Landry: Argos Hope To Manage The Clock On Trip To The West Coast

DON LANDRY – Argonauts.ca Columnist

TORONTO – When the Toronto Argonauts take their show on the road to British Columbia and a date with the Lions on Thursday night, they’ll be trying to snap the franchise’s ten game Vancouver losing streak, dating back to July 9, 2002.

They aren’t the only eastern time zone team bedeviled by B.C Place. The Montreal Alouettes’ only win on the west coast since 2000 came at Empire Field in 2010, the Lions’ temporary home while the lid on the now 30 year old stadium was being replaced and the rest of the place was being upgraded. The Hamilton Ticats have -lately- fared much better, winning three of their last four in B.C. Prior to 2009, however, they’d won just once in twelve regular season games dating back to 1997.

The Argos, while scoring one of the team’s most glorious victories in Vancouver in the 1983 Grey Cup Game, are just 7 – 22 – 1 since B.C. Place opened that year.

So, then, what is it about Vancouver?

“Ten in a row we’ve lost?”

That was an incredulous special teams coordinator Mike O’Shea answering a question with a question when told of the team’s drought in B.C. It was O’Shea who capped the Argos’ last win in Vancouver back in 2002 with a fumble recovery touchdown on the game’s last play. (That play, by the way, is still the source of some consternation for kicker Noel Prefontaine. O’Shea, too. You can read about that, below, in “the Extra Point”)

O’Shea believes the time change does affect eastern teams, especially when it’s a 7 pm Pacific time start, as this Thursday’s game will be.

“I imagine it is. I hate to offer any excuses. You’ve just gotta go out there and win,” he shrugged.

Then, he offered up another idea. One that Pinball Clemons had uttered to me less than an hour before I talked with O’Shea. That Vancouver’s too beautiful a place and it’s siren song of beauty can lull an Argonaut… well, you know the legend.

“It is a tough place to play for a number of reasons. I think you might be pacified by all the beauty out there,” O’Shea explained.” The mountains and traveling down to the ocean. Maybe it’s just soothing,” he laughed.

“It’s a nice city.”

Could that be it? Get off a plane with the best of intentions to dismantle anything in orange but then be calmed by the beauty of the place? Haven’t we all exhaled a little bit when touching down in Vancouver?

Hogwash, says fullback Jeff Johnson, another member of that 2002 team.

“No, not at all,” he responded to the notion of the calming ocean. “I love going out there, it is beautiful. No doubt it’s a tranquil environment. It certainly brings a certain ambience. It’s different from everywhere else.

But you know what? When you’re in the stadium, you put that equipment on… doesn’t matter where you are. You’re playing football.”

Johnson believes it is, indeed, about the time change and how you handle it.

“That’s what I would chalk it up to,” he said.

Head Coach Scott Milanovich was wary of using anything as an excuse but even he had to concede the three hour difference in time needs to be considered.

“I don’t take a lot of stock into it,” the coach said. A slight pause after that and then he added: “I guess I take enough stock into it that we go out a day early. I think that’s the important thing. To get them there in plenty of time so they can kinda get settled and – a little bit – get used to the different time zone.”

Johnson appreciates that. Even though the Argos went out a day early last season as well, coming away with a 28 – 23 loss in a game that began at 10 pm, eastern.

“It helps,” he insisted. “It’s going to affect you somewhat,” he said of the time change. “You try to get your rest the day before so you don’t have that effect but you still feel it. I think that’s the  biggest challenge.” As a savvy veteran, Johnson will suggest to his teammates that they try to stay up late and sleep in for the two nights and mornings they’re in Vancouver, prior to the game.

It’s a manageable thing, the time change. On that, Milanovich, O’Shea and Johnson all agree. It cannot be used as an excuse, confirms Milanovich, who saw Alouette teams he helped coach lose three in a row in Vancouver before winning at Empire Field in 2010. They lost again, in 2011. “I’ve never thought it was a factor for the team that won or lost,” he proclaimed.

For O’Shea, there’s no special voodoo hold any place has on any team. Just obstacles to overcome. “There’s a number of reasons why it’s hard to win there,” he said. “But you’ve got to put them all out of your head and not listen to the stats. You should just change it.”

“Every team’s beatable in every place.”

On July 9th, 2002, the Argos were clinging to a one point lead over the Lions, with seconds remaining. That’s when things got really interesting.

O’Shea and kicker Noel Prefontaine would combine to salt away a 30 – 22 victory for the Boatmen.

“It happens to be one of the most memorable plays I’ve ever been a part of and not because I scored a touchdown,” claimed O’Shea.

It’s also the cause of some consternation for O’Shea. He regrets not having tossed the ball to Prefontaine, who was beside him the length of the field as O’Shea ran to the end zone for the major.

Why?

A Lions’ field goal attempt sailed wide of the uprights, but a single would have tied the game.

O’Shea picks it up from there.

“It should be going out of the end zone,” he says of the off target ball.

“And Pre, instead of backing up with his heels on the end line and reaching over his head, turns with his toes at the end line and caught the ball over his shoulder.”

“He brought it back and started to run it out. Realized that he couldn’t because it was so deep. He punted it,” explained the retired linebacker.

The ball then went back to the Lions’ kicker, Matt Kellett, who – as O’Shea remembers it, was likely about to attempt kicking it back into the end zone.

“Out of nowhere comes Prefontaine and causes a fumble. Which I happen to pick up.”

“I did,” explains Prefontaine, who then offers pretty much the same account as O’Shea.

“I caught it over the shoulder, he recalls and then gives himself some storytelling instruction. “Pump it up. Yes, Pre, pump it up.” He continues:

“Turned around, kicked it. Didn’t kick it very far. I ended up hitting Kellett and the ball ends up coming out. Osh picks it up. I get onside with him and tell him to pitch it and he says ‘block.’ Prefontaine then repeats that. “He says ‘no, you block.’ So, I come back to the inside of him and escorted him to the end zone.”

This is where O’Shea observes some remorse.

“To this day, it’s one of the greatest plays I’ve been associated with and I still have my regrets of not pitching it to Pre.”

“He saved the game by making sure the ball was not going out of bounds, which was an unbelievable catch. He had a great punt out of the end zone and then he ran down and I’m sure he caused the fumble.”

When I tell Prefontaine about O’Shea’s regret, he’s suspicious of how genuine it might be.

“Yeah, probably because I mention it every year,” he says.

When I tell O’Shea that Prefontaine forgives him, there is more suspicion.

“He doesn’t. Trust me, he’s lying,” is his response.

By the way, O’Shea claims he’s not seen the play since it happened and worries that it might not be on tape anywhere. So, if you have a dusty old VHS tape in your basement labelled “Argos/Lions, July 2002,” I know a retired linebacker who’d like to hear from you.