Quote Originally Posted by ArgoRavi View Post
Obviously, this is an extremely disappointing result today but Pinball said back in 2019 when he took over that the goal was to have a team which can contend every year, even if they don't win the Grey Cup every year and he seems to have accomplished that. There's no reason to believe that this team won't be a contender once again in 2024.

As far as today's game went, the defence played a phenomenal game and I don't have one bit of blame for them. They gave up just 17 points and 14 of those came when Montreal took over the ball deep in Toronto territory after turnovers. Even then, the defence had the Montreal offence off the field on one of those occasions until Oakman took an unfortunate, though legitimate, roughing penalty on the long-snapper.

On the kickoff return TD, there was a missed block to the back of Jonathan Jones, but you can't challenge that.

This loss is really hung on the offence and mostly on Chad Kelly who had, by far, his worst game of the season - his only bad game - at the worst time of the season. He made a bad decision on the Dequoy INT at the start of the game when he should have just handed the ball to Ouellette and, after an impressive drive, he just seemed rattled and off. His internal clock was clearly broken on the fumble near the end of the first half, after the McFadden INT, and then the wheels fell off in the third quarter with consecutive interceptions on the the first three possessions. He just was pressing too hard and making bad decisions that he hadn't made all season. He will learn from this experience and move forward and will have this team back in contention in 2024. I am calling it already - the Argos will play BC in next year's Grey Cup game in Vancouver.

Otherwise, I don't blame Kelly on the third down and short gambles that failed. They shouldn't have been doing a QB sneak on 3rd and 2 inside the Montreal 5. The offensive line, on both of those plays, just didn't get the push that they normally do either. That resulted in Kelly just pressing more and more and making more and more mistakes.

It is unfortunate that the Argos didn't have a veteran backup QB to spell Kelly, even for a series or two in the third quarter, but, again, there was nobody out there. They were interested in Dane Evans but he was traded to BC by the Ticats and they tried to sign Cody Fajardo but he chose the guaranteed starting job in Montreal instead. Next year, Dukes may be a better option in those situations, with a year under his belt, but that option just wasn't there this year.

Nobody feels worse tonight that either Chad Kelly or Ryan Dinwiddie but they will use this loss as motivation through the off-season and will be back in 2024 with a vengeance.

Did it suck to lose before over 26,600 at BMO? For sure, it did, but it isn't the end of the world. The Argos, almost certainly, will see an increase in season ticket sales and attendance in 2024 and continue to build this franchise up. There are lots of good times ahead in the upcoming years for us all to look forward to. For now, we will lick our collective wounds but eventually come to appreciate what an incredible season 2023 was.
Very well written.

I take my hat off to the Alouettes. They played a great game. Kind of remind me of the 2012 Argonauts, who were 9 - 9 and not expected to contend. But then got hot and just believed in themselves and won it all in spectacular fashion. When a team finds their mojo, and believes in themselves, anything can happen.

I also feel bad for Kelly, but every great player gets humbled in their careers and brought back down to earth, so to speak. In the long run, this will probably be good for him, it just sucked that it had to happen yesterday. Still, not the end of the world. Lots to feel good about regarding this franchise.