Game Thread: Toronto Argonauts @ Winnipeg Blue Bombers

[jerrym]

You nailed it. Oliveira again and again, our Dis gassed but they have played tough. Great job Argos D. Got some serious licks on Collaros to boot.

You're right the Argo D has been impressive considering how much time that have had to play.

[kellynjk]

They should have left Dukes in the game, Scott was ineffective and could have played in some other game. If Dukes had remained, the Argos might have been able to pull off a win.

[jerrym]

Nield and Brissett continue to show they are more than adequate replacement players with four catches each in the game.

[jerrym]

Dukes was 17/24 for 231 yards and looked good but also showed inexperience at times as expected for a guy playing his first start. Considering Bryan Scott has bounced around the Indoor Spring League, the NFL, the XFL, and the CFL since 2017, he did not provide much (to put it kindly) in the way of promise, going 0/4 with passes not on target, although this brief appearance may not be enough to fully evaluate him.

[Waffle]

I like many others figured the Argos would loose this game, but it feels like a game they could have won except for untimely deserved penalties, some favourable referee non calls for Winnipeg, and the absence of a running game when Ouellette left.


Is Dukes capable of being a threat to throw a pass more than 20 yards?


The defence played pretty well all things considered, and should have their pay cheques doubled for the game since they were on the field for most of it.

["Issues"Mcgee]

The decision to pull Dukes with 11 minutes left was questionable.

At one point, it looked like they were having trouble deciding which QB to play.

[OV Argo]

Yeah - Dukes was playing really well IMO, but i guess they wanted to get Scott some reps?

Some other curious lack of playing depth guys - why not give a couple of interior O-linemen rest or protection and put MacKellar & Giffen in; why not give Adeboboye some real work at RB; and Oliveira was gashing the D up the middle so why not try and counter with a big, physical MLB like Cassar to see if he could help ???

Anyhow, an Argo team with nothing to play for and playing an inexperienced back-up QB with a bunch of other key starters out, almost beat the Bombers who needed this game.

Something will have to be done to stop Oliveira though if they meet in the GC again. WTF is up with Henoc (who IMO could certainly help in that department) ? - is he nicked with injury still, or just an Argo cheerleader this season? Are they going to wait till the East Final to activate him? Curious.

[Shatto]

A couple of observations:
.Granted, Scott went in cold but he looked very ineffective. Can see why he has been demoted to 3rd string

.Dukes showed potential. Good mobility and accurate short and medium passer. Does not appear to have the arm strength for long passes and passes lack velocity.

.Ouellette playing the whole game may have helped Dukes. McMahon has quickness but no power. Would have preferred Adeboboye instead.

.Defense played a very vanilla game for the most part. Pierce impressed again. He had a great interception in the end zone but it was nullified by an offside.

. Brissett and Nield again proved to be very good receivers.

.Surprisingly, this was a game the Argos could have won, in spite missing some key players.

[kellynjk]

Well considering that the CFL wants to increase both attendance and tv viewership (including the US) they really missed the boat with scheduling this game. There have been so many great games this season, so competitive right to the end, but this was not one of them. I know all the reasons why Dinwiddie wanted to rest players, but as this is supposed to be a match-up of the two best teams in the CFL, for me it was a disappointing and fairly boring game. I realize no-one could have predicted that the Argos would have first place in the East wrapped up this early, but there is no reason this game couldn't have been scheduled if not early in the season, then at least in the middle of the summer. I don't know who is in charge of scheduling the CFL season, but their logic is truly baffling!!!!!

[OV Argo]

Well considering that the CFL wants to increase both attendance and tv viewership (including the US) they really missed the boat with scheduling this game. There have been so many great games this season, so competitive right to the end, but this was not one of them. I know all the reasons why Dinwiddie wanted to rest players, but as this is supposed to be a match-up of the two best teams in the CFL, for me it was a disappointing and fairly boring game. I realize no-one could have predicted that the Argos would have first place in the East wrapped up this early, but there is no reason this game couldn't have been scheduled if not early in the season, then at least in the middle of the summer. I don't know who is in charge of scheduling the CFL season, but their logic is truly baffling!!!!!

The CFL sched. makers couldn't possibly know this would be a nothing game for the Argos. Still a solid football game IMO and I thought the Argos might have got blown-out with nothing to play for and with a raw rookie QB. Bombers won with their power run game and Collaros was not able to scorch the make-shift Argo secondary, like he has done to so many other Ds.

And I, for one, hate to see a GC re-match early in the season and I just don't get the idea of it happening 1st game of the year ?; mid season or late in the year are much better IMO.

[kellynjk]

Well at least play mid-season, don't wait till close to the end of the season. I was just disappointed as I would have liked to see a real competitive game with both team fielding their best players and both team wanting and needing a win. True the Argos defense looked great, but for me anyway it was hardly an exciting game and certainly didn't look like it was the two best team in the league playing against each other.

[Stevoman]

Better than expected and that's kinda scary considering the circumstances. The Argos have some very good depth and Dukes got some valuable reps. Great game by the D.

[Rich]

Like Davis Sanchez said, starting Dukes got into the Bombers’ heads. Brilliant gambit by Dinwiddie, the fact we led for 3 quarters will be a huge psychological edge for the Argos if there’s a Cup rematch.

Having said that, I hate watching us lose, even when it “doesn’t matter”. Surely we can now say with confidence that Dukes is capable of serviceable and adequate QBing in case of emergency? How much more “experience” do we need to give him?

Chad needs more experience too. He hasn’t even played one full season, in the big picture he doesn’t really have that much more CFL experience than Dukes, and he’s got a lot of things to work on, like getting his game back to where it was earlier in the season.

I think he needs to play at least 12 of the 16 quarters remaining, and I think we need to win 3 of the last 4 games to keep the winning juices flowing.

[ArgoRavi]

Yeah - Dukes was playing really well IMO, but i guess they wanted to get Scott some reps?

Some other curious lack of playing depth guys - why not give a couple of interior O-linemen rest or protection and put MacKellar & Giffen in; why not give Adeboboye some real work at RB; and Oliveira was gashing the D up the middle so why not try and counter with a big, physical MLB like Cassar to see if he could help ???

Anyhow, an Argo team with nothing to play for and playing an inexperienced back-up QB with a bunch of other key starters out, almost beat the Bombers who needed this game.

Something will have to be done to stop Oliveira though if they meet in the GC again. WTF is up with Henoc (who IMO could certainly help in that department) ? - is he nicked with injury still, or just an Argo cheerleader this season? Are they going to wait till the East Final to activate him? Curious.

Regarding Muamba, if he doesn't see any action over the next four games, he won't be playing at all in 2023. I can't see them just throwing him in for the playoffs. Peter Nicastro was ready to play in the post-season last year after missing the entire regular season with injury but they didn't play him then either and I would guess they will handle Muamba similarly. We also have no idea what his injury is.

[ArgoRavi]

Like Davis Sanchez said, starting Dukes got into the Bombers’ heads. Brilliant gambit by Dinwiddie, the fact we led for 3 quarters will be a huge psychological edge for the Argos if there’s a Cup rematch.

Having said that, I hate watching us lose, even when it “doesn’t matter”. Surely we can now say with confidence that Dukes is capable of serviceable and adequate QBing in case of emergency? How much more “experience” do we need to give him?

Chad needs more experience too. He hasn’t even played one full season, in the big picture he doesn’t really have that much more CFL experience than Dukes, and he’s got a lot of things to work on, like getting his game back to where it was earlier in the season.

I think he needs to play at least 12 of the 16 quarters remaining, and I think we need to win 3 of the last 4 games to keep the winning juices flowing.

I wouldn't disagree with anything here although I am thinking that Kelly will play at least 10 of the remaining 16 quarters. I also would like to see the Argos get to 15 wins which means winning 3 of their last 4 at least.

Which will be the other game that Kelly sits out in its entirety? I figure it will either be the game in Saskatchewan or the game in Ottawa.

[Mocha]

The CFL sched. makers couldn't possibly know this would be a nothing game for the Argos. Still a solid football game IMO and I thought the Argos might have got blown-out with nothing to play for and with a raw rookie QB. Bombers won with their power run game and Collaros was not able to scorch the make-shift Argo secondary, like he has done to so many other Ds.

And I, for one, hate to see a GC re-match early in the season and I just don't get the idea of it happening 1st game of the year ?; mid season or late in the year are much better IMO.

I'm also not a big fan of the Grey Cup rematch being in the first week of the season. I'd rather see it happen a bit further in, once the two teams have really gotten a better grasp on their team for the new season. First-week games tend to be sloppy, and the immediate Cup rematch leaves for little build up. Perhaps it could fit into the Canada Day weekend festivities? Consider starting the season off with rematches of the divisional finals instead.

[gilthethrill]

Regarding Muamba, if he doesn't see any action over the next four games, he won't be playing at all in 2023. I can't see them just throwing him in for the playoffs. Peter Nicastro was ready to play in the post-season last year after missing the entire regular season with injury but they didn't play him then either and I would guess they will handle Muamba similarly. We also have no idea what his injury is.

Difference between Nicastro and Muamba’s situation is that Nicastro actually suffered an injury. MLSE is being generous by allowing the team to sign Muamba and place him on IR for the season to allow him to transition into what appears to be a promising media career.

[Will]

Muamba is actually injured.

The only thing that could be chalked up as a concern from this game is 200 rushing yards allowed to the Blue Bombers. This was, mind you, given up without McManis and Oakman in the lineup.

[paulwoods13]

Yeah - Dukes was playing really well IMO, but i guess they wanted to get Scott some reps?

Some other curious lack of playing depth guys - why not give a couple of interior O-linemen rest or protection and put MacKellar & Giffen in; why not give Adeboboye some real work at RB; and Oliveira was gashing the D up the middle so why not try and counter with a big, physical MLB like Cassar to see if he could help ???

Anyhow, an Argo team with nothing to play for and playing an inexperienced back-up QB with a bunch of other key starters out, almost beat the Bombers who needed this game.

Something will have to be done to stop Oliveira though if they meet in the GC again. WTF is up with Henoc (who IMO could certainly help in that department) ? - is he nicked with injury still, or just an Argo cheerleader this season? Are they going to wait till the East Final to activate him? Curious.

I think they wanted to ensure Dukes had a first-string o-line protecting him. Between now and end of the season, they definitely need to get Giffen and Mackellar more playing time; presumably they should be able to do that in games against opponents weaker than Wpg.

Cassar played some snaps on defence. I obviously don't know how many, but he was out there several times. I couldn't discern who he replaced.

I expect Muamba will play this year only if they run into a major emergency at LB. He's a great insurance policy, but leaving him on the six all season frees up a good chunk of money that can be allocated elsewhere against the cap. Same goes for Bladek. IMO we would need to lose at least two interior o-linemen to injury before they would consider suiting him up.

[paulwoods13]

I'm also not a big fan of the Grey Cup rematch being in the first week of the season. I'd rather see it happen a bit further in, once the two teams have really gotten a better grasp on their team for the new season. First-week games tend to be sloppy, and the immediate Cup rematch leaves for little build up. Perhaps it could fit into the Canada Day weekend festivities? Consider starting the season off with rematches of the divisional finals instead.

I've written this before but to recap: I would like to see a one-game-only Week 1 rematch of the two Grey Cup finalists. Call it the Kickoff Classic, play it on the first Saturday or Sunday evening after camps end, at the stadium of the champs. They raise the banner and then kick off against the team they beat in the previous Cup. No other games that weekend -- seven teams on a week 1 bye. The champs could market the hell out of the game in the off-season and if the league was smart they could even turn it into a mini-festival, enticing fans of other teams to fly in. Not only would this add a major event to the schedule, it would make the rest of the schedule much better than it is now. Give the two Week 1 teams each a bye in the next two weeks, and after that each team gets two more byes over the final 18 weeks of the schedule, meaning every week would have a full four-game slate.