The Toronto Argonauts will advance to the East Final following a record-setting 58-38 playoff win over the Ottawa Redblacks at BMO Field on Saturday night. There were sensational throws, acrobatic catches, bone-crunching hits, and brilliant interceptions in a contest that had just about everything a football fan could ask for.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Can you be perfect?
This was Chad Kelly’s best game as a professional football player. In terms of quarterback efficiency, he graded out at 158.3, which is perfect –- the highest possible score.
I think it was natural to wonder what sort of performance we’d see out of Kelly after having what was arguably the worst game of his career in his only other playoff start –- an East Final loss to the Montreal Alouettes last season. Kelly answered the bell, and then some, completing 90 percent of his passes for 358 yards and four touchdowns, adding 29 yards on the ground with a rushing score.
His throws were accurate, he made sound decisions, and he used his legs both to extend the play and to move the chains. What impressed me most, however, was his processing speed. Ottawa had three busts in coverage, and Kelly turned them all into touchdowns. On all three passes, he processed the bust immediately and put the ball on the money.
The hits kept coming
For as well as Kelly played, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him get hit as hard as he did on Saturday. He ran the ball twice but wasn’t technically tackled on either of those plays –- one being a 15-yard touchdown run and the other a slide after a 14-yard gain. On that slide, however, he took a dangerous-looking helmet-to-helmet hit from linebacker Frankie Griffin.
The Redblacks received a 15-yard penalty but Kelly was pulled from the game to be evaluated for a concussion, with the Argos trailing by a field goal. Nick Arbuckle took over for three plays while Kelly was assessed and the team was afforded extra time for this evaluation when Lorenzo Mauldin went down with an injury. Kelly threw a touchdown pass on the first play after he returned to the game.
Kelly also took hellacious hits on two of his three sacks, getting clobbered by Mike Wakefield and absolutely crushed by Mauldin, which caused him to fumble the football. Mauldin was unblocked on that play when there appeared to be a miscommunication between Dejon Allen and Anthony Vandal.
Slow start
I felt strongly that a big key to this game for Toronto was getting off to a quick start. I was wrong. They went down 10-0 and it didn’t seem to matter.
My thinking was that given what happened in the East Final last year, the team might start to get in their own heads, perhaps having flashbacks of that game. I clearly underestimated Toronto’s resilience. The Argos didn’t abandon their game plan. They didn’t panic. They just took what was there with the trust that the points would eventually come, and they did.
Unbalanced
I have never in my life seen a play disparity like we saw at the end of the first half, especially in a tight game. With the halftime score 23-20 in favour of Ottawa, the Redblacks had run 43 offensive plays to Toronto’s 11. Unsurprisingly, the time of possession had Ottawa leading 24:11 to 5:49.
The vet
On Friday, the Argos changed their depth chart to reflect the fact that receiver Damonte Coxie would be unable to play after suffering a knee injury last week in Edmonton. With the team leader in targets sidelined and in street clothes, DaVaris Daniels, the veteran leader of the group needed to step up, and he did.
Statistically, this was a quiet season for DD. He had only two touchdowns all year and his 48 receptions were the second-lowest total of his career, having logged 47 back in 2017 in Calgary — a season in which he only played 13 games. His 12.6 yards per catch was also a career low. Despite all this, Daniels was once again a star on Saturday catching four balls for 88 yards and two touchdowns, at a 22 yards per catch average. His usual savvy route-running was on display but he also flashed some speed, something he was known for when he first came into the league.
The rook
Makai Polk continued his outstanding rookie season on Saturday with four catches for 158 yards and a touchdown. In his last eight games, Polk has 832 yards and five touchdowns.
On that pace, over an 18-game season, Polk would have 1,872 receiving yards with 11 touchdowns — which would obviously lead the CFL. His level of play since Chad Kelly returned from suspension has been astonishingly good. This is the player in whom Toronto’s front office saw so much potential that they released Rasheed Bailey six games into the season –- Toronto’s leading receiver at the time in both receptions and yards.
Herslow’s heart
Saddled with the gargantuan task of replacing Damonte Coxie at the boundary wideout spot was Jake Herslow, who was making his first career CFL start. Herslow was coming off his first career CFL game last week in Edmonton, where he came off the bench to haul in two passes for 55 yards and a touchdown after Coxie went down.
Herslow is a bit of an enigma. Unlike most American CFL players who had great college careers, the last time he was great on the stats sheet was in high school where he earned all-conference honours. In 30 games over three years at Old Dominion, he caught a mere 11 passes. He then walked on at Houston and caught 36 passes in 14 games – unquestionably better, but not necessarily attention-getting. Somehow that led to him signing with the Seattle Seahawks despite not being particularly big or particularly fast. He then moved on to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2023 before an injury derailed that opportunity and he signed in Toronto in the middle of June.
What’s so remarkable about Herslow is that despite not producing at any of his stops, coaches have fought for him — it’s why he continues to get opportunities. Having watched him at practice this year and now in these past two games, I completely understand why. Herslow plays with as much heart as anyone in the league. On Wednesday, I saw him go fully vertical to make a sensational diving catch at practice. I don’t know how much he has but he gives every ounce of it on every snap.
On Saturday, he scored his second touchdown in as many games with four receptions for 47 yards. He also juked cornerback Alijah McGhee out of his shoes and led Ka’Deem Carey through the hole as a lead blocker on a running play. Throw away his college stats and his pro day measurables, there’s always a CFL job for players with heart.
Today’s special
When these two teams met two weeks ago, special teams play was what allowed Ottawa to make a game of what was once a blowout, recovering two onside kicks and forcing two kick return fumbles. In the East Semi-Final, Toronto special teams coordinator Mickey Donovan flipped the script.
Toronto’s special teams units were better in every category outside of punt return average, where Ottawa had a slight edge. Most impressive was Donovan’s kickoff strategy. Not wanting Ottawa’s elite returners, Devonte Dedmon and Khalil Pimpleton, to impact the game, Lirim Hajrullahu skied every kickoff to either the right or left end. In eight kickoff return opportunities, Ottawa’s longest run back was 21 yards and their average return was under 10 yards.
On the last play of the first half, with only six seconds remaining, Ottawa attempted a squib kick to prevent a big return and run out the clock. Instead, the plan backfired. The kickoff ricocheted off Brian Harelimana on the front line and was immediately recovered by Kerfalla Exume at the Ottawa 46-yard line. Hajrullahu trotted onto the field and hit a season-long 53-yard field goal to bring Toronto within two going into the half.
Bending over backwards
Despite winning by 20 points in a game where they had two interception return touchdowns and a pair of sacks, this wasn’t a great game by Toronto’s defence. They seemed uncertain as to how to handle Ottawa’s unique attack.
The Redblacks started receiver Bralon Addison at running back and barely tried to run the ball, instead throwing all over the field out of empty six-receiver sets. One of the advantages of emptying out the backfield is it makes disguising the defence more difficult which results in easier reads for the quarterback. Toronto decided not to blitz in the first half, hoping to get home with a three and four-man rush. They were able to create sporadic pressure but when he had a pocket, Dru Brown carved up the Toronto defence 10 yards at a time.
In the CFL, I really like “bend-but-don’t-break” defences, but this one was bending far too much. Brown completed 46 passes for 476 yards and three touchdowns with two late interceptions. The Argos adjusted in the second half, opting to send more pressure and that did result in fewer points on the scoreboard. Even so, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Montreal test Toronto with a few looks out of empty formations next week.
No! No! No! Yes!
Wynton McManis’ star was shining brightly on Saturday despite the defence struggling at times. He led both teams with 10 tackles and his interception was probably the single biggest highlight of the game.
On a second-and-10 late in the fourth quarter, McManis charged up to the line of scrimmage from off the ball just before the snap and then dropped back into the underneath hole with his eyes on the quarterback. Because of his late charge to the line of scrimmage, Brown likely lost track of McManis and therefore didn’t see him when he fired the ball up the middle. The linebacker made a sensational catch to intercept the pass and then after a 10-yard return, lateraled the ball to Tarvarus McFadden who took it the remaining 78 yards for the defensive score.
As astonishingly good as the play was, my reaction was the same as head coach Ryan Dinwiddie’s. He walked us through his range of emotions after the game.
“Wynton picks it, I’m just like, ‘Go down,’ but then he pitches it and I’m like, ‘No, no,’ freaking out, and then ‘Yeah, yeah, go score T-Time!’ It was a unique play, it worked out for us, but we’ve also got to be understanding we got the game wrapped up, let’s not get too careless with the football.”
Three defensive snaps later, cornerback Benji Franklin jumped a hook route and took it 71 yards to the house without lateralling the ball to anyone else. McFadden’s touchdown may have been more exciting, but I’m betting Coach Dinwiddie enjoyed Franklin’s a lot more.
Post-Halloween scare
With the game out of reach and under a minute remaining, DaShaun Amos went down with a scary-looking injury as he collided with receiver Nick Mardner.
Amos was Toronto’s nominee for Most Outstanding Defensive Player for single-handedly keeping quarterbacks from looking at his side of the field. Despite coming away with seven turnovers, Amos had only 25 tackles on the regular season as a testament to how rarely quarterbacks looked his way and experienced success.
Amos was able to walk slowly off the field under his own steam and that pace seemed to speed up slightly as he moved around on the sideline. After the game, Dinwiddie was optimistic about Amos being able to return against Montreal, speculating that it was likely a painful bone bruise to the knee area, but not necessarily something that would keep him out next week.
Made to be broken
58 points is the most ever scored by the Toronto Argonauts in a playoff game and it’s the third-best mark recorded by any CFL team in the postseason. What’s amazing about this point total is that the Argonauts had only three points at the end of the first quarter. What’s even more amazing is that they were able to achieve this number with only 38 total offensive plays. If the other team scores as many points as you’ve run plays, you don’t generally win by 20, but this wasn’t a normal game!
Ottawa and Toronto’s 96-point total also ties a CFL record for most combined points scored in a playoff game. Lost in what ended up being a blowout loss is how good Ottawa’s Dru Brown can be when he has a clean pocket. In three games against Toronto, Brown threw for 1225 yards and eight touchdowns, scoring 110 points in the process.
Up next
The Toronto Argonauts travel to Montreal to take on the Alouettes on Saturday, November 9 at 3:00 p.m. EDT. A year ago, the upstart Alouettes got hot late in the season and embarrassed the 16-2 Argos at home in the East Final. The Boatmen will look to exact some revenge next week.
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