Mark Masters
CFL.ca
At the risk of stating the obvious the Toronto Argonauts are a team in trouble. With a record of 2-6 they sit at the bottom of the Canadian Football League standings. In a city dying to embrace a winner, the Argos have been unable to step up.
For now Hogtown will have to revel in the victory by the Toronto Nationals, who recently claimed the Major League Lacrosse title. It appears that’s the closest thing to sports glory the city will see for some time, likely much to the delight of the rest of the country.
Friday marked the latest chapter in Toronto’s ill-fated 2009 CFL campaign. Once again the club led late at home and once again they let it slip away.
Making matters all the more frustrating is the fact the club seemed to be in position to tie the game in the final moments.
Quarterback Cody Pickett guided Toronto to the Calgary 50-yard line with just seconds left, which put kicker Justin Medlock in position to attempt a 57-yard game-tying field goal. The other option was to have Pickett – who has struggled to go deep consistently this season – heave a desperation Hail Mary.
Rookie head coach Bart Andrus chose the latter option, to the bewilderment of many in attendance at Rogers Centre.
Remember, Medlock has missed only one field-goal attempt this season and that was a 57 yarder that had more than enough leg, but clanked off the post.
After the game Medlock didn’t hold back telling reporters:
“I probably should have just run on the field. I was in the zone — here we go, I’m going to kick it. And then when we ran the play, I was kind of like, whoa. There was some miscommunication, I think. I wanted the chance but it did not happen. I would have kicked from 65 if I had to. I had a 60-yarder in warm-up that hit the bar.”
Basically Medlock called out his coach for poor judgment. The last person who did that in Toronto ended up in Hamilton.
But one day later, Andrus was the one apologizing and admitting if he could do it again he would try the field goal.
You got to appreciate the honesty, but anyway you cut it this is extremely bad.
Last year the Argos had a 4-6 record after 10 games and it cost rookie head coach Rich Stubler his job. Stubler, a former defensive coordinator, was blamed for mishandling the team’s quarterback situation.
This year, the Argos will at best have a 4-6 record after 10 games. Meanwhile, Andrus, an offensive-minded coach, is leading a team that can’t seem to score consistently.
You don’t have to be Michael Ignatieff to know there are some very hot seats in Toronto right now. If things don’t improve it is probably a safe bet someone is going to pay a price. Which leads us to…
DON’T TELL JIM MORA BUT…
It’s time to talk about the playoffs. I know, I know, the real playoff talk doesn’t start until after Labour Day. But, for Toronto, their playoff fate may come down to Labour Day.
If Toronto sweeps their upcoming home-and-home series with Hamilton they will pass their hated rivals in the standings and clinch the season series.
The Argos would be 4-6 and in solid position to make a playoff push.
Meanwhile, the BC Lions are facing a home-and-home series with Montreal and may very well lose both those games. That would leave them at 3-7 and in a tough position to make the crossover rule a reality.
But if Toronto loses even one of the two games to Hamilton it’s going to be tough for the Boatmen to make the playoffs. On the bright side, after everything that has happened they basically control their own fate.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
The rivalry between the Eskimos and Ticats didn’t just play out on the field this week…
@cfl_esks Head Coach Richie Hall just brought us Dairy Queen again…The Coach with the MOST!!! (Aug. 26 at 4:55 pm)
@TicatsPR Hmmm… Going to have to mention this to Marcel … RT @cfl_esks Head Coach Richie Hall just brought us Dairy Queen again (Aug. 26 at 5:08 pm)
I thought Edmonton looked a little cooler on Saturday night. Amazing what a blizzard – and an interception – will do for you.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Argos (@TorontoArgos) and Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium (@CTVOlympics) held a Twitter T-shirt giveaway asking fans to provide their four-man fantasy bobsleigh team featuring any Argos past or present.
(Full disclosure: I work for the Consortium and helped organize the giveaway.)
There were a number of great entries but CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon (@canadiancommish) decided his favourite was:
@karimkanji All-Argo 4-man bobsleigh team = Royal Copeland, Joe Krol, Hank Ilesic and Chris Schultz. (Aug. 27 at 12:20 pm)
Hamilton pivot Kevin Glenn after a tough loss in Edmonton:
@qterback5 Back in Hamilton. Still a little upset about last nights lost but its over and we have to move on. Very big home & home series against … (Aug. 30)
Glenn seems to run out of characters for his Tweet, but you don’t need to tell anyone who Hamilton plays on Labour Day.
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