Game Thread: Calgary Stampeders @ Toronto Argonauts

[jerrym]

Well one way of the D holding when the DBs are battered is sacking the QB as Orimolade gets two in a row.

[jerrym]

Good hit by Metchie to prevent Beggelton catch and cause a turnover.

[Mocha]

Good hit by Metchie to prevent Beggelton catch and cause a turnover.

Yup. We really needed a big play there. Sealed the win.

[jerrym]

And the D holds to makes the Argos 8-1!

[Waffle]

It wasn't pretty but its a win.

How can the tackling be that bad?

And an injury parade on defence. WoW.

At any rate, as someone said earlier, it was a game that the Argos refused to loose.

[OV Argo]

A win is a win; but - worst effort of the season by the D; ultra soft coverage, and pass rush was inconsistent; tackling weak all around. Losing Amos hurt, and Haggerty did nothing, but still, nobody was making plays ( except the D-line some - Orimoldae did late with pass rush, Hendrix & Robbie Smith too made good stops).

Lucky that the Stamps' D and especially their secondary was crap too.

Gotta wonder about some CFL defensive strategies after seeing a game like this. I get that lots of fans like big and explosive plays, but that was a lot of sloppy football from both Ds, IMO, and that game winning punt return was horrid coverage by the Stamps.

Kelly did not have his best game, but the guy can still find open receiver and deliver a deep ball better than most CFL QBs in some time, IMO. Ouellette still running hard helps the offence, so hope they stick with lots of ground game.

[gilthethrill]

Too close for comfort. Back to back games where offensively inept teams come to BMO and light it up. Had forgotten how good of a Punter Bede is. Horrible Personal Foul call on Cassar in the 4th after a Punt. Refs in the CFL seem to look for anything and everything to flag. Jaw dropping how fast Leake is. Why again were certain fans calling for his release after pre season?
This team is 1 win away from representing the Eastern Football Conference in the Grey Cup.

[Blue90]

Another crazy, exciting game. However defense was non-existent.
Good thing that Kelly and the offense can score, but the defensive pass coverage was pathetic.
Love to watch A.J run the ball.

[Shatto]

The defensive backfield looked a little lost tonight. Amos will be a big loss to the team as he was having a good year. Luckily McFadden will be available to play in the next game and Carnell and Priester can't be far away from full health.

The worry in the past was the Argos being vulnerable to short the passing game but this time it was the long passes that were causing the problem. The bend don't break philosophy turned into a constant stream of completed long passes. Wonder what happened?

On the plus side, they did win and now have a great 8 and 1 record. Late in the game the DL looked as if they decided not to let Calgary complete any passes by just simply sacking the QB.

Certainly an exciting and entertaining game but just a little too close for my comfort zone. I wasn't able to get to the game but on TV it looked like there was a good crowd in attendance.

[Stevoman]

I felt confident throughout but there's no way this game should've been decided by a Javon Leake punt return TD.

[ArgoRavi]

Haggerty down now. Edwards up next. Could he be worse? I hope the Argos never go again without an extra DB.

Edouard was injured also so that makes three DBs that went down. I would have preferred to see McFadden dressed over Barlow, but Barlow ended up making a big block on the Leak punt return TD to win the game. These are always tough decisions for the coaching staff to make and you have to trust that your young Nationals can get the job done too.

[ArgoRavi]

Too close for comfort. Back to back games where offensively inept teams come to BMO and light it up. Had forgotten how good of a Punter Bede is. Horrible Personal Foul call on Cassar in the 4th after a Punt. Refs in the CFL seem to look for anything and everything to flag. Jaw dropping how fast Leake is. Why again were certain fans calling for his release after pre season?
This team is 1 win away from representing the Eastern Football Conference in the Grey Cup.

Even Ben Grant and his co-host JB were pondering releasing Leake in favour of keeping Deonta McMahon on the active roster. That seemed a little crazy to me at the time but seems even crazier now (and that's nothing against McMahon, who is still a solid prospect).

On another note, the defence certainly had its struggles, especially after Amos went down, but they only allowed 10 points in the 2nd half and 0 points in the fourth quarter so they were eventually able to make the necessary adjustments to win the game. The offence was superb once again. This is just a solid football team that I still think has only scratched the surface as to how good they can be.

[paulwoods13]

From my perspective, most of the coverage busts seemed to happen on blitzes. When all the injuries forced the team to do a big revamp in the back end (Metchie back to safety, Pickett to HB, both Williams and Jones in at LB), Mace stopped dialling up blitzes and things settled down on the last few Calgary drives. I love an aggressive approach, but it works only if the back end is rock solid. Which it definitely wasn't last night. I never want to pin blame on individuals when there are busts in the defensive backfield, because we don't know what the coverage call was, and sometimes the guy who seems to get beaten was actually doing what was expected, and someone else blew the coverage. But I will go against my usual policy to say that Hagerty looked really, truly lost out there before he got hurt. With him and Edouard both hurt, we better hope Sutton is ready to play soon. As Shatto said, we can also hope that at least one of Priester, Carnell and McFadden is good to go next week.

[ArgoRavi]

From my perspective, most of the coverage busts seemed to happen on blitzes. When all the injuries forced the team to do a big revamp in the back end (Metchie back to safety, Pickett to HB, both Williams and Jones in at LB), Mace stopped dialling up blitzes and things settled down on the last few Calgary drives. I love an aggressive approach, but it works only if the back end is rock solid. Which it definitely wasn't last night. I never want to pin blame on individuals when there are busts in the defensive backfield, because we don't know what the coverage call was, and sometimes the guy who seems to get beaten was actually doing what was expected, and someone else blew the coverage. But I will go against my usual policy to say that Hagerty looked really, truly lost out there before he got hurt. With him and Edouard both hurt, we better hope Sutton is ready to play soon. As Shatto said, we can also hope that at least one of Priester, Carnell and McFadden is good to go next week.

McFadden was a healthy scratch so I would assume that he will be in the lineup next week.

[jerrym]

Great to see 17,906 at the game creating a better atmosphere.

[paulwoods13]

McFadden was a healthy scratch so I would assume that he will be in the lineup next week.

It would mean either he or Stiggers playing halfback. The latter has done so this year, IIRC. But having a true HB like Carnell (or Priester) would make me more comfortable. Also, if Sutton and Edouard are unable to dress next wk, who's backing up Metchie? I suppose it could be Tigie Sankoh. The fact Sutton is on PR and not IR would seem to suggest he'll be available.

[OV Argo]

It would mean either he or Stiggers playing halfback. The latter has done so this year, IIRC. But having a true HB like Carnell (or Priester) would make me more comfortable. Also, if Sutton and Edouard are unable to dress next wk, who's backing up Metchie? I suppose it could be Tigie Sankoh. The fact Sutton is on PR and not IR would seem to suggest he'll be available.

I'd be looking to sign RedBlacks draft pick and former All-Canadian safety at Western, Daniel Valente; I believe he was somewhere on the Ottawa roster earlier this season, but I don't see him now and he would be buried there behind 3 other safeties with CFL experience, plus a higher draft pick safety in Cormier. Sharp scouts and GMs are aware of players who could be picked-up from other teams.


This is Hagerty's 3rd season with the Argos, no? - so the coaching staff must have thought he was capable to play, or else why was he next man up to go in at safety? He looked lost (and blew a tire on that Beggelton TD - by why was a back-up safety looking like he was supposed to cover the Stamps best and most targeted receiver?) or else whiffed on tackle chances (even though it was a fairly small sample size); I recall him getting to play on the Argo D some as a rookie (was that when ego-Jones was brought in as an Argo defensive "consultant"?), and he did not impress then; but would have thought he would have learned and progressed plenty by now? This is why I wish the Argos had used one of their top draft picks to get a safety last season from a deep crop there - could have challenged Hagerty and the likes of Edouard or Sutton are not experienced safeties.

[Argo57]

I'd be looking to sign RedBlacks draft pick and former All-Canadian safety at Western, Daniel Valente; I believe he was somewhere on the Ottawa roster earlier this season, but I don't see him now and he would be buried there behind 3 other safeties with CFL experience, plus a higher draft pick safety in Cormier. Sharp scouts and GMs are aware of players who could be picked-up from other teams.


This is Hagerty's 3rd season with the Argos, no? - so the coaching staff must have thought he was capable to play, or else why was he next man up to go in at safety? He looked lost (and blew a tire on that Beggelton TD - by why was a back-up safety looking like he was supposed to cover the Stamps best and most targeted receiver?) or else whiffed on tackle chances (even though it was a fairly small sample size); I recall him getting to play on the Argo D some as a rookie (was that when ego-Jones was brought in as an Argo defensive "consultant"?), and he did not impress then; but would have thought he would have learned and progressed plenty by now? This is why I wish the Argos had used one of their top draft picks to get a safety last season from a deep crop there - could have challenged Hagerty and the likes of Edouard or Sutton are not experienced safeties.

Hagerty hasn’t impressed at all whenever he has played, baffles the mind that he is still on the roster TBH.

[RB957]

From my perspective, most of the coverage busts seemed to happen on blitzes. When all the injuries forced the team to do a big revamp in the back end (Metchie back to safety, Pickett to HB, both Williams and Jones in at LB), Mace stopped dialling up blitzes and things settled down on the last few Calgary drives. I love an aggressive approach, but it works only if the back end is rock solid. Which it definitely wasn't last night. I never want to pin blame on individuals when there are busts in the defensive backfield, because we don't know what the coverage call was, and sometimes the guy who seems to get beaten was actually doing what was expected, and someone else blew the coverage. But I will go against my usual policy to say that Hagerty looked really, truly lost out there before he got hurt. With him and Edouard both hurt, we better hope Sutton is ready to play soon. As Shatto said, we can also hope that at least one of Priester, Carnell and McFadden is good to go next week.

To your point, it was after Hagerty got hurt that the D stiffened up overall. I know the CFL game is all about the ratio, but I agree with others here that Hagarty has been around long enough that he should be better, or find someone else who can be.

[RB957]

It was cool when they played the Argos fight song after one TD and they focused in on a gentleman singing his heart out wearing an "Argonotes" jersey. That has to be Shayman, who is a poster on the forum and the conductor of the Argonotes, was it not? Anyway, he looked great and I'm glad he got his moment.