Argos drop critical game against Alouettes Steve Slaton #20 of the Toronto Argonauts carries the ball during a CFL game against the Montreal Alouettes at Percival Molson Stadium on November 2, 2014 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images/AFP) LATEST NEWSArgos, Alouettes get set to square off in huge gameArgos must maintain discipline in MontrealArgos kicker ready to embrace Montreals winds More Sharing ServicesShare FRANK ZICARELLI, QMI AGENCYNov 2, 2014 , Last Updated: 3:23 PM ET The Argos now need help, requiring a win next Friday against the woeful Ottawa RedBlacks and a win by the Montreal Alouettes the following day in Hamilton to qualify for the post-season. The way their offence played in the second half Sunday afternoon against the Als, even if all the stars get aligned, the Argos’ post-season chances of a deep run appear to slim. If they do make the playoffs, they’ll be at home in a cross-over with the West. A win will mean the Argos will return to Montreal, where the Als simply look better than the Argos, Montreal’s defence too dominant. If Montreal had an offence to match its defence, this team would be playing for a Grey Cup. The Als still might be in Vancouver in late November, but their offence simply isn’t good enough. Shockingly, the Argos’ offence is even worse, at least when they have to play the Als, who have qualified for the playoffs following their 17-14 win. A win in Hamilton next Saturday afternoon and the Als, who have now won six in a row, claim first. A win by the Ticats by eight points or more and it’s Hamilton finishing atop the East with the Als in second and the Argos on the outside. As bad as the Argos played offensively, producing one field goal in the second half, Ottawa’s offence is borderline offensive. The Argos should win next Friday night, but the Ticats are unbeaten at Tim Hortons Field. Late Sunday afternoon, Argos quarterback Ricky Ray was injured, replaced by Trevor Harris, whose second-down throw hit the ground for an incompletion. With the Argos incapable of doing anything, they should have resorted to trick plays, but the offensive philosophy has been too conservative this season. When the line of scrimmage can’t be controlled and no receiver is capable of breaking free from coverage, nothing gets produced. Defensively, the unit gave its team a chance, but the Argos needed to score a touchdown and be completely clean in the back end. And neither would play out. The Argos caught a break late by recovering a short kick into the wind, Toronto scrimmaging from its own 51-yard line with Harris at the helm. But the Als gained possession following a Toronto turnover on downs, the Argos’ first of the game, running the ball for a first down and getting into field goal range by controlling the line of scrimmage. Fittingly, the Als used the ground game to run the clock out. The Argos had their chances to create separation, but the offence lacked that killer instinct, unable to finish off drives with touchdowns, incapable of capitalizing when the Als made some curious decisions. In the third quarter, Montreal ran a fake punt, stopped short that would provide the Argos with ideal field position. But when an offence can’t generate rushing yards by controlling the line of scrimmage and when a defence drops into a coverage that forces a lot of short underneath throws, field goals are produced. Toronto needed touchdowns, especially with the benefit of the wind. Toronto’s defence needed to make a stop on second down, but it couldn’t wrap up Tyrell Sutton as the Als would use the breakdown to run out the clock as the third quarter expired. In two quarters with the wind, the Argos offence produced zero touchdowns and two field goals. After three quarters, the Argos led 14-7, but the Als had the wind in the game’s final 15 minutes and momentum. The Als would settle for a field goal, the Argos then electing to have Montreal kick the football off. A nice return by LaVon Brazill would get called back. A nice gain by the Argos on their first play would get called back, two penalties in a row that forced a second and long from the 30, but a big reception would move the chains as Ray and Spencer Watt hooked up. Not exactly a clinical way to chew up the clock, the Argos would lose more yards when Steve Slaton did his best Marcus Allen impersonation, only to lose 10 yards. On Montreal’s ensuing possession, two big downfield throws would lead to the Als taking a 17-10 lead. More importantly, the Argos defence was in complete scramble mode, hit hard by the injury bug as Shane Herbert was forced to play free safety, Jermaine Gabriel moving to halfback, Jamie Robinson to linebacker. The Argos offence was under siege, unable to do anything except forced to punt the ball away following a quick two and out. Toronto had a complete breakdown in coverage, but the Als failed to pounce on the error on what should have been a touchdown play. The Als won the coin toss, electing to defer on an afternoon when wind was a factor. With the Argos scrimmaging with the wind, they would record a first down on their first series, running an offence that allowed Ray to get the ball out of his hands quickly. John Chiles was used on one play that had the receiver go across formation, hauling in a pass in the flat he would use to generate yards. There was no attempt to go down field and eventually the Als placed more defenders in the box, forcing a lot of underneath throws that would produce very little yards, too many two and outs. A big play did get manufactured with the wind when Ray and Chiles hooked up on a 39-yard pass alongside the Als bench, Chiles going up in the air to make a play on the ball. A very dubious play call to Slaton in the flat would lead to second and long. On second down, Ray was forced to move up in the pocket, attempting to use his legs, but he couldn’t move the chains. Swayze Waters was then summoned to kick a routine 22-yard field goal. The opening 15 minutes, one dominated by defence, ended with the Argos leading by three points. The Als need to run the ball to set up play action and Sutton’s downhill style is very effective when defenders are out of their gap, unstoppable when bad pursuit angles are made and capable of scoring a major when a free safety moves up to the line of scrimmage and is no position to make a play. It all played out for the Als, Sutton scoring the game’s first touchdown as Montreal pounded the ball, the Argos unable to match their intensity. Overall, though, the Argos were playing the near-perfect road game, penalties kept to a minimum and no turnovers that would compromise field position. A key moment almost arrived in the second quarter when the Als ran a trick play, Duron Carter heaving the ball down field as the Argos got caught looking into the backfield. The pass would fall to the turf, the Argos catching a break. The Argos would catch another break when the Als didn’t gamble on third on short, electing to punt the football. The half would end with the Argos moving the ball smartly and efficiently, their series capped off by a Mitchell Gale to Mike Bradwell touchdown with 10 seconds left. Gale scored his first-career major last week against the Ticats on a one-yard plunge. His one-yard toss to Bradwell was Gale’s first-career touchdown toss. At the break, the Argos led 11-7, but it should have been more had a couple of more plays been produced in all three phases. When the teams met two weeks ago in Toronto, the Als defence did not surrender a single touchdown to the Argos, holding Toronto to four field goals in a 20-12 win. INJURY BUG HITS HARD One by one they began to drop, the Argos once again forced to deal with the injury bug in the season’s biggest game. First, running back Curtis Steele, who suffered rib damage to the Montreal Alouettes two weeks ago, would suffer a concussion on the game’s opening play. Then, defensive back Vincent Agnew would incur an Achilles injury. Marcus Thomas would soon follow, Toronto’s hard-luck defensive tackle forced to leave the game and then forced to watch the game along the sideline with a boot strapped to his leg. Three players injured in the game’s first half on an afternoon with so much at stake. It became four players, all on defence, when defensive back Matt Ware, was injured in the fourth quarter following a long reception to S.J. Green, the Argos inserting Shane Herbert. The Als took advantage by scoring a touchdown. Ware returned on Montreal’s ensuing possession with 7:30 remaining. With Steele unavailable last week against visiting Hamilton, the Argos had Steve Slaton as the featured tailback, running and catching, picking up blitzes in an attempt to keep Ricky Ray clean. With no Steele, the Argos lacked depth at tailback, not to mention his absence on special teams, a unit that ushered in the CFL debut of Cory Greenwood, who played his university football at Concordia. With Agnew out, the Argos turned to Orhian Johnson to man down the corner position. Johnson is long and athletic, but he’s best used at linebacker. Thomas recently came back from a torn biceps and his presence along the line of scrimmage was viewed as a welcome addition, especially against an Als team that runs the ball. Without Thomas, the Argos couldn’t rotate as many players along the defensive line. As expected, the Argos de-activated Jonathan Hood, the obvious casualty in the wake of Greenwood being activated. Not surprisingly, Jarriel King was also de-activated for Sunday’s matinee, another obvious move as the Argos needed to load up on defence with Americans. It was the right move and proved even more prudent in the wake of injuries to Agnew and Thomas. There’s been so much out of the Argos’ control this season, but the biggest, by far, has been the rash of injuries, especially to the team’s Canadian talent. [email protected]
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 21:58:33 +0000
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