Game Thread Calgary vs. Toronto Sat. August 20

[ArgoRavi]

We never did get an explanation as to why that Speller person never reported in 2021.

We never get an explanation for anything today but if I were to take a guess, Speller did what many did during this pandemic and re-evaluated what they really wanted out of life. A bad break for the Argos but what can you do?

[Argo57]

Another frustrating loss last night, in truth if this team had any “killer instinct” they would be sitting pretty miles ahead in the Eastern Division.
The O-Line is terrible plain and simple, they won’t contend until it gets fixed (if that is even possible).
The D actually had a pretty solid game although the pass rush was nothing to brag about.
Ja’Gared Davis has made a few nice plays this season but overall he hasn’t played close to the level he displayed in Hamilton, Shane Ray seems invisible much of the time as well.
Although I often defend MBT this team must start looking to develop another QB which will be made difficult with a crappy O-Line, Chad Kelly may in fact be that guy.
Paul Woods has correctly brought up a point that AV and I were discussing earlier today, have all of their contacts down south dried up, one of Jim Barkers strengths in the past was his ability to recruit talent from down south, surely there has to be some O linemen available that can help?
Dinwiddie needs to let another coach run the offence during games, he is way to predictable at this point.
If this season goes nowhere as it very well could then Dinwiddie will probably be gone and it will be back to square one.

[paulwoods13]

Ja’Gared Davis has made a few nice plays this season but overall he hasn’t played close to the level he displayed in Hamilton, Shane Ray seems invisible much of the time as well.

Paul Woods has correctly brought up a point that AV and I were discussing earlier today, have all of their contacts down south dried up, one of Jim Barkers strengths in the past was his ability to recruit talent from down south, surely there has to be some O linemen available that can help?

Davjs pulled himself out of the game during the fourth quarter. He initially just seemed pissed off, but eventually he had them looking at one of his legs. I wouldn't be surprised if he is out for a while. It was hilarious, in an extremely annoying kind of way, to watch Shane Ray try to get to the bench for a breather a few plays later, only to be told he had to stay out there because there was no other defensive end available to spell him. Fortunately we still have Ealy, er, Polite, er, . . . grrr.

I doubt we will see any useable offensive tackles coming up here any time soon. Apart from QB, it is probably the scarcest commodity in football these days. And since NFL teams can now keep 70 men on the active and practice rosters, plus injury lists, and the XFL and USFL are also looking to sign guys, the days of excellent cuts coming north after Labour Day are basically gone.

[Argo57]

Davjs pulled himself out of the game during the fourth quarter. He initially just seemed pissed off, but eventually he had them looking at one of his legs. I wouldn't be surprised if he is out for a while. It was hilarious, in an extremely annoying kind of way, to watch Shane Ray try to get to the bench for a breather a few plays later, only to be told he had to stay out there because there was no other defensive end available to spell him. Fortunately we still have Ealy, er, Polite, er, . . . grrr.

I doubt we will see any useable offensive tackles coming up here any time soon. Apart from QB, it is probably the scarcest commodity in football these days. And since NFL teams can now keep 70 men on the active and practice rosters, plus injury lists, and the XFL and USFL are also looking to sign guys, the days of excellent cuts coming north after Labour Day are basically gone.

Doesn’t bode well for the quality of play in the CFL moving forward.

[Rich]

I’m gratified to see we have a consensus here, even among MBT’s most ardent supporters, that Chad Kelly needs to see at least SOME action. A couple of extra picks may be an acceptable price to pay for a few key sacks avoided and a few key QB rushes gained, not to mention a few more passes on target.

[OV Argo]

O-line play taking a lot of heat in a lot of CFL circles these days; maybe rightfully so in some cases, but IMO the factor of lame, predictable, boring, redundant CFL offensive coaching & play-calling is a huge part of this; blame the O-line "talent" is easier I guess, but when defences know they can just tee off in pass rush and don't have to worry about much variety in play-calling or offensive looks and formations, it makes it easy on them and tough on the O-line. Let's see a CFL OC let his O-line be aggressive and road grade hard with lots of varied ground plays from the start of the game, AND have lots of looks on offence (QB roll outs, move the pocket, QB designed run plays), and see this fail with the O-line looking bad. Same old QB in shot-gun and having to hold on to the ball long and make reads is fine for some; that as your only offence = dumb AND boring/predictable

[Stevoman]

Doesn’t bode well for the quality of play in the CFL moving forward.

This is my biggest concern. There are several middle of the pack teams this year. I don't care that scoring is up from last year, there are not that many good teams and even fewer with good QB's and it is impacting the entertainment value of the game.

Aside from Winnipeg (a good O-line and QB) and BC (a good QB and receivers) the rest of the league is all kind of in the same category in terms of talent and it's not good enough.

[Argo57]

This is my biggest concern. There are several middle of the pack teams this year. I don't care that scoring is up from last year, there are not that many good teams and even fewer with good QB's and it is impacting the entertainment value of the game.

Aside from Winnipeg (a good O-line and QB) and BC (a good QB and receivers) the rest of the league is all kind of in the same category in terms of talent and it's not good enough.

I suspect if you go the fan forum for most CFL teams the narrative will be very familiar, boring predictable offence, poor O-Line play and mediocre play at quarterback.
Can’t say I disagree TBH.

[ArgoGabe22]

I just hope Chad Kelly is willing to stay and work his way up (if possible) and doesn't unexpectedly retire at the end of the season like some backups end up doing. He's still young and a decent QB prospect and I hope he sees more time on the field in either some role or the MBT leash gets shorter.

[Argo57]

I just hope Chad Kelly is willing to stay and work his way up (if possible) and doesn't unexpectedly retire at the end of the season like some backups end up doing. He's still young and a decent QB prospect and I hope he sees more time on the field in either some role or the MBT leash gets shorter.

Good point, Kelly won’t sit around forever making little money.
Argos aren’t exactly flush with QB prospects and must see how he performs in game situations.

[paulwoods13]

I don't care that scoring is up from last year, there are not that many good teams and even fewer with good QB's and it is impacting the entertainment value of the game. .

This trend to reduced entertainment value has been evident for a few years. The changes to the rules this year were intended to jazz up the game. Scoring is up from last year's absurdly low 38.2 points per game, but only to where it was in 2011 (50.3 then, 50.0 so far this year). Of far greater concern, to me at least, is the continuing reduction in the number of offensive plays. This year we are so far getting 107.8 offensive plays per game: 64.9 passes, 38.2 rushes and 4.7 sacks. Last year we got 108.1 offensive plays per game, so we are actually down slightly. As I have written before, in 1991 (IMO the high-water mark for entertainment value), there were 125.8 plays per game. So we have reduced the opportunities to see teams do something offensively by 14 per cent compared with 30 years ago. Changes to clock and substitution rules could address this, but have not been made and I sense no desire around the league to do it. We're fortunate that there have been a fair number of close games this year (20 out of 43 within seven points), making for a fair number of exciting finishes. But are fans as consistently entertained as they were 30 years ago? Not in my opinion.

[Nob]

Paul raises some great points about the entertainment value.

I hear a lot of people saying “why doesn’t Toronto support the Argos?”, but the bigger question should be “why would people support the Argos?” The entertainment value isn’t the same as it used to be. People want to see points. Action. Great plays. What we get is predictable offences that defences have figured out (rush 3, drop 9 and blanket the field, generally).

Plus the Argos are brutal at updating their web site. Not all of us can go to practice. At least provide info on the website or app (don’t get me going on that one….) to keep out of town fans engaged.

I watched last night’s game this afternoon. Skipped through the huddles, and dead ball time. The actual game play was not entertaining. I later read that people were upset that the Argos were apparently being booed while in the lead. Why can’t people, who pay good money and invest time, boo a product that is sub-standard? We are frustrated - this is not where this team should be at this point in the season with the talent they have (injuries or not - they have good depth).

Being a fan is a two-way street. The Argos need to engage us. Not just expect us to be there all the time. Those that were there all the time are declining.

In sports you sell entertainment (generally winning, but not always), or hope. I’m not sure that the Argos provide either.

[argolio]

That was a very frustrating 2nd half.

[kellynjk]

So interesting what Paul says about the entertainment value of the Argos these days. I was talking to my older brother today about the Argos and how they just don't have the support in the city they once had and he said basically the same things - that the Argos used to field much better teams that were exciting to watch. He talked about the teams they had in the 1980s and 1990s and I remember a lot of those games and what entertainment value they offered. They just don't offer the fans that these days. And I agree you can't expect fans to show up, to watch a mediocre team play a boring game.

They are a lot of gaps in this team right now and they should shake things up abit. I would like to see them give Chad Kelly more playing time, at least he can scramble and might help mix things up abit and make the offence less predictable. But it is interesting what people are saying about who is scouting for future talent, because I think the Argos are going to need to do some serious rebuilding after this season to field any kind of decent team next year.

[ArgoRavi]

It's interesting to see such negativity on here about the entertainment value of the games this year which is very much the opposite to what I have been seeing on Twitter. I think that the games this year have, by and large, been quite entertaining and compelling. I think we are in for a great second half of the season around the league.

[AngeloV]

It's interesting to see such negativity on here about the entertainment value of the games this year which is very much the opposite to what I have been seeing on Twitter. I think that the games this year have, by and large, been quite entertaining and compelling. I think we are in for a great second half of the season around the league.

I agree Ravi. I’ve been going to games sine I was a kid in the late 70’s. To me, the game is every bit as entertaining now as it was then, if not more so. The only difference is that in the late 70’s early 80’s they had much bigger crowds. You can’t tell me that the Tony Adams/Mark Jackson led teams were more entertaining than what we see now. And as for success bringing in crowds, I seem to recall a few crowds of 17k when Doug Flutie was the QB of arguably the best teams the Argos have ever had. I agree with Paul on the clock and number of ofFensive snaps per game. Unfortunately it’s because CFL has much more commercials today than they did in the old days, and TV wants the games to be over in 3 hours, thus clock moves more than it used to. But I do not buy the garbage that the games are less entertaining. People that say that aren’t in the stadium I still get a huge adrenaline rush for every play of every game.

I also would like to add, in the top of our section on Saturday, there were a lot of young fans. They were having a blast at the game. I don’t think young people are anti-CFL. I just don’t think the league and specifically the Argos work hard enough to get them out to games. They were all likely casual fans just looking to have a good time, and they did. You need to get casual fans like this to succeed.

[ArgofanIan]

I gave my Buddy and his family tickets for this game. He was casual fan and his family never really heard of CFL. He was raving about how great the game was and that they had a great time. Wants to go back to other game. I find if people go to a game and make their own mid up. Doesn't take much for them to get hooked. These EX games are good way to expose new fans. He actually got a shirt which also was nice when they do these shirt tosses...

[kellynjk]

It's interesting to see such negativity on here about the entertainment value of the games this year which is very much the opposite to what I have been seeing on Twitter. I think that the games this year have, by and large, been quite entertaining and compelling. I think we are in for a great second half of the season around the league.

Well the games between the western team have been very exciting to watch this season, the Argo games not so much!!!

[argolio]

Seems like there have been fewer blowouts than the typical season. Unfortunately the West has managed to win almost every close East-West game.

[OV Argo]

The absolutely horrid schedule this season with so many back to back games and teams playing each other several times in short order does not help matters IMO - boring, lack of variety that turns fans off or creates a stale outlook; the only IMO back to back games in a CFL season should be the Labour Day affairs with the tradition maintained. After that - teams facing each other should be spread out as far as possible - you then get to see teams evolve and different match-ups at much different points of the season.

THE CFL needs way better brains/leadership; Ambrosia's time has been a joke/disaster - he should be punted wayyyyy far away from the league.