Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca
Exactly two weeks ago today the CFL world finally got a look at what McLeod Bethel-Thompson is.
For a couple years he’s been a name, a bearded head shot buried in the Argonauts’ depth chart behind Ricky Ray and a rotating cast of characters including Jeff Mathews and Cody Fajardo. This off-season, McLeod once again appeared to be getting the soft shave towards the sidelines when the Argonauts acquired presumed Ricky Ray heir apparent James Franklin via trade from Edmonton.
I thought it was one of the great moves of the off-season. Toronto admitting they needed to secure their future at the CFL’s most important position and willing to outbid other quarterback-needy teams to do so seemed like a home run.
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While the jury is still out on James Franklin’s future, the idea that Bethel-Thompson was due an opportunity arose all the way back in training camp and the pre-season.
I saw McLeod come into Hamilton and handle himself like a starter. From preparation to execution I was impressed by how comfortable he looked in the pocket and the obvious arm talent he possesses, which has allowed him to survive a multitude of pro football transactions.
With all that being said, Franklin was named the starter once Ray fell to injury meaning Bethel-Thompson would have to wait.
He did.
Franklin faltered.
A door opened.
Finally, a chance to start a game and show what he was capable of. Unfortunately for Toronto and McLeod, the first half he had was, well..
It wasn’t great. He couldn’t keep the offence on the field he showed poor accuracy and missed a couple of throws he made in the pre-season with great ease.
Down 28-7 through 30 minutes it appeared as though the only thing worthy of getting Argos fans out of their seat was a halftime performance by Kardinal Offishall.
Then something happened. Just what that something is I’d love to be able to tell you. I love being able to dig for answers to questions like that. As an analyst nothing feels quite as good as cracking the code of a football question and equating a change to numbers or tendencies.
Problem is I just don’t think that tells the story in Toronto’s comeback win.
I’d love to tell you the Toronto staff opened up the playbook and let Bethel-Thompson start slinging it all over the field, but that just isn’t true.
McLeod and the Argos maintained their status quo short passing ball control attack, they just executed better and were able to move the chains which allowed Toronto to run 40 offensive plays in the second half compared to just 25 in the first half. This put the Argos into more advantageous scoring positions. Simple math on that one.
I’d love to explain their pass play call percentage going from 56 per cent to 75 per cent from the first to second half as taking the chains off their new quarterback, but that number is the only realistic expectation from a team that needed points, and fast.
I’m a big fan of being able to tell you veteran leadership from S.J. Green created so much energy on the sideline that the Argos became an unstoppable force, but he was targeted in the second half (32% of passes) as much as he was in the first half (30% of passes).
What this stunning comeback boiled down to was making the right play at the right time.
It was a combination of simple execution and Ottawa falling asleep at the wheel, making almost every error possible from dropped passes to lineman tripping their own receivers to timely incompletions and more.
Below is the moving completion percentage of Bethel-Thompson and Ottawa quarterback Trevor Harris from throw to throw throughout the game.
Eventually the tortoise very nearly caught the hare. For all the fancy charts and stats I can throw at you, only one dot on any given chart ended up mattering the last time the Argos took the field. It’s pretty easy to tell where the anomaly stands.
The final throw, the touchdown pass with one second left that won the game for Toronto was an absolute masterpiece. You can see it in yellow on the left side above 29 yards down the field. That’s where Bethel Thompson stepped up and threw his best pass of the night. A perfectly timed and masterfully accurate laser to Armanti Edwards back shoulder.
The end cut of the play shows how truly great the throw was and the work it took to get there. Bethel-Thompson worked the pocket, sliding around long enough to get his receivers down field before picking a spot and putting the ball exactly where he wanted it.
Big players make big plays in big moments. In the biggest moment of the game McLeod Bethel-Thompson made the game’s biggest throw, giving Argos fans hope for a future void of Ricky Ray.
I’m not sure what the remainder of the Argos season has in store for double blue fans, but if Week 8 is any indication, the result likely won’t rest on a singular number as much as good coaching and efficient execution with a little bit of timely magic sprinkled in for good measure.
