The Toronto Argonauts’ winning streak continues as they handled the Tiger-Cats 31-15 at Tim Horton’s Field on Friday night in front of a near-sellout crowd.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Time machine
The last time the Toronto Argonauts were 5-0 was 1960. The CFL was officially entering its third season, rosters were capped at 34 players, the Argos hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers in an exhibition game, and Calgary’s brand-new McMahon Stadium made them the envy of the league. The Argos finished that season 10-4 and lost in a two-game aggregate Eastern Final to the Ottawa Rough Riders, who went on to beat Edmonton in the Grey Cup.
Not everything has changed, however. As with this current group, the 1960 Argos were an offensive force. Quarterback Tobin Rote aired it out for a league-leading 4,247 yards and 38 touchdowns, and the two-back tandem of Dick Shatto and Cookie Gilchrist was a deadly combination on the ground. Rote was inducted into the Green Bay Packers’ Hall of Fame, Gilchrist into the Buffalo Bills’ Wall of Fame, and Shatto into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
We want the ball and we’re gonna score
After winning the coin toss, Toronto uncharacteristically elected to take the ball, an option teams rarely choose these days. It’s far more common to defer the selection to the second half, hoping to score at the end of the first, and “double dip” by scoring to start the second half as well.
Ryan Dinwiddie clearly felt confident his team could generate points on their opening drive and put immediate pressure on Hamilton’s rookie quarterback, Taylor Powell. Dinwiddie’s gambit paid off as Chad Kelly quickly engineered a touchdown drive, and Powell would never be able to bring the Tiger-Cats any closer than that.
MOP talk
It’s still very early in the season, but there was a lot of chatter this week about Chad Kelly being considered the current favourite to win the league’s Most Outstanding Player award. His performance against Hamilton wouldn’t have dissuaded any of his supporters.
By the end of the first half, Kelly had thrown for 248 yards and two touchdowns. The play-calling was considerably more conservative in the second half, but Kelly added a touchdown run to his stat sheet. His only mistake in this game was an ill-advised throw off his back foot across the field to avoid a sack. It was very nearly intercepted for what would have been a pick-six, but Kurleigh Gittens Jr. did well to knock it down.
Depth Charge
This week the Argos found themselves without the services of three regulars on the defensive line. Benoit Marion, Thomas Costigan, and Shawn Oakman all played last week against Montreal but were unable to dress for this game. Marion was placed on the six-game injured list with a thigh issue, Costigan on the one-game list with a bad ankle, and Oakman’s absence was non-injury related. Brandon Barlow and run-stopping machine Jared Brinkman filled in and performed beautifully.
Brinkman, who has twice been a healthy scratch, was an unstoppable run-defender. On one particular play, he simply threw away Hamilton centre David Beard and wrapped up James Butler for a loss.
For reasons that seem to be ratio-related, Toronto has been unable to dress their three American studs on the defensive interior in Oakman, Brinkman, and Dewayne Hendrix. The coaching staff needs to find a way to dress all three players.
Running away with it
Toronto already has 12 rushing touchdowns in 2023, a year after logging only nine all season. They are currently on pace to score 43 rushing touchdowns, which would shatter their club record of 26 set back in 1996. AJ Ouellette continues to lead the charge on the ground for the Argos, logging 84 yards on 10 carries in this contest. Toronto has rushed for over 100 yards in each of their five games this season.
Green Zone
So far this season, the Argonauts have ventured inside their opponent’s 20-yard line on 20 occasions. They’ve come away with touchdowns on 15 of them. A 75-percent touchdown conversion rate inside the red zone is an astonishingly high number. Toronto scored majors on three of their four red zone trips in this game.
Tip Drill
The Toronto defence tipped two passes, both of which turned out to be huge plays. With Toronto up 14-0, Royce Metchie tipped a pass that went right to Jamal Peters for the interception. Peters returned the ball all the way for a touchdown, but it was called back due to a borderline block in the back penalty on Wynton McManis. The Argos would cash in a touchdown through the air two plays later to go out in front 20-0.
The second tip was one that saved a touchdown. Trailing 23-6, facing a second-and-goal from the Toronto 17-yard line, Taylor Powell lobbed one up for Duke Williams down the sideline. The Argos were in cover two, but the flats defender to that side, Qwan’tez Stiggers, realized his safety help overtop wouldn’t arrive in time to break up the pass. As the ball was making its way into the waiting arms of Williams, Stiggers turned on the jets and timed his jump perfectly to knock the ball away at the last second with the tips of his fingers, forcing Hamilton to instead settle for a field goal.
The Butler did not do it
If Corey Mace’s defensive game plan was to take away Hamilton’s running back and most dangerous receiver, it worked. James Butler carried the ball eight times for 14 yards, and Tim White didn’t have a single catch. Mace clearly wanted to take these two players away and force Powell, a first-time starter, to win the game on his own.
It was an uncharacteristically “vanilla” game from Mace. He rarely sent pressure and stayed primarily in cover four, electing out-skill the Tiger-Cats without putting much on film for Saskatchewan next week.
Chez Dinwiddie
When the Argonauts play in Hamilton, the team generally buses in on the day of the game, with some players electing to drive in on their own. Tim Horton’s Field is only 67 kilometres from BMO Field and many Argos players live between the two stadiums.
For this game, however, Ryan Dinwiddie had his team stay in a hotel the night before, as they do for all other road games. This allowed the players to stick to their routine and helped convey the seriousness with which Dinwiddie wanted them to approach this game, third-string quarterback or not.
A taste of their own medicine
Toronto’s special teams units were embarrassed a bit in this game. They didn’t give up a touchdown, but they had two of their own trick plays used against them, and more successfully, I might add.
Last week in Montreal, the Argos ran an onside punt, which they failed to recover, and two fake reverses on returns, neither of which generated big gains. On Friday night, Hamilton successfully recovered an onside punt against the Argos on a play that was a mirror image of what Toronto ran last week.
They also executed a fake reverse on a kickoff return that Tyreik McAllister returned for 71 yards, a far greater number than the Argos were able to generate with their own fake reverse against the Alouettes.
Big special teams plays like this are somewhat concerning for Toronto, who will be going up against Mario Alford next week in Halifax.
Up next
The Toronto Argonauts (5-0) technically have a home game next week but for the second year in a row, this one is being played in Nova Scotia against the Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-2) as part of the CFL’s Touchdown Atlantic festivities. This year, the teams will battle it out at an expanded Huskies Stadium on the Saint Mary’s University campus.
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.
