David Chidley/CFL.ca
We couldn’t have asked for more on final four weekend, as both the Western and Eastern Finals gave us great finishes and highlight-reel moments. In the end, it’ll be the Calgary Stampeders and Toronto Argonauts going head-to-head in the 105th Grey Cup, and we really shouldn’t be surprised by that outcome.
When it matters most
In winning the East Division, the Argos had a leg up in returning to the Grey Cup for the first time since 2012. But that’s not the only reason their 25-21 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Eastern Final can’t be considered a shock.
Since their Week 12 bye, Toronto has been one of the CFL’s best teams and shown every sign of peaking at the right time. Including Sunday’s win, the Argonauts have won six of their last eight and have looked impressive in doing so. This group underachieved in a big way through the first half of the season, but looked formidable heading into the playoffs, and is now a deserving East Division Champion.
Toronto is playing itsbest football of 2017 when it matters the most, but that’s no coincidence. A few key things sparked the Argos down the stretch, and as such, no one will be surprised if they end up winning it all at the end of the week.
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Ricky Ray and the Argos celebrate their Eastern Final win over the Riders on Sunday (The Canadian Press)
Perhaps most crucially, Toronto gave the ball to James Wilder Jr., and he’s turned into the league’s most devastating player ever since. Wilder was installed as the team’s number one tailback for Week 13, which just happens to be when this run of six in eight started. The correlation is easy to draw, yes, but it’s also 100 per cent accurate.
Wilder’s impact on the Argos’ offence has been wide ranging. In seven starts (he missed Week 17 vs. Edmonton due to injury), Wilder has been held to fewer than 100 total offensive yards just once. Since Sept. 16, Wilder is averaging more than 107 yards per game on the ground to go along with 70.4 more through the air. It’s tough to argue with raw data like that.
Wilder’s impact has also taken the load off of Ricky Ray at quarterback. Again, there’s no coincidence Ray’s completion percentage jumped three percentage points upon Wilder getting the starting job, from 69.6 per cent in his first 10 games to 72.9 per cent in the last eight. With an explosive threat like Wilder out of the backfield, the Argos no longer rely solely on Ray and the passing game to get the job done.
The other big key for Toronto is the return of Shawn Lemon. Quite simply, the Argos are a different team when their outstanding defensive end is healthy and in the lineup. Since Lemon’s return for their Week 20 finale against BC, Toronto has racked up seven sacks in two games, with four of them being his.
With Lemon healthy, Victor Butler is a much bigger threat coming off the other edge, too. Just one of Butler’s 10 sacks this season came while Lemon was out, and it shows you how much of an impact the latter has in drawing double teams. His return and subsequent availability for Sunday’s Grey Cup is huge for the Argonauts.
Argos defensive end Victory Butler has been better when Shawn Lemon’s in the lineup (Johany Jutras/Argonauts.ca)
There’s no question this team is peaking at the right time, but they also got the job done when it mattered the most on a smaller scale. Remember, all of their good work leading up to yesterday’s showdown with the Riders looked to be in jeopardy thanks to a torrid fourth quarter comeback. But, with 2:37 remaining, Toronto went to work.
Ray was dialed in, but composed, as he completed seven of eight passes to set up Cody Fajardo’s one-yard touchdown plunge to win the game. Ray’s hookup with Wilder on third-and-five might be the game’s most crucial play, and it’s fitting it would be those two getting together at such an important time.
Ray was the team’s best player all year while Wilder has been Toronto’s MVP over the last two months. Both players were huge for the Argos down the stretch when it mattered most. Then, with everything on the line against Saskatchewan, those two just kept doing their thing.
The cream rises
I understood why some were writing off the Stampeders heading into the Western Final at McMahon Stadium. After all, they had lost three straight games for the first time in 10 years, and did so in rather unimpressive fashion. But, as we discussed in last week’s Berg vs. Ferg, I felt this team was too good to be forgotten about. A second straight trip to the Grey Cup is tough to forget.
Remember, Calgary was the league’s best team for the vast majority of the season and only lost games after their playoff fate was completely sealed. After a dreadful start, where I was starting to think perhaps I had misjudged them, the Stamps flipped the switch and got to work, specifically on the defensive side of the ball.
Calgary’s defence this season has been one of the most devastating I’ve seen in recent years, and it carried them all season long. Well, the story was very much the same as the Stampeders took out the Edmonton Eskimos 32-28 in a thriller.
Calgary’s pass rush was as devastating as it gets for most of the regular season, but the Esks did a nice job of neutralizing it for most of the afternoon. Instead, the Stamps made sure their defensive backfield was in lockdown mode.
Edmonton quarterback Mike Reilly became increasingly frustrated as open receivers were difficult to find, especially in the final three quarters. Essentially, Calgary rendered the Eskimos ineffective through the air from the beginning of the second until the final stages of the fourth quarter, and they did that by racking up just two sacks all day long.
Make no mistake, the Stamps heard all the questions about their offence leading into yesterday’s game, but give them credit, because they answered some big questions. Jerome Messam was a steady force on his 13 carries, while Calgary used Roy Finch perfectly out of the backfield. Posting a pair of rushing touchdowns on the board against a staunch Edmonton defence is a nice feather in the cap for the Stamps.
Oh, and Calgary’s fourth quarter play call pick up the most important first down of the game was pretty good, too. Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell’s little flip pass to Rob Cote with 1:32 remaining moved the chains and really put the pressure on Edmonton when they eventually got the ball back, albeit momentarily
Prior to their three game skid to finish the season, the Stampeders sat 13-1-1 and were the odds on favorite to win the Grey Cup. Yes, they struggled to finish the year, but the team didn’t forget how to play football. With something truly on the line, Calgary found its edge and with one game remaining, the Stamps are exactly where most people thought they would be.
The 800-pound gorilla
I doubt I’ll be adding anything new to this conversation, but I really can’t wrap my head around Jason Maas’s controversial decision Sunday. Down by seven, Edmonton’s head coach elected to kick a field goal with two minutes in a circumstance where it just didn’t seem to make sense.
The Eskimos were at the Calgary 13 looking at a third-and-four situation to keep their comeback hopes alive. With two crucial third down conversions already under their belt in the fourth quarter, Edmonton decided to take three points and put the defence to work with a chance to win the game.
Esks’ head coach Jason Maas opted to kick on third-and-four with the game winding down (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
“I won’t ever regret it,” Maas said following the game. “I have faith in our team, and it was a faith decision. Your defence is going to get the stop; your special teams are going to get the ball back; your offence is going to go down and score again. I had faith that all three of those things could happen.”
The problem for me, and many others, is failing on third down would have put the Esks in the same circumstance. I get putting faith in that defence, because they deserve that time of confidence. But Edmonton was going to need a touchdown to win and/or tie regardless of kicking that field goal. Why not take a shot?
It’s a question that will dog the Eskimos for the next number of months.
Significant steps
Knowing how close they were to victory, yesterday’s loss for the Roughriders should absolutely hurt. However, once the immediate sting wears off a little bit, I hope Saskatchewan fans, players, and coaches can start to feel positive about their 2017 campaign.
The Riders took some big time steps this year and look on the verge of getting back to where they want to be. In year two under Chris Jones, Saskatchewan went from a dismal 5-13 to an impressive 10-8. They deserved to be a playoff team and they look pointed very much in the right direction.
With a receiving core led by Duron Carter and Naaman Roosevelt and cornerstones like Ed Gainey and Henoc Muamba defensively, the Riders have a lot to build on. Their biggest priority this off-season is ironing out their quarterback situation. Is Brandon Bridge the guy for 2018? Or is there another option out there? Figuring that out should make Sask a real factor come June.
