CFL.CA STAFF
Each week CFL.ca’s Jaime Stein and Mitch Ward will debate a current issue in the CFL. This week they debate whether or not the 3-1 Toronto Argonauts are for real.
JAIME STEIN says: The 3-1 Toronto Argonauts are for real.
Firstly, credit to head coach Jim Barker who has given a breath of life into a team that was in desperate need of an identity. You are looking at a lean, mean blue machine that will not quit. That makes the Argonauts a dangerous opponent every week. Take a play off against Toronto and you risk a Chad Owens return or a Byron Parker pick-six.
But Mitch will argue that the Argos have been lucky through four weeks of the season and easily could have lost to the Bombers or Lions. Or even the Stamps for that matter.
Mitch is wrong.
Think back to 2004 when the Toronto Argonauts won the Grey Cup. The offence was asked to manage the game and play safe football while the team relied on Rich Stubler’s match coverage to force turnovers and the special teams wizardry of Bashir Levingston to return kicks.
All season long the Argos were winning games that pundits said they shouldn’t have won. And now here we are in 2010 and it appears the Boatmen are navigating the same course. Owens is now the special teams wiz and Parker leads an impressive secondary that should put fear into the minds of any quarterback – ask Henry Burris who has four reasons to dislike the Argos from their July 14th match-up. And while Cleo Lemon is not Damon Allen, he has done a decent job of protecting the ball through four games and as long as he continues to manage the offence the Argos should be successful.
Am I saying the Argos will win the Grey Cup in 2010? It is too early to make those kind of predictions. I’ll leave the prognosticating to the CFL Power Rankings. However, I strongly believe the Argonauts will be in contention for the remainder of the season if only for the reason that Barker has put together a group of athletes that shows no quit.
MITCH WARD says: I have been impressed with the Argos so far this young season. Jim Barker has come in and completely re-energized this team. At 3-1 they have come a long way from Bart Andrus’ 3-15 crew from a year ago.
They haven’t always been pretty but they have found ways to win. They’ve also owned the fourth quarter the last few weeks outscoring their opponents 38-8 in the final frame during their three-game win streak.
But they aren’t the second coming of the ’04 Grey Cup Champs as Stein would love to believe.
Cleo Lemon is not only not Damon Allen, he’s not even close. (yeah yeah double negative). And that’s not a knock on Lemon.
Allen had 20-years of veteran know-how under his belt in ’04 – Cleo Lemon is still a CFL rookie learning the game.
Sure, Allen may have been more of a game manager than a world beater that season, but he still averaged 222 yards passing per game. Lemon’s best game has been 222 yards. Allen threw just four interceptions that season. Lemon has four already.
Yes there is a ton to like about this team: Cory Boyd is a stud, Chad Owens can fly and their ball-hawking D can force opposing offences to look bad, just ask Travis Lulay or Henry Burris.
This team isn’t there yet though. They still have plenty of work to do before you can consider them among the elite teams in the league. Despite three wins, they still have a -5 point differential on the season. No Stein, I’m not going to say they were lucky to win any of their games this season. They earned them.
But you can’t rely on a fourth quarter return touchdown every week in order to win either. Those bounces just won’t always go your way.
The Argos are dead last in yards of offence, completion %, first downs and touchdowns. You can’t contend with numbers like that for a whole season. If your offence doesn’t pick up first downs, your defence, no matter how good, will eventually wear out.
So will Cory Boyd unless Lemon can find a way to get the passing game going and ease his load.
Thursday night in Montreal will be the real test of exactly how far this team has come. Just don’t be surprised if the Alouettes blow a few holes in the good ship Argos.