ARGONAUTS.CA
TORONTO – Some games are bigger than others. You just feel it.
Some games can be mathematically proven to be bigger. That’s the case with this Sunday’s tilt between the Argos and the Montreal Alouettes.
“We can’t spend any effort looking ahead or doing any math. It’s definitely not my strong suit,” said Toronto centre Jeff Keeping, when told of the ramifications and numerical permutations of a win versus a loss.
It’s pretty simple. The Toronto Argonauts, cursed in 2012 with inconsistency, plagued by a boatload of penalties and, now, shackled with an injury bug that infests pretty well each and every CFL team at some point in a season, simply must beat Montreal.
A loss means any designs they have on first place have, for all intents and purposes, turned to vapour.
The Alouettes, with a win, would pull four points clear of the Argos and would hold the tie breaker between the two, with three games each to play.
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Related: Argos vs. Als |
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Basically, that would mean Toronto would need to run the table, while Montreal did no better than a tie in their remaining three, to win the East. Or, if you rather, the Argos would need to win at least two and tie another, with the Alouettes losing all three.
“Not even worried about it, man,” was free safety Jordan Younger’s reply when confronted with the numbers. “We’ll worry about that when the game’s over. One way or the other. Right now, just get ready for Montreal, man.”
The ups, the downs, the bumps and the sharp turns of this Argos season – a season which has seen the team tantalizingly close to a breakthrough a number of times – make it a little unreasonable to assume that this is a crew poised for a three game winning streak, never mind having it coupled with a three game winless streak by Montreal.
That means Sunday’s game is a must, the most recent and certainly most important opportunity for the Toronto Argonauts to assert some football authority. Which means productive, clean play in all aspects of the game.
Younger believes the defence is close. He feels what was basically a decent showing against Saskatchewan, by the unit he captains, was marred by just a few, yet major, missteps.
“We blew about 7 plays on defence, you know, total plays,” he explained.
“Other than that, we did really well against them. Knowing that it wasn’t crazy bad, that we had a letdown at a really bad time coming into the second half, we know that we’re really, really close to putting that game together.”
What more opportune time than Sunday to assemble that game? The Alouettes have struggled, themselves, losing two straight. Als quarterback Anthony Calvillo says he feels like they’ve played like a last place team, but Younger knows that doesn’t mean the Argo defence should be licking its collective chops, anticipating an easy meal.
“Calvillo’s going to be ready,” he nodded. “They’re going to have energy.
They’re a talented football team and we’re excited about the opportunity to play against them at home.”
Over on the offensive side of the ball, Jeff Keeping is looking for a well-mixed batch of emotion and playmaking, as he looks both ahead to Montreal and back at Saskatchewan.
“Intensity has got to be at an all-time high,” he said, of Sunday’s game.
“We had an intense group in the locker room before our last game. The group was electric. But, as you see, intensity without execution is misplaced. So we’ve gotta try and put together a better effort in terms of being intense but coming out and executing and taking care of the fundamentals. Taking care of the ball and taking less penalties.”
The Argos offence will be down a wide receiver, this weekend, as Dontrelle Inman nurses a sore hamstring, causing head coach Scott Milanovich to do a little more roster juggling, as has become commonplace recently. With Inman out, Jason Barnes will, perhaps, get a shot at redemption after being a scratch for the last six games. Quarterback Ricky Ray, is questionable, as is running back Chad Kackert. Whether it’s Ray and Kackert lining up in the backfield, or back ups Jarious Jackson and Gerald Riggs Jr., a reasonably effective attack needs to be mounted, or the big game gets that much tougher to win.
Despite the disappointment of scoring only 10 points in the Thanksgiving Day loss to the ‘Riders, Milanovich asserts that most of the mistakes have been detected and can be fixed.
“In a lot of cases they’re very easily corrected. So that, I think, gives coaches and players a sense of security, that, hey, you know it’s not major changes that need to be taking place. It’s just a step here, a leverage there, holding on to the football… those sort of things.”
Those sorts of things have been dogging the Argos all season long and now the little details have added up to them being in a position where a loss to the Alouettes will all but eliminate any chance of finishing in the East division penthouse.
But that’s just more math. Keeping’s aversion to it does make some football player sense. As he says:
“All we can do is focus on Montreal and take care of business and the math will take care of itself.”
Penalties. The Argos have racked up a league-leading 116 penalties for an also league-leading 1,472 yards. That’s an average of 12 penalties and 105 yards per game, totals that were both out-stripped in the loss to the Roughriders. Keeping can’t figure out why this remains a problem, especially after a players-only meeting a few weeks back was supposed to remedy it.
“I can’t pinpoint it,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “Obviously, it’s been a point of emphasis and the coaches and players have stressed it. It’s continued to be a problem and obviously, with this stretch ahead of us we know that of the key things we need to do to get where we wanna go, that that’s a big part of it.”
When asked about why the flags keep flying on defence, Younger paused, collected his thoughts and then said:
“I’ve been playing a long time and all I can say is it’s still, ultimately, a young group. We’ve got some great, great emotional guys, emotional leaders who just have to find that, you know, to put that emphasis on team outcome, as opposed to individual.”