On Thursday night, the Toronto Argonauts snapped their two-game losing streak, handing the Montreal Alouettes their first loss of the season in a 37-18 decision at Percival Molson Stadium.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Ball security
The Argos opened the season with back-to-back wins in which quarterback Cam Dukes completed 81 percent of his passes and threw five touchdown passes with no interceptions. In the two losses that followed, Dukes threw no touchdowns and five interceptions while completing only 63 percent of his passes.
It seemed heading into this game that if Dukes avoided throwing to the Alouettes and was accurate with the football, the Argos had a great chance to win. He followed through, as Dukes completed 80 percent of his passes and threw a touchdown without giving away an interception.
After the game, head coach Ryan Dinwiddie suggested there were opportunities Dukes shied away from.
“There were few throws where I wished he would have pulled the trigger. Maybe we talked him into being a little gun-shy after last week. We’ve still got to be aggressive, make the right throws.”
Spare the horses
The Argos came into this contest leading the league in rushing with 123.8 yards per game on the ground and they added to it with 183 rushing yards in this one.
Ka’Deem Carey still saw the majority of the action with 16 carries for 94 yards, but I felt Dinwiddie did a better job of spelling his lead back, with 10 combined carries from Dan Adeboboye and Deonta McMahon. Carey currently leads the league with 363 yards, 52 more than the next closest back, William Stanback, through the same number of games.
Rushing roulette
I was impressed with the way the offensive coach used his three backs, especially knowing Montreal would be looking for tendencies from these three very different running styles.
Carey is a multi-purpose back, Adeboboye is a pounder, and McMahon is a scatback, but Dinwiddie kept Montreal off-balance. Carey ran a few times when the Argos motioned from high-percentage run formations into five-wide sets, Adeboboye was used around the edge, and McMahon’s rushing touchdown came on a power run up the middle from five yards out.
Damonte does it again
Some players play well against certain teams while others play well in certain stadiums. Damonte Coxie loves playing at Percival Molson Stadium. He now has a touchdown reception in each of his three games in Montreal.
His two last season came at crucial moments in close wins, including a diving one-hander that was voted the best play in the CFL in 2023 by TSN. Thursday’s touchdown wasn’t as dramatic or impressive. In fact, it was Coxie’s only catch of the night, but a three-game touchdown streak in a tough place to play against the Grey Cup Champions is worth mentioning.
The plan
The sample size wasn’t huge, but the Argonauts appeared to have a solid game plan for Cody Fajardo.
Before coming out due to injury in the second quarter, Fajardo’s Alouettes had put up only a single point. Toronto’s defensive backs were doing a good job jumping on his receivers’ short routes while also generating a lot of pressure up front.
Fajardo is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and clearly better than his backup Caleb Evans, though Toronto initially struggled a bit to adjust to a quarterback with a vastly different style given their Fajardo-centered game plan. Evans threw for two touchdowns in the second quarter before Toronto was able to make adjustments at the half and shut down his production.
DL on IR
In their first full game without all-star defensive linemen Flo Orimolade and Jake Ceresna, the Argos defensive line played remarkably well. They were only credited with two quarterback sacks after a third was nullified due to an obvious facemask but they were swarming around the Montreal quarterbacks all night, registering hits and hurries and knocking down passes. The ability to generate pressure without sending all-out blitzes allowed the Argos to appropriately staff the backend and prevent big plays downfield.
Winning with Wynton
Wynton McManis finished the game in a tie for the team lead with four tackles but it was his timely interception for a touchdown that made the biggest difference in the game. This was McManis’ fourth pick-six in the last three years, each coming at a crucial moment on a high-IQ play in a winning effort.
On this most recent pick, he started out on the defensive right and appeared to have drawn running back Walter Fletcher in coverage. As Fletcher began to leak out of the backfield, McManis recognized it was a screen and flew through a gap in the line to beat Fletcher to the ball. He strolled easily into the end zone for the major from nine yards out.
Special specials
Return specialist Janarion Grant has been a special addition to the Argos’ special teams units this season. He came close to breaking a number of long returns over the course of the first three games before finally taking a punt return to the house last week against Saskatchewan. On Thursday night against the Alouettes, he was virtually unstoppable.
Grant registered his first kickoff return touchdown of the season, a 103-yard gallop up the middle, with just 36 seconds remaining in the first half. He averaged 72.5 yards per kick return but was deadly returning punts as well, averaging 19.4 yards per return on five attempts.
We’re going streaking!
Going back to the East Final in 2022, the matchups between these two teams have reflected the balance of power in the East Division. Toronto took that game at BMO Field and went on to win the Grey Cup that year. They’d win all three regular-season matchups in 2023 en route to a record-setting 16-2 regular season, the last of which would be the last time Montreal lost to anyone for 13 straight games.
Montreal defeated Toronto in the 2023 East Final, which the Alouettes parlayed into a Grey Cup win of their own. Montreal’s winning streak against Toronto continued this preseason and two weeks ago at BMO Field where the first-place Alouettes handed the Argos another loss. With Toronto winning this game in Montreal, ending the Alouettes’ streak, one wonders if this will signify another shift in power at the top of the East Division.
One, two, but not three
Toronto’s win on Thursday night kept Ryan Dinwiddie’s streak of never having lost three straight games alive. He didn’t even have a two-game losing streak last season, he had two in 2022 and one in his rookie season as a head coach in 2021. His teams have finished first in the East Division in each of his first three seasons, a possibility that still remains with the Argos now having closed the gap to four points instead of what could have been eight.
Next Up
The Toronto Argonauts (3-2) travel to Tim Horton’s Field next Saturday to take on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (0-5) where they’ll look to knock their rivals further out of contention.
Welcoming them to Hamilton will be a number of former Argonauts including Jamal Peters, DeWayne Hendrix, Brandon Barlow, Benoit Marion, Deionte Knight, and Trevor Hoyte. The Tiger-Cats are currently enjoying their first bye week of the season.
[metabet_core_side_odds_tile query=”fbb/toronto_argonauts” size=”100%x250″ site_id=”3downnation”]
