Sean Fitz-Gerald
The National Post

TORONTO - Nobody in the stadium could have been quite sure what to make of Kerry Joseph in the dying minutes, when he was starting a drive at his one-yard line. The opinion moved favourably as he crossed midfield and, by the time he launched himself at the goal line, 109 yards from where he started, Joseph was being linked to a legend.

With the smoke of a quarterback controversy still clearing inside Rogers Centre, Joseph became a hero for the first time in his brief career with the Toronto Argonauts. He ran often, threw the ball with confidence, and ultimately dragged his team to a win at home.

The Argos were down three points with 23 seconds left in the fourth quarter yesterday. Joseph called his own number and ran for 13 yards -- diving through the air for at least three -- and Toronto emerged with a 35-31 win over the Edmonton Eskimos.

Joseph finished with a game-high 343 passing yards and a game-high 118 rushing yards. It was the first time in 11 years that a Toronto quarterback had thrown for more than 300 yards and run for more than 100 yards.

That quarterback?

Doug Flutie. He threw for 438 yards and ran for 116 more against Winnipeg on June 27, 1997.
"I thought [Joseph] did a damned good job," Argos coach Rich Stubler said. "He called a great game. Called his own number, ran the football like we asked him to. He just played."

Toronto snapped a two-game losing streak with the win, improving to 2-2 and claiming a share of first place in the East Division with the Montreal Alouettes (2-2). The Argos also became the first team from their division to beat a West Division opponent this season.

Victory came at a cost, though. Linebacker Kevin Eiben has been told he will miss at least two weeks with a partial tear of his medial collateral ligament, but is expected to know more after an examination today.

The Argos were also haunted by some familiar story-lines. Their special teams were vulnerable and the defence showed itself to be uncharacteristically pliable.

Joseph smoothed those rough edges with his last-minute heroics. He called his own plays for the second straight game -- a rare responsibility for quarterbacks in the Canadian Football League -- and paused discussion about his rivalry with Michael Bishop, last year's starter.

"My belief is, we've just got to keep everything in-house," Joseph said. "Just believe in each other in here. Don't worry about the naysayers. Don't worry about the critics. Don't worry about [the media]. We've just got to stay together, and that's how we're going to get through this."

Edmonton creamed Toronto 47-28 on July 10, the last game for both teams, and seemed set to do it again yesterday. The Eskimos built a 13-0 lead early in the second quarter, and led 21-15 at halftime.

But Joseph had begun to find traction in his offence. Rookie James Robinson finished with 10 catches for a game-high 194 yards and a touchdown in his second CFL start.

"We needed this one, bad," Robinson said. "It was rough, looking at 1-3. So 2-2 looks a lot better."

And Joseph delivered that victory in the final minutes, when the Argos were down three points and facing the kinds of questions Stubler had already grown tired of answering.

"We're in first place, period," Stubler said. "I mean, our team went out there and drove the ball 109 yards. We want to talk about 90 seconds? That's what 90 seconds was. And, actually, it was about 70 seconds that we took the ball 109 yards.

"I thought it was a great job. Our offence pulled together. And regardless of what anyone wants to say about us, we're 2-2. We're not 1-3, so we don't need your question anymore."

Courtesy: www.nationalpost.com