Sometimes being an Argonaut isn’t easy.
In Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts’ quest for the golden fleece was slowed by forces like the Gegeines and the Harpies, or by having to navigate the Symplegades. It wasn’t easy, but the crew prevailed, eventually claiming its treasure.
While the Toronto Argonauts foes this season have not been of mythical proportions, they’ve been menacing enough to see the defending Grey Cup champions’ season begin with an underwhelming 1-4 record.
Jason eventually skippered his group of Argonauts to its goal, while head coach Ryan Dinwiddie will attempt to get his football crew once again rowing in the right direction following a bye week.
Well, at least a week off for the players. The coaches were busy trying to right the ship.
“I took two days off just to re-set my battery,” Dinwiddie told Argonauts.ca. “I went to a Blue Jays game with my kids, then really dove in and self-scouted what we’re doing; what we’ve had success at and what we’re really struggling at, just narrowing down what we can fix.”
First down production, second down and two or three yards to go, and the running game are areas that he is particularly concerned with, and there will be some revisions moving forward.
“We’ve got to find way to put these guys in good position to play well on game days,” said Dinwiddie. “We looked at what we’re good at, what we’re not so good at. Do we want to scrap it, or do we want to build and try to get better at it? Certain things we’ve just moved on from and try to play from our strengths.”
Defensively things have not been great at times, but perhaps not as bad as one would think. The defensive line has been effective at pass rushing, the Argos lead the league with 14 sacks, the linebackers have for the most part done their job, while the secondary has been better positionally than it would appear, though they have lost the vast majority of 50/50 balls. That aspect of the defence was particularly evident in the Hamilton and Calgary games.
Fans have been discouraged, even more so than Jason Shivers, the team’s co-defensive coordinator. Despite just having three interceptions and ten knockdowns as a team, and already having given up 22 big plays, he’s confident that tide will turn.
“My younger self would have been very frustrated,” he told Argonauts.ca. “But being in the game as long as I have, and also playing the position, you understand that some nights are not your nights. You want to be on every night, but that’s just the nature of the beast. Those were 50/50 balls and the 50 was not on our side.”
Now it’s up to the coach to make sure that the frustration of the players, who don’t share his same depth of experience, don’t react the way younger Shivers may have.
“The biggest thing is to stay positive,” he explained. “We know that our guys were in position, so if we’re in position that means we have a chance at making plays and that’s the part that I’m optimistic about, that we’re going to come down with those balls when we have those opportunities.”
How close are they to being a much tighter group?
“I think we’re closer than most people may think,” Shivers said matter-of-factly. “I’m sure around the league that people understand that even though our record says 1-4 that we could easily be 3-2 or we could be 4-1. Besides one game I would say that we were in every game, and we were playing tough, and at the end of the game we had an opportunity to win. As long as you’re in games like that, things will start to turn, especially with the core group that we have here and the belief they have. They understand how to weather the storms.”
Special teams have also been on a roller coaster that has seen more downs than ups. While the return of last year’s CFL Most Outstanding Special Teams Player Janarion Grant will help, the team has still allowed too many big returns, most notably game-changing kickoff returns against Saskatchewan and Hamilton.
Coordinator Mickey Donovan self-scouts every week because his groups must show a different look to opponents every game. But that task becomes even tougher when there’s a larger group of new players than normal, coupled with injuries to Jack Cassar, who co-led the league in special teams tackles last year, and Brian Harelimana, a player unknown to most fans, but vital to the success of Donovan’s group.
“Brian is the general on the field,” Donovan told Argonauts.ca. “Not just me, but a lot of players rely on him on the little things we talk about in meetings. He’s been with me for a long time (the pair were together with the Alouettes before coming to the Argos) and knows the way I look at film and how we adjust to our opponents, and anticipate and work off their schemes.”
Grant, on the other hand, is someone fans know well. He had four return touchdowns last year in the regular season, adding another in the Eastern Final. He returned to the end zone in the last game against Hamilton, something likely to happen again before the season is over.
“JG knows how to set up a block,” Donovan explained. “He understands the scheme better because he’s been in it already. He’s already shown what his strengths are and he makes people around him better. Last week when they were not kicking JG the ball we had to adjust and at halftime that’s what we did. We drew something up, called it, and they went out and executed it.”
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Better execution in all three phases of the game, coupled with the return of some of the players currently on a lengthy injured list, will go a long way in navigating through what have been rough seas at the start of this year’s journey, just like their mythological namesakes were able to do in days of yore.