end of that series. He also remained on the sideline with his helmet on for the remainder of the game. This is projecting on my part, but knowing Kelly and Dinwiddie as I do, my guess is that Chad wanted to go back in. Dinwiddie, meanwhile, correctly understands Kelly’s importance to Toronto’s season and didn’t believe this non-divisional game was worth risking his quarterback’s long-term status. Had this been a playoff game, I believe Kelly would have stayed in the game.
QB2
At the time of his injury, Kelly had been playing well, completing four of six passes for 94 yards and a touchdown. There was a significant drop-off in offensive productivity once he left.
Not only were the Argos unable to score a single point, they never even got into the red zone. The closest they came was on Cam Dukes’ first series, a nine-play, 46-yard drive that ended in an endzone interception by Jonathan Moxey from 24 yards out. Over the rest of the game, Dukes completed only six-of-12 passes for 52 yards.
When sorrows come, they come not in single spies, but in battalions
Overshadowed by Chad Kelly’s injury was the injury to Adarius Pickett three plays earlier. He suffered a non-contact injury to his left leg as he turned to accelerate into a disguised blitz from the slot.
In our pre-game show on the Argos’ radio broadcast, I chose Pickett as Toronto’s most outstanding defensive player to this point in the season, not only for his contributions as the team’s leading tackler but because he’s the most difficult player to replace. As deep as Toronto’s roster is, they don’t have another Adarius Pickett on the bench, so there was a significant drop-off when he went down. The Argos moved safety Royce Metchie to Pickett’s strong-side linebacker spot, and brought Josh Hagerty in at safety.
To play, or not to play
After the game, head coach Ryan Dinwiddie didn’t seem too concerned about the availability of his stars going forward.
“I think Chad and [Adarius Pickett] could be back next week. We’ve got a nine-day week, so attack the rehab there. We’ve got to be smart too, we’ve got a bye week after that, so maybe it’s time to let them get two weeks to get healthy, get Cam [Dukes] coached up and give him an opportunity to be successful next week.”
Dinwiddie has been very conservative this year in terms of bringing players back from injury, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see both Kelly and Pickett sit out next week, even if they’re able to return to practice.
All About SAM
If Pickett doesn’t play against Ottawa next week, I don’t know exactly how the Argos will adjust defensively, but I suspect their solution will involve moving Qwan’tez Stiggers from his corner position.
All-star corner Jamal Peters didn’t dress this week, but he’ll almost certainly be back on the field, allowing defensive coordinator Corey Mace to move Stiggers to halfback and Robertson Daniel to strong-side linebacker, where he’s played before. Alternatively, Stiggers has the skill set to move directly into Pickett’s role if the coaching staff feels he’s ready for this challenging assignment.
Unto the breach
Toronto’s defence has been notoriously difficult to run on, but the Stampeders carried the ball 36 times for 168 yards, though their 4.7 yards-per-carry was the exact same as Toronto’s.
The Argos dressed eight defensive linemen for only the second time this season but suffered a huge setback when their best run-stopper, Jared Brinkman, went down after stuffing a quarterback sneak.
Ryan Dinwiddie didn’t go into detail on the injury, saying only, “I think Brinks is going to be out for a bit.” Brinkman watched the remainder of the game on crutches from the sideline.
From hero…
On the last play of the first half, Cody Grace’s punt hit Javon Leake in the shoulder and bounced into the endzone where it was recovered by Calgary for a touchdown. Fighting a difficult wind, Leake seemed to take his eyes off the ball at the last second to peek at the coverage, which led to the fumble. It was an uncharacteristic mistake for Leake who has been a special teams hero for the Argonauts this season with two touchdowns, including one last week.
Lonely at the top
For most of this season, Toronto has looked like the league’s best team, but there is no denying they looked flat on Friday night, even before Chad Kelly’s injury. Dinwiddie said his team was “sleepwalking a little bit.”
“I think we got outplayed and outcoached today… I told those guys that were reading the press clippings, expect to be ranked third next week in the rankings, which I can’t wait, I hate being up at the top. I think when we’re the underdog we play better.”
The Argos still have the league’s best record, but there’s often a recency bias in ranking teams, so I expect Winnipeg to take over the top spot.
Flag frustration
Seven penalties for 60 yards may not sound disastrous, but they were undisciplined, including a late hit from Dewayne Hendrix that led to Calgary points, and three on offensive plays that were blown dead for early movement.
Dinwiddie was clearly frustrated with his receivers, saying, “We had two receivers offside. These guys have been in the system long enough, they know the terminology, it’s just embarrassing. The receivers were awful.”
Death by a thousand cuts
The “bend but don’t break” defensive philosophy employed by the Argonauts over the past few seasons relies on teams being unable or unwilling to work the ball slowly down the field. Their secondary sits back patiently waiting for the offensive coordinator or quarterback to become frustrated. That didn’t happen in Calgary.
Jake Maier took what Toronto gave him all night, completing 22-of-24 passes for 149 yards. While you don’t want quarterbacks completing 92 percent of their passes, I don’t see this as an issue going forward. Calgary’s offence only managed to score 13 points.
A Rose by any other name
Toronto’s offensive line gave up three sacks after only surrendering seven through their first six games. Centre Darius Ciraco didn’t play for non-injury-related reasons, prompting Gregor Mackellar to come in at right guard so Peter Nicastro could fill in for Ciraco. Mackellar didn’t play badly, but he did commit a penalty that killed a drive and struggled to handle Mike Rose one-on-one. He wasn’t the only one.
Trevon Tate didn’t look himself all night and also struggled to keep Rose out of the backfield. Rose is one of the best defensive linemen in the league, but Toronto’s line is too good to allow one player to impact the game the way he did.
Down wit’ YYC
McMahon Stadium has been a nightmare for Toronto over the past two seasons. Last year, their Grey Cup-winning team only managed to score two points in Calgary, a game in which Wynton McManis was injured, ending his potential run to be named the league’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player.
An apple, cleft in two
Since Ryan Dinwiddie’s arrival in Toronto, it’s been well-documented that the Argos have signed a large number of former Calgary players and coaches. There were even jokes about the Argos signing Calgary’s horse, Quick Six.
Last night, however, the Stampeders did have a number of names on their roster Toronto fans are familiar with, including Micah Awe, Cam Judge, Jamal Campbell, Sean McEwen, Max Latour, and Toshiki Sato. Obviously, there’s no revenge agenda for Calgary, but in a nine-team league with short team-friendly contracts, this sort of thing happens.
Up Next
The Toronto Argonauts (6-1) return home to BMO Field for the first time in 41 days as they look to get things back on track against the Ottawa Redblacks (3-4) on Sunday night at 7:00 p.m. EDT. Regardless of how the rest of this week’s games turn out, Toronto will have a four-point lead over the second-place team in the East division.
Ben Grant has been the radio colour analyst for the Toronto Argonauts since 2023 on TSN 1050 (Toronto). He coached high school football at Lorne Park Secondary School 2003-2018 and semi-pro football for the Northern Football Conference's GTA All-Stars 2018-2023.
