ARGONAUTS.CA STAFF
TORONTO – The halfway point of the CFL season has officially been reached. After 10 weeks of play, the Argos sit atop the East Division with a 5-4 record, one game ahead of both the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes who sit at 4-5. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers sit at the bottom of the Eastern Division with a league worst 1-8 record.
As we look back on the first half of the season, we have no choice but to start with QB Ricky Ray, who was hovering near quarterback perfection before getting injured against the Calgary Stampeders in Week 9. Ray had completed an unconscious 78.3% of his pass attempts with 15 touchdowns and zero interceptions in the team’s first eight games. These simply unheard of numbers by Ray (and two weeks of Zach Collaros as starter) have helped SB Chad Owens reach third in the CFL in receiving yards with 683. He sits behind Montreal’s S.J. Green and Edmonton’s Fred Stamps who leads the way with 724 yards.
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-> Argos Seek Revenge vs. Als |
However, Owens is once again on pace to break the 3,000 combined yards mark for the fourth straight season, sitting with 1,737 through 10 weeks of play. Including his 638 receiving yards, Owens has tallied 257 punt return yards, 626 kickoff return yards and 118 missed field goal return yards; all those MFG return yards came on one big play versus Montreal that resulted in a TD.
Staying with the offence, SB Jason Barnes has developed into a big touchdown threat for the Argonauts in 2013. He leads the team with 6 touchdowns, which ties him for second in the entire CFL. He has added 379 yards on 25 receptions to his total. Rookie WR John Chiles has also made his presence felt in opponent’s end zones totaling 5 touchdowns to go along with 401 yards on 20 receptions in just 6 games.
Perhaps the most unheralded member of the Argonauts aerial attack is 7th year Argonaut, SB Andre Durie. Durie is quietly putting together his best CFL season as he already sits with 535 yards on 48 receptions. He has tacked on one reception touchdown and 10 carries for 61 yards. Durie’s career year came in 2012 when he had 70 receptions for 842 yards, but if he is able to maintain this pace, he could surpass the 1,000 yard mark for the first time in his CFL career.
With Ray out for the next few weeks however, the Argos are approaching a very important stretch if they want to retain their position atop the East. QB Zach Collaros and the offence will look to improve in their second game against Montreal in two weeks as they were only able to put 9 points up on the Als defence in Week 10.
Turning to the other side of the ball, the Double Blue have had mixed reviews on defence.
On the one hand, the Boatmen boast the league’s second leading tackler in LB Robert McCune with 59. Referred to as “Hammer” by his teammates, McCune has been a force in the middle for the Argonauts through 10 weeks. LB Marcus Ball sits second on the Argos with 37 tackles, having missed one game already this year. McCune and Ball are both on pace to set career high tackles totals.
These great individual numbers are counter balanced by some less than impressive team defensive stats. The Argos defence currently sits last in the league in average yards of offence allowed per game with 417.8 yards, though they have allowed low point totals with only 229 points and 19 touchdowns against.
Finally, one of the biggest surprises for the Boatmen has been 17th overall selection in the 2013 CFL Canadian Draft DB Jermaine Gabriel, who leads the team in Special Teams Tackles with 9, an average of one per game. Special team’s maven Jason Pottinger is also keeping pace with 8 STT at this point in 2013.
With Montreal on tap again on Sunday, September 8th, the Argos have a chance to once again put some distance in front of the rest of the division before a three week West Coast road trip will see them play Saskatchewan, Calgary and Edmonton consecutively to wrap up the month of September.
The Boatmen will then return home to play the Ticats on October 4, at which point the Eastern Division could look very different then it does now.
To put it lightly, the next few weeks will be very interesting for both the Argos and the Eastern Division. Buckle up, Argos nation.