East Semi Final Thread: Ottawa Redblacks @ Toronto Argonauts

[OV Argo]

Piss-poor lack of adjustment by the Argo D to the Ottawa spread offence.

Time of possession and Brown's passing yardage are an embarassment to the co- DCs.

Need to blitz more, more man coverage and make personnel adjustments (like get an extra DB in for Darkangelo who can't do much in coverage).

Fortunately, they made some excellent halftime adjustments.

Not sure I saw much there Ravi; (rookie DB Blackburn inserted made a real nice knock-down for one) those 2 late pick sixes were nice, but other than that Brown continued to throw for tons of completions and yardage; he shoulda been sacked about 10 times with an all-pass offence, not just twice or whatever it was. Sitting back in soft zone and making tackles after easy completions = not good enough. Big improvement needed on D to have a hope against the Als

[Will]

Herslow 4 for 47 and a touchdown, not bad, not bad at all

[OV Argo]

wheres the guy who said herslow is only playing because of his passport?

Turned out to be a great move getting him into the lineup, maybe the coaching staff knows more than the average fan does watching him perform in practice.

oh for sure; maybe this forum should be disbanded so that know-nothing fans don't bother all the Argo experts with pithy comments or opinions. Go Arrrrrrrgoooooos ! Cheerleaders !

[OV Argo]

Herslow 4 for 47 and a touchdown, not bad, not bad at all

Solid game; did not drop any and fought for extra yardage.

Veteran Tommy Nield had 5 catches for 64 yards in the last game of the season, and has 63 receptions in his Argo career; but I could see why they would want to sit him for a raw rookie.

[Stevoman]

Very happy to see how Kelly responded after the team struggled in the first quarter. I was worried that things could get derailed quickly but he proved that the moment wasn't too big for him and this should give him and the team confidence going into Montreal. The Argos D have to limit the amount of 2nd and long conversions though, it was killing them all game!

[RB957]

Give credit to the Ottawa O-line for giving Dru Brown the time to make the throws he made. It seems to me, that if our defensive line does not create pressure on the QB, the soft zone coverage in the secondary creates lots of open space. A number of Brown's incompletions were the result of him being pressured. Without that pressure, he was able to make good throws to receivers who were often wide open. IMO, this is going to be a key factor next week, because Fajardo can execute the short passing game to perfection if he has time. Having said that, it was encouraging that our D stiffened noticeably the closer the Redblacks got to the endzone, and the goal line stand was awesome, even if they did squeak it in on the 3rd try. And although there were some missed tackles, the defense really rallied to the ball.

Chad Kelly played an amazing game and proved again he is the best pure "passer" in the CFL. His fake-out of the Ottawa defender on his run TD was a thing of beauty.

Great strategy on ST's to kick the ball off high and short to keep the ball away from Ottawa's deep returners. Many times, the Redblacks weren't able to get back to even the 40 yd line.

Although the game did not start the way we would have liked, who cares that Ottawa won the time of possession stat. Final score is all that matters. Big win for the Double Blue. On to Montreal. I am confident we can win there, and the guys will certainly want to exact revenge for what the Als did to them last year. I can't wait.

[Will]

If I recall correctly, Argos had some difficulty getting pressure on Brown at times in the regular season games. Toronto led the league in sacks, but it seems that Ottawa and Hamilton's offensive lines did a good job at containing Toronto's pass rush. That said, Robbie Smith did have a sack yesterday and he did cause the pressure on Brown's first pick-six. I don't think there were any egregious breakdowns in coverage (at least not many), yes the zone was soft, but Brown's receivers also made some nice catches in tight coverage.

The Argos only had the ball for 20 minutes yesterday, but Chad Kelly made the most of those 20 minutes and was spectacular. Makai Polk is a star and hopefully we'll get to enjoy him in 2025.

[GreyCup1971]

I ran into Andrew Harris and his brand new baby boy Eastyn mid way through the first quarter. I was beside myself with anxiety. He calmed me down by just saying, there was lots of game to go. Andrew certainly knows the long game. He was right. Thank you Andrew!

[GreyCup1971]

The playoff version of the Toronto Argonauts offence is very entertaining. Fun to watch. Who puts up 58 points in a playoff game. Wow

[AngeloV]

Herslow 4 for 47 and a touchdown, not bad, not bad at all

Solid game; did not drop any and fought for extra yardage.

Veteran Tommy Nield had 5 catches for 64 yards in the last game of the season, and has 63 receptions in his Argo career; but I could see why they would want to sit him for a raw rookie.

Nield struggled at times this year. Had difficulty making contested catches and his fumble last week didn’t help his chances. Bottom line, Nield does not play short side WR. The only way he gets in yesterday is if they move Daniels to X and play Nield at #2 slot. Clearly they made the right decision.