Observations from July 26, 1985 versus Hamilton Tiger-Cats

[Will]

1. Condredge Holloway suffers a knee injury in this game and would miss a significant portion of the season. What was worse was that Joe Barnes was no longer with the team and the Argos were forced to rely on a trio of inexperienced QB's. The Argos would finish the 1985 with a 6-10 record and missed the playoffs for the only time in Bob O'Billovich's first stint with the club. Also, noteworthy was that their opponent Hamilton (in spite of being winless heading into and after this game) would finish first in the east with a 8-8 record. While there is no guarantee how the Argos would have done with a healthy Holloway you would nevertheless hope that the Argos would've had a good chance at finishing 1st in the east that year.

2. The commentary team of Pat Marsden, Leif Pettersen and Bill Stephenson do their best to jinx Holloway and the Argos. Prior to his injury, they kept remarking that Holloway is playing as well as they have ever seen him and remarked at one point that the Argos will be in big trouble if Holloway goes down. I understand that Marsden had the reputation of being an Argo hater by some and a Argo homer by others. I've detected a bit of an anti-Argo bias from Pettersen in watching some of these older games from the 80's.

3. Hank Ilesic is under scrutiny at this point because he is struggling with place kicking duties. He misses two field goals in this game, and I believe the Argos are only a few weeks away from bringing in Lance Chomyc who would form a PK/P duo with Hank Ilesic through the 1993 season.

4. Aside from Holloway, the Argos lose Dan Ferrone, James Curry, Warren Hudson and Steve Cox to injuries. Receiver Paul Pearson was injured already, but Geoff Townsend and Kerry Taylor stepped up with Townsend scoring 2 touchdowns and Taylor 1 touchdown. Terry Greer would also have the other Argo touchdown.

5. Rodney Harding is in his rookie season, but is already flashing the talent that would make him a hall-of-famer.

Game Summary

Bernie Ruoff puts the Tiger-Cats up 2-0 in the first quarter with a pair of singles. Towards the end of the quarter, Holloway starts to go to work finding Terry Greer on 2nd and long before he finishes the drive off with a 22-yard TD score to Geoff Townsend. The Tiger-Cats offence is struggling terribly with Jeff Tedford at QB and they can't get anything going. Holloway unfortunately does suffer an injury to give way to Mark Casale, but Casale throws a TD on his first drive to Townsend who had a long reception a play or two prior to that. Hank Ilesic adds a pair of FG's to give the Argos a 20-2 lead at halftime.

The Argos defence continues to dominate Tedford in the second half while the Tiger-Cats manage to make a few adjustments on defence. Casale throws a TD pass to Terry Greer to make it 28-3 Argos and adds another TD pass in the 4th to Kerry Taylor to make it 35-3. Ken Hobart scores a TD late to make the final score 35-10 Argos.

[Argo57]

The Argonauts performance started to slide in 85, mediocre play and declining attendance made a huge difference in the atmosphere at Exhibition stadium especially compared to the 1982 and 83 seasons.
Marsden was the ultimate Ottawa homer on CTV telecasts IMO.

[AngeloV]

Marsden was the ultimate Ottawa homer on CTV telecasts IMO.

100%

A lot of the viewers of our generation either don't truly remember Marsden on PBP or just live for nostalgia. I personally thought he was a horrible PBP guy. There would be nothing but silence during the play and then he would say something like "what a great run by..." after the play was over. That isn't PBP.

[Argo57]

100%

A lot of the viewers of our generation either don't truly remember Marsden on PBP or just live for nostalgia. I personally thought he was a horrible PBP guy. There would be nothing but silence during the play and then he would say something like "what a great run by..." after the play was over. That isn't PBP.

“What a great run by Skip Walker” LOL.
Marsden also worshipped the ground that Tom Clements walked on, ahh the great memories!

[ArgoRavi]

I think this game may have been the final one for Ilesic doing placekicking. I believe Chomyc was brought in for the next game at home to B.C.

[AngeloV]

“What a great run by Skip Walker” LOL.
Marsden also worshipped the ground that Tom Clements walked on, ahh the great memories!

Marsden worshiped the ground all Ottawa Rough Riders that played at big time US college schools walked on. I remember the night before the the '81 Grey Cup, in his commentary on CFTO, he suggested those picking the Eskimos to blow out the Riders because of inexperienced JC Watts starting at QB don't know what they are talking about because JC played in the Orange Bowl in from ot 80,000 spectators, so "Don't tell me he doesn't know what pressure is". Even though the game went on to be a near impossible seeming upset, it was a total homer/stupid comment to make at the time.

[Will]

I think this game may have been the final one for Ilesic doing placekicking. I believe Chomyc was brought in for the next game at home to B.C.

That is correct.