Cassius Vaughn (26) of the Toronto Argonauts during the game against the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, AB, Saturday, August 26, 2017. (Photo: Johany Jutras)
Sunday’s news release announcing the signing of Duron Carter was expected.
As always, Communications Manager Chris Balenovich issued a statement that the Toronto Argonauts had signed a free-agent, outlined some of his career accomplishments, and shared some personal background.
Aside from the magnitude of the signing, it was pretty much a standard news release until you got to the last paragraph.
“The club also announced 2017 CFL East All-Star INT DB Cassius Vaughn looks to be out for the remainder of the season with a suspected torn Achilles. Further tests will be conducted to confirm.”
Ouch.
Literally and figuratively, ouch.
Everyone was bracing themselves for the news as soon a s the play happened. Seeing the outstanding defensive back go down without contact in the second half of Friday’s game in Montreal made one fear the worst. Seeing him taken off on the back of a tractor didn’t exactly make one optimistic either.
The worst-case scenario was confirmed by the Sunday’s news release.
Vaughn was an all-star a season ago, his first-year in Toronto. He’s a terrific in coverage, aggressive against the run, and is among the smartest players in the league.
He will always be remembered in Argo country as the player who turned the 2017 Grey Cup around with a 109-yard touchdown on a fourth-quarter fumble recovery.
The Argos will miss his versatility. He played the last couple games at the boundary halfback position after playing most of the last two years at the strong-side linebacker spot, but that’s not what they will miss the most.
Defensive Coordinator Mike Archer said there’s one specific element that will be missed with No. 26 out of the lineup.
“The leadership, what he’s meant to us over these last two years,” the coach told Argonauts.ca. “But that’s football. Our guys adjusted very well during the course of the game.”
They had to adjust, because not only did the positional dominos start to fall, so did the players. Marcus Roberson Jr., who started each of the last two games next to Vaughn at boundary halfback, was also injured in the first half in Montreal. Special teams standout Matt Webster was also nicked up, though he was able to return and finished the game at safety.
Jermaine Gabriel moved from safety to field corner, while Ronnie Yell shifted from the field to boundary side. Trumaine Washington slid over from field to boundary half. Robert Woodson played field corner after the Roberson injury, then moved to field half after Vaughn got hurt. The only member of the secondary that finished the game where he started was SAM linebacker Alden Darby Jr., who had a 46-yard interception return for a touchdown in the game.
That shuffling may be confusing to the average fan, but it wasn’t at all to the players. Why? Archer has every defensive back practice at multiple positions beginning in training camp, and on Friday it paid off.
In the second half the Alouettes only scored one touchdown due to a long completion that happened on the play Vaughn was hurt. Other than that, the banged-up Argos defence gave up just four points the rest of the half.
So now the shuffling begins. The good news is that Darby has played the last two games at SAM and starting there will be nothing new for him, unless of course they decide to line him up somewhere else.
“We’ve got some flexibility,” explained Archer. “The beauty with the six DBs is that they’ve got to know the halfback, they’ve got to know the corner, they’ve got to know the safety, so we’ll work on it this week and go down there (to Hamilton) and guys will have to play multiple positions, but I think at this time of the year you have to be prepared for that.”
While there has been an obvious improvement from Week One until now, the DC knows there’s more work to do.
“We’re not happy,” the former LSU Head Coach admitted. “We’ve given up too many explosive plays. We’ve got to do a better job, our whole defence. We have to do a better job of rushing the passer with four or five (players). We’ve got to do a better job in underneath coverage and we have to do a better job in our deep coverage.”
Archer, also a long-time linebackers coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers, was in the mood to talk shop.
“We have periods of consistency where we look like a championship defence,” he continued, “And then there’s other times where we don’t. We’ve got to get more consistent over the course of a game. We go through (rough) periods in the first half and come in here (the locker room) and then go out in the second half and don’t give up touchdowns. Why can’t we do it in the first half?”
It’s a question Archer and his staff are desperately trying to answer. Though it may be tougher to accomplish with the loss of Vaughn, the combination of talent and preparation will go a long way to help getting the defence back to its championship form of a year ago.