Observations from August 1/1986 game against Edmonton
The 3-2 Argonauts travelled to Commonwealth Stadium to meet the 4-0 Edmonton Eskimos in the battle of hall-of-fame quarterbacks. Condredge Holloway started for the Argonauts and Matt Dunigan started for Edmonton. The Argos had lost Terry Greer to the NFL after the 1985 season, but had acquired speedster Chris Woods from Edmonton in the offseason to go with veteran Paul Pearson and a 1st year receiver named Darrell Smith. The Argos defence featured mainstays such as Don Moen and Carl Brazley but had a young Willie Pless at linebacker and Rodney Harding on the defensive line.
After a spectacular interception by Pless, Condredge took the ball down to the Edmonton 4-yard line where he connected with Smith for the latter's first CFL touchdown. The Argos defence kept Dunigan in check for most of the second half and Chomyc added a FG with the half-time score being 12-6 Argos. Edmonton dominated the third quarter however as Stephen Jones (no Gizmo yet) returned the opening kickoff 105 yards to give Edmonton a 13-12 lead. Chris Skinner then scored two touchdowns (1 receiving, 1 rushing) to put Edmonton up 27-12.
Condredge then went to work in the fourth quarter, connecting with Smith on a spectacular 62-yard touchdown and then throwing a 42-yard TD to a wide open Chris Woods to tie the game. Late in the game, Dunigan threw an interception inside is own 20 to David Marshall and Craig Ellis gave the Argos a 34-27 lead with over a minute left. Edmonton wouldn't go away though as Dunigan tied the game on a TD pass to Rick House. But, not to be denied, Holloway threw two completions to Ellis and Woods which set-up a FG attempt by Lance Chomyc who missed the attempt but the ball went through the back of the endzone and the Argos had a 35-34 victory. This was their last win at Commonwealth until 1996.
Observations
1. Condredge Holloway's last "hurrah"
I know this was his last season with the Argos and that J.C Watts got a lot of playing time at QB later in the season. Holloway completed 24 of 36 passes for 426 yards and 3 touchdowns. He finished this season with 14 TD and 15 INT.
2. Darrell Smith wore #74
He wouldn't take on his familiar #1 until 1987. His first two CFL TD's were in this game and you saw flashes of why he would become an all-time Argo receiver. You don't normally associate the QB-WR combo of Holloway to Smith, but his first two TD's were thrown by #7.
3. Running game? What running game?
The boxscore shows that the Argos rushed for 9 yards in this game. Craig Ellis would become a pretty good receiver for Tracy Ham in Edmonton, and he does have a nic game as a receiver, but seems like O'Billovich could never find a running back that he liked. Argos went through Ellis, Cedric Minter and William Miller over the course of this season.
4. Willie Pless
This is his rookie season, but he's already getting praise from Frank Rigney and Dale Isaac. He makes a spectacular interception of Dunigan that set up the Argos first TD and is in on many plays. It is unfortunate the Argos had to part with him, but to get a hall-of-famer you sometimes have to trade a hall-of-famer. Pless' career speaks for itself, but it didn't help the Argos that Darryl Ford and Chris Gaines were gone after 1991 (not to mention Dunigan leaving after 1991 as well).
5. Hank Ilesic booed
I guess they took his departure from Edmonton in 1983 personally.
6. Things players got away with in 1986
I shouldn't say that if they weren't in the rule book, but it's always fascinating to watch some of these games and remark on what would be a penalty in 2020
7. Bad way to lose a game
We all groaned when the Argos lost that game in July 2019 on a missed FG attempt where Rainey stepped out of bounds. Chomyc misses the FG but the kick was strong enough to go through the endzone. Nevertheless, Edmonton's secondary had no answer for Holloway in the 4th quarter.
8. Chris Woods/Craig Ellis
Two players that probably got away, both went to the NFL I think and Woods never returned to the CFL, but Woods, Ellis and Smith would've formed a very good receiving corps if they stayed together.
9. Paul Pearson
Never had a 1,000-yard season and Masotti is the best Canadian receiver the Argos have had, but where would they have been without Paul Pearson? Comes up with clutch catch after clutch catch.
