ARGONAUTS.CA STAFF
The Toronto Argonauts’ biggest opponent right now could be the 15 minutes between the first and second half. If not, it sure seems that way because throughout their current five-game losing streak the club has fielded what seems like two different teams in both halves.
The Boatmen were within a touchdown of the perennial powerhouse Montreal Alouettes on Thursday at Rogers Centre heading into halftime. Despite Anthony Calvillo looking as sharp as ever, the Argos offence was moving the ball decently and consistently putting points on the board.
However, a strange play at the end of the first half seemed to take the wind out of the Argos’ sails. With six seconds left, the Argos ran a quick draw play to RB Chad Kackert – likely to set up a Grant Shaw field goal attempt which would have cut the Alouettes’ lead to four. A seam opened up for Kackert, however, and by the time he approached the sidelines to stop the clock, it was reading zeros.
“I didn’t want the kid [Shaw] to kick a 48-yard field goal and let the half end on a return,” said GM & Head Coach Jim Barker about the play.
“I thought we were very competitive in the first half but came out in the third quarter and played about as bad a quarter of football as we could. We couldn’t get a first down, we couldn’t move the ball and we let them control the ball, and that was the story of the game.”
A similar scenario occurred last week in Edmonton but it was the defence that was on the field and the end of the half was a lot more bizarre. Though it yielded a similar result in the second half.
In fact, in the last five games, the Argos have outscored their opponent 49-46 in the first half but conversely been outscored 88-45 in the second half.
“We played well and played with energy, and we took it to them but no excuses for the second half. We just didn’t play the way we should have played,” said Argos quarterback Cleo Lemon after Thursday’s loss.
Numbers-wise, Lemon had one of his most productive passing games of his CFL career; passing for 314 yards and 2 touchdowns on 25 completions. It was his best yardage total since Labour Day last year.
“We always talk about numbers. The numbers might look good but you have to look at the end result. I get paid to win games but we are not doing that right now,” Lemon said.
One of Lemon’s favourite targets on Thursday was Andre Durie who echoed his quarterback’s sentiments about the importance of playing a complete game to get over the hump.
“We have to keep the momentum going and come out firing in the third,” he said. “That has been our issue and we have to rectify that for next week. We have to be that team that comes out and plays a full four quarters.”
Now focus turns to Hamilton in week 7 and the Argos will be the first to admit that the atmosphere in the locker room is far from jovial. However, it is now when they have to lean on one another and get their season back on track.
“Right now it is not a good time for us,” Lemon said. “We know we have to dig ourselves out of this hole and the only people that can do it are the guys in this locker room.”