Week 3 Game Thread - Winnipeg Blue Bombers @ Toronto Argonauts - August 21, 2021

[Will]

Collaros finished the game 18/33 for 204 yards, but if you factor out the 51-yarder to Adams and the 39-yarder to Lawler then Collaros was 16/31 for 114 yards. The Argos limited Collaros to 6.1 YPA which is impressive by itself, but take away the two plays and it was 3.7 YPA. It was a total team effort on defense, the Argos only registered 1 sack but they were generating pressure on Collaros, Hughes had a few pass knockdowns and the defensive backs made some nice plays as well. Injuries are starting to pile up on the back end though, so I hope Jamal Peters is OK. Yes, he's been burnt a few times, but overall I've been impressive with play. The HBs/S combo of Richardson-Butler-Richards has been very, very good so far for the Argonauts. The Argos did a nice job containing a strong running team as well for two consecutive weeks in a row.

Arbuckle needs to work on ball security, but overall an impressive performance by the offence. Two consecutive weeks with a 100-yard rusher and D.J Foster impressed me, showed some nice moves and he is supposed to rate favorably as a pass receiver. John White had trouble getting going and I honestly felt that momentum on several drives was stunted when they went to him on the hand-off. Still I wouldn't mind presenting teams with the 1-2 punch of White and Foster moving forward. Hope that Daniels is OK!

[Wobbler]

My impression was that Vontae Diggs came in for Judge after the latter was injured in the fourth quarter... and that it was an upgrade. Maybe Winnipeg targeted the new guy (and so he couldn't help but get involved), but Judge has had a very quiet year so far.

[paulwoods13]

Great game, so much fun to be back at BMO watching the Double Blue with a loud, excited crowd.

That was an impressive performance that could easily have been a blowout victory over the Grey Cup champs. Time of possession roughly 40 minutes to 20.

Arbuckle throws with a lot of zip. He and Dinwiddie showed tremendous willingness to push the ball downfield even when the situation seemed to call for conservative play. But Arbuckle obviously needs to work on being aware of backside pressure. Great QBs seem to have a sixth sense in knowing when someone is coming from behind. He definitely did not have that yesterday.

Great to see such fine play from the receiving corps, and from Foster. Even with injuries piling up, we have some nice weapons. Brissett looked outstanding as Daniels' replacement.

The defence continues to look very strong. Few sacks so far, but we got good pressure yesterday, and teams are having a lot of trouble running on us. And there's depth, with newbies like Diggs, Peters and Hendrix contributing after starters went down. That said, Peters had a rough outing yesterday. Teams may start picking on him.

Nice to see Bede's best game, including one kickoff into the end zone. And some decent kick returns from Braverman and Foster.

[paulwoods13]

A dominant performance on both sides of the ball. We should have won by 20. ( From the stands it looked like Arby’s arm was moving forward on the scoop n score. Why no review on that one?)

Since there was a score on the play, it went to automatic review so there was no need to throw a challenge flag. It looked to me like a throw, but a lot of those calls can go either way. I couldn't really quarrel with the decision.

[paulwoods13]

And I think I have a new favourite uniform colour combination. Have they ever used that one before? After that game it looks like victory to me, and I hope they wear them again on Thursday.

The unis looked awesome, although the pants really show sweat stains. Tristan Decoud needs to get with the program, however. You can't have one guy wearing different coloured upper socks than everyone else (or just plain socks in this case, since no one wore white lower socks yesterday).

Given that we now have three sets of pants and three sets of socks, I'm hoping we bust out Cambridge jerseys at some point to maximize the number of possible combos. I'm thinking the Argos might wear a different combo every game this season. I'm gonna need to track it, just as I did in 2017 when we changed things up regularly. Someone on Twitter suggested Cambridge facebars, which would be super cool, but probably won't happen this year.

[paulwoods13]

My impression was that Vontae Diggs came in for Judge after the latter was injured in the fourth quarter... and that it was an upgrade. Maybe Winnipeg targeted the new guy (and so he couldn't help but get involved), but Judge has had a very quiet year so far.

Diggs did look good, and Judge has indeed been quiet so far. But I don't see him sitting for Diggs unless we put Colquhon in at CB in place of Decoud.

[Will]

Interesting that Foster had over a 10-yard average on his carries (factoring in the big 39-yarder granted), but John White only averaged 2 yards per carry.

[Wobbler]

Diggs did look good, and Judge has indeed been quiet so far. But I don't see him sitting for Diggs unless we put Colquhon in at CB in place of Decoud.

I agree. And if Judge can't go next week I suspect that will happen. Even if Judge starts I'd like to see Colquhon auditioned at field corner soon; Decoud might be needed at boundary corner.

[timlb01]

The unis looked awesome, although the pants really show sweat stains. Tristan Decoud needs to get with the program, however. You can't have one guy wearing different coloured upper socks than everyone else (or just plain socks in this case, since no one wore white lower socks yesterday).

Given that we now have three sets of pants and three sets of socks, I'm hoping we bust out Cambridge jerseys at some point to maximize the number of possible combos. I'm thinking the Argos might wear a different combo every game this season. I'm gonna need to track it, just as I did in 2017 when we changed things up regularly. Someone on Twitter suggested Cambridge facebars, which would be super cool, but probably won't happen this year.

I did love the uniforms. Fantastic. I am so disappointed by the attendance. Actually it depresses me. This is the only professional league maybe in the world where it gates smashed by one section of the media. I don't know how TFC gets such positive press when there is no TV audience, the leagues caliber is not even in the top 10 in the world. Here is the CFL which is at worst the 2nd best in the world (I would argue that the game is different enough from the NFL that a CFL team could beat an NFL team at our rules). How the heck can we struggle to break 10k now?!?!? The media and other factors have made this game so uncool it just drives me nuts. I don't know if this can ever be fixed. BTW I brought 8 people to the game. Each and everyone of us need to bring more people out. How else can this get fixed?

From Mr. Depression

[paulwoods13]

Interesting that Foster had over a 10-yard average on his carries (factoring in the big 39-yarder granted), but John White only averaged 2 yards per carry.

It is interesting, and encouraging. Last week White averaged 10 per carry, and we know he is a good blocker and pass receiver as well as a downhill runner. I fully expect both guys to make major contributions going forward. Ouellette might not be sticking around much longer.

[paulwoods13]

I did love the uniforms. Fantastic. I am so disappointed by the attendance. Actually it depresses me. This is the only professional league maybe in the world where it gates smashed by one section of the media. I don't know how TFC gets such positive press when there is no TV audience, the leagues caliber is not even in the top 10 in the world. Here is the CFL which is at worst the 2nd best in the world (I would argue that the game is different enough from the NFL that a CFL team could beat an NFL team at our rules). How the heck can we struggle to break 10k now?!?!? The media and other factors have made this game so uncool it just drives me nuts. I don't know if this can ever be fixed. BTW I brought 8 people to the game. Each and everyone of us need to bring more people out. How else can this get fixed?

From Mr. Depression

I don't see a lot of positive press for TFC, FWIW. Arguably TFC gets less coverage of any sort than the Argos do -- fewer stories and pages in the Sun, and far less between-games reporting by TSN. The two teams get about the same amount of coverage (wire service stories, mostly) in the Star, altho there is an excellent piece today by Doug Smith in which he laments the CFL haters, and lauds the Argos' fans.

In the long list of reasons why the Argos and Canadian football have fallen off the map in Toronto, I'd rate media coverage far below other factors that have accumulated over the past four decades. But the fact that the Argos are not part of the culture the way they were in the 1960s and '70s certainly contributes to the reduction in media attention that is now part of the equation.

[Will]

What is also noteworthy is that the Argos only took 3 penalties, and surprisingly none on offence.

[OV Argo]

I don't see a lot of positive press for TFC, FWIW. Arguably TFC gets less coverage of any sort than the Argos do -- fewer stories and pages in the Sun, and far less between-games reporting by TSN. The two teams get about the same amount of coverage (wire service stories, mostly) in the Star, altho there is an excellent piece today by Doug Smith in which he laments the CFL haters, and lauds the Argos' fans.

In the long list of reasons why the Argos and Canadian football have fallen off the map in Toronto, I'd rate media coverage far below other factors that have accumulated over the past four decades. But the fact that the Argos are not part of the culture the way they were in the 1960s and '70s certainly contributes to the reduction in media attention that is now part of the equation.

And I'd rate lacking, negative or poor media coverage the single biggest factor in Argo/CFL popularity decline - and going on decades now.

IF an Argo owner either owned or had huge influence on a big local media outlet, and demanded a huge increase in Argo coverage/hype, almost guaranteed it would pay big dividends for Argo popularity - just IMO of course.

The Blue Jays (and Raptors now too) get huge coverage & hype in the GTA and all over Canada for that matter; for a game/sport/league that has a fraction of history/tradition in Canada that the Argos/Canadian football does. Football is a Canadian game - right up there with hockey in terms of history, tradition and a hundred years plus of being played up here at many levels including the pros. Your typical Canadian wannabe media shot-caller and their lackeys up here either do not grasp this or do not like it. Only in Canada, Canadian football, does not rate it for "world class / major league" hype suckers - and they have huge influence on joe average public.

[AngeloV]

I am so disappointed by the attendance. Actually it depresses me.

The Argos mentioned on twitter today that since the reduced capacity to Argos games last year by closing the upper east, thus having a new capacity in the 18k range, the 15k dosn't apply to them, and in fact their capacity at this time is only 10k. Whether or not that is true, I don't know, but I will take their word on it. So 9800+ of 10k isn't bad. I ranted on twitter about lack of promotion and what not, and I still feel that way. But if what they said is true, My bad.

[AngeloV]

But Arbuckle obviously needs to work on being aware of backside pressure. Great QBs seem to have a sixth sense in knowing when someone is coming from behind. He definitely did not have that yesterday.

I will give him the benefit of the doubt that with the lack of game action he has seen, not just recently, but throughout his CFL career (only 7 starts), his internal clock will adapt. His only issues yesterday were when he held on to the ball too long. I believe that will be reduced with more action.

[ArgoZ]

The Argos mentioned on twitter today that since the reduced capacity to Argos games last year by closing the upper east, thus having a new capacity in the 18k range, the 15k dosn't apply to them, and in fact their capacity at this time is only 10k. Whether or not that is true, I don't know, but I will take their word on it. So 9800+ of 10k isn't bad. I ranted on twitter about lack of promotion and what not, and I still feel that way. But if what they said is true, My bad.

Wouldn’t it be 10 000 total in the venue? If you include the teams and staffing, we would be at or over that number. I can’t believe how loud and exciting only 10 000 of us are, it’s actually quite incredible.

[Wobbler]

I will give him the benefit of the doubt that with the lack of game action he has seen, not just recently, but throughout his CFL career (only 7 starts), his internal clock will adapt. His only issues yesterday were when he held on to the ball too long. I believe that will be reduced with more action.

Not to mention that yesterday's scoop-and-score by Winnipeg should have been physically impossible. Has there been an explanation yet why White and (especially) Allen ignored Jeffcoat on what should have been a harmless four man rush?

["Issues"Mcgee]

Even at less than 10k, the atmosphere was still better than any Leafs home game I have ever been to. Those of us who do show up are ravenous. People really don't know what they are missing.

Interesting stat. Winnipeg is 0-3 against us at BMO. We were not very good when we beat the Bombers the first two times.

Gamblers take note.

[AngeloV]

Not to mention that yesterday's scoop-and-score by Winnipeg should have been physically impossible. Has there been an explanation yet why White and (especially) Allen ignored Jeffcoat on what should have been a harmless four man rush?

In Arbuckle's presser after the game, he took the blame for it. He said that the cadence called for the ball to be snapped on 2, and they were running out of time on the play clock. He tried to speed up the cadence and not everyone heard him. Jeffcoat was around Allen before he was even out of his stance as a result, as Allen was waiting for the called cadence. Probably should have taken a time count or burned a time out there.

[Wobbler]

Thank you. I suppose that's exactly what it looked like. It would have been nice if White could have at least slowed him down a little, but I can't blame him for not expecting a rusher to blow past Allen at full speed.