Messy, spectacular win sends Toronto Argonauts into Grey Cup game — and, maybe, onto path to relevance
About two hours before kickoff in Toronto, there was evidence of the thing people in the Argonauts’ offices keep saying is coming
Scott Stinson The National Post November 19, 2017
TORONTO — At 11 a.m. on Sunday, about two hours before kickoff in the CFL East final, there was evidence of the thing that people in the Toronto Argonauts’ offices keep saying is coming: relevance.
The tailgate area outside BMO Field was full, or at least approaching fullness. It was windy and chilly so close to the shore of Lake Ontario, but hundreds of fans hunkered down in chairs in front of barbecues, or kept themselves warm by playing cornhole. Or did the more obvious warming trick of filling themselves with alcohol.
Still others milled around in front of the live band, an outfit called Dwayne Gretzky that covered rock standards. There was a distinct waft in the air of substances that are not yet legal in Canada but will be next summer. People waved flags and tossed footballs and mugged for TV cameras. A group of men argued about the merits of turkey bacon, which, I mean, really: there are no merits.
Bacon discussion aside, on the whole it was a small picture of the promise that had been mostly unfulfilled for two full seasons, since the Argos’ new owners arranged to move them to BMO Field, an intimate setting that was supposed to be a far superior place to watch a football game and would therefore draw far superior crowds.
Sunday was the first real evidence that such a thing might happen. There was the busy tailgate, with happy people wearing Doug Flutie jerseys and Pinball Clemons jerseys, plus a Santa Claus in a James Wilder, Jr., jersey. (Santa likes his jerseys to be topical, apparently.) There was the trailer selling Argos merchandise, and a table where the guys who make Mike Babcock-branded socks were selling theirs. They even had Babsocks in Rider green.
The Maple Leafs coach was here for the game himself, proudly supporting the visitors, which is the kind of thing you can do when your team is on a hot streak and also when you are in the middle of an eight-year contract that pays you like an elite winger. And in more Leafs news, Mitch Marner was in house, again, and this time he brought Auston Matthews with him.
Some challenges clearly remain. By the time the game was underway, the stands were mostly full, which is most unusual for the Argos at BMO Field, although there were still visible swaths of empty seats. There were also large chunks of fans wearing Roughrider colours, testament to the benefit that the Argos enjoyed by having an East final opponent with the most passionate fan diaspora in the CFL. It was still a convincingly Argo crowd, but there’s little doubt the announced attendance of 24,929 — a record for the team in this stadium — would have been smaller without Saskatchewan participating in the affair.
Assuming that some of those fans had not attended a CFL game in person before, they might have found themselves wondering if the rules were even more different than they were led to believe. Like, is the idea to give the ball to the other team? There were six turnovers in the first half alone, with each team committing three of them. The Argonauts started the game turning the ball over on downs, then going two-and-out, and then losing a fumble. It was perhaps not the best way to woo a new legion of fans.
Despite the offensive offence from the Argos, the Roughriders managed to out-incompetence them early. Quarterback Kevin Glenn was 6-for-13 for 87 yards and three interceptions in the first half, with two of those picks bookending a relief appearance by Brandon Bridge, who was ineffective himself — until the second half.
Bridge, normally the Riders’ third-stringer (HUH? - elly), ended up being the almost-saviour on the day, with 141 yards passing, most of them after halftime, and a 35-yard scramble that started the Saskatchewan comeback. The Riders scored on that drive, and then scored again quickly on a Christion Jones punt return, and then it was over to Ricky Ray and the Argos to bail themselves out on a day in which they had led most of the way despite their many mistakes.
Ray did just that, hitting Wilder for a third-and-five conversion that saved Toronto’s season, and which set up an eventual touchdown dive from short-yardage QB Cody Fajardo.
By the time the fireworks went off to celebrate that score, the crowd had noticeably thinned out, an indication that some of the attendees were not yet totally sold on the idea of CFL football. Diehards know no lead is safe.
But, it was a start, and the fans were treated to a game that was the CFL at its spectacular, messy best: a 25-21 Toronto win that was full of turnovers, and the late Roughrider rally and the even later Argo rally for the win. Nineteen games into their new digs, and it felt like the Argonauts had finally found something on which they can build.
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