TORONTO (CP) – And the starting quarterback for the Toronto Argonauts is …
Head coach Rich Stubler decided to keep everyone guessing a while
longer Thursday night after his team wrapped up the pre-season with a
28-21 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, refusing to say who’ll be under
centre when things start for real next week.
“I’ll let you know next Friday,” he said coyly. “I think I have two starters.”
Kerry Joseph, the CFL’s outstanding player in 2007 acquired from
Saskatchewan via an off-season trade, made a much better case for
himself in the exhibition finale before a crowd of 21,422. He was 8 of
18 passing for 147 yards and ran for touchdown in the opening two
quarters in a solid but unspectacular performance.
“I thought Kerry came out and did some really good things, I thought
Bish did,” said Stubler. “Bish was playing some different people, kind
of got into a field-position game and backed him up a lot and didn’t
bail him out on (special) teams.”
Joseph
rated his effort with a “so-so,” even though he outplayed both his
teammate (Bishop), and Hamilton’s Casey Printers, the league’s 2004 outstanding
player.
“Made some plays, but we missed some plays also,” said Joseph. “Hey,
it’s pre-season, it gives us a chance to work on some things, make some
corrections and get ready for the real deal next week.”
This one wasn’t decided until there was 1:07 remaining, when Quinton
Porter, the third Ticats QB of the night, provided the margin of
victory with a nine-yard TD run. Tre Smith’s 73-yard punt return put
the ball on the Argos nine.
“We piddled the game away on special teams,” complained Stubler. “Our special teams were horrendous.”
Jesse Lumsden scored a touchdown on a nine-yard rush while Nick
Setta kicked four field goals for the Tiger-Cats, who host Montreal in
their season-opener next Thursday.
Dominique Dorsey added a rushing touchdown for the Argos, who open the regular season next Friday in Winnipeg.
Printers, who enters the season with high expectations, was 15 of 24
passing for 144 yards in 2 1-2 non-descript quarters. He did nothing
with a few shots in the red zone but didn’t turn the ball over either,
as he continues to get acquainted with the Ticats offence.
“We’ve got a lot of new stuff, new personnel, new plays, it takes
time to develop it all,” said Printers. “That’s what you saw out there,
still some of the rust and we have a lot to work on as you can see.
“It was tough slugging out there.”
Printers’ final drive, however, allowed the Ticats to take their
first lead of the game, 7:07 into the third quarter. Starting at the
Hamilton 39, he marched Hamilton to the Toronto 13 where things stalled
and Setta split the uprights from 20 yards out for a 15-14 edge.
Setta extended the advantage to 18-14 when he booted another from 36 yards 1:07 into the fourth.
Things changed briefly after Setta’s 41-yard punt later in the
quarter landed in Bethel Johnson’s arms at the Argos 34, where he found
his way to the outside and charged back 76 yards for the touchdown and
a 21-18 lead.
Bishop blew a chance to pad the advantage midway through the fourth
when a Willie Ponder fumble on a punt return put the Argos deep in
Hamilton territory. But he was promptly picked off by James Kinney.
That proved costly when Setta tied it up by capping an 11-play,
68-yard drive with a 30-yarder at 13:04, setting the stage for Porter’s
dash a minute later.
Sandy Beveridge killed any last minute comeback hopes by picking off Bishop a third time.
“I have to watch the film a little more to find out exactly what
ailed him,” Stubler said of Bishop. “I know he pressed a little bit
trying to get the ball down the field, but he had a couple of guys wide
open down there that I thought our receivers, with our speed, should
run those balls down.”
The four-quarter drama all came after Joseph efficiently led the
Argos offence to a pair of touchdowns and a 14-12 lead in the first
half.
On his first play from scrimmage, Joseph connected on a 46-yard pass
with Bethel Johnson that, combined with an unnecessary roughing
penalty, put the Argos on the Hamilton 20. After a 10-yard pass to Jeff
Johnson set up first and goal, Dorsey charged into the end zone for a
7-0 lead just 1:01 into the game.
Pinned deep in their zone for most of the quarter, the Argos did little else and conceded a safety at 9:17.
They remained quiet until midway through the second quarter, when a
drive that started on their own five culminated in Joseph’s 10-yard TD
run at 10:04.
The Ticats showed some life soon after, getting Setta’s 21-yard
field goal at 12:41 and setting up Lumsden’s touchdown when Dennis
Mitchell tackled Mike Vanderjagt on the Argos nine after pressure
prevented him from getting a punt off.
Lumsden rumbled in from nine out at 13:08 to make it 14-12.
Hamilton might have taken the lead into the half but closed out the
second quarter by coming up empty on two attempts on first-and-goal
from the 10.