The Canadian Press
It takes a few days, McLeod Bethel-Thompson admitted, to flush the feeling of letting your team down.
“I think the difference between losing and winning was my play,” the Argos’ quarterback said on Wednesday at BMO Field. “That’s something I can concentrate on and it’s something I can control and get better at.”
The sting of his team’s 48-28 Labour Day loss still resonates. Bethel-Thompson made 14 of 29 passes for 163 yards and threw one interception in the loss. It was his worst statistical game of the four he’s started for the Argos this year.
“You have to flush it at some point,” he said. “You have to learn from what you did wrong and make the corrections and at some point you have to flush it, move forward with a clear conscience and be ready to go and attack today. You can’t carry it for too long but you definitely have to learn lessons from it.”
He’ll get the chance to apply those lessons moving forward. Argos head coach Marc Trestman gave James Franklin four games as a starter after Ricky Ray was injured. Franklin went 1-3 and Trestman swapped him out for Bethel-Thompson. Four games into his shot at starting, Bethel-Thompson has gone 2-2 and made 83 of 132 passes for 1,021 yards, six TDs and two interceptions. Franklin has been used on short-yardage and and threw a three-yard TD pass to offensive lineman Ryan Bomben in the loss on Monday.
That setup won’t change this week. Trestman made it seem like it was a no-brainer to stick with Bethel-Thompson.
“Absolutely,” he said.
“I saw a team that was able to have the lead in the fourth quarter and not be able to finish the game. The last two weeks we’ve had the lead on the road and had a chance to win. We weren’t able to stop them and we weren’t able to close it offensively. It says a lot about our team.
“McLeod has put us in a position in three out of the last four to win games and we didn’t get it done. It’s a team process. We didn’t stop them and we didn’t convert and finish the drives we needed to in the fourth quarter. That’s what we need to do to win.”
While Trestman didn’t hesitate to name his starter for this week, he wouldn’t commit beyond that.
Arguably their biggest offseason acquisition James Franklin has been relegated to backup but with McLeod Bethel-Thompson coming back to earth, how long before the Boatmen go back to the former Edmonton Eskimo under centre? (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
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“We’re in a week-to-week situation. I’m not going to put myself or our team in that position,” he said.
“There’s a lot of different reasons why we had 166 yards of passing and (Bethel-Thompson) wasn’t the only reason. We had opportunities, we weren’t able to convert. He’s owned in the meetings when he thinks he should have made the play and the guys who didn’t make the play have owned that as well.
“We had opportunities in the game. Hamilton will see that (on film). We saw that, that we didn’t take advantage of those opportunities and that’s what minimized our ability to move the football and get the explosives that we needed.
“We were in the red zone three times and we scored three times. We had opportunities for big plays. The tape is not going to be a secret to (Ticats defensive coordinator) Jerry Glanville and his staff. They’ll see we had opportunities, but we give tremendous credit to their defence. They played really well and they played physical. We have a lot of respect for that.”
This is a challenging week for the Argos, Ticats, Esks and Stampeders, as they come out of Monday’s Labour Day double header and get a short week to recover and prepare to take part in Saturday’s triple-header. Trestman said that his team won’t formally practice at all this week. The Argos’ on-field work will consist of walkthroughs and nothing physically strenuous.
“That’s the way we’ve always done it,” Trestman said. “(Thursday we’ll go out there and walk through our game plan. (Thursday) is a Day 3, basically. We have to put in the entire game plan from start to finish. There can’t be many changes. We only ran 50 plays, so we’ve got a lot left on that call sheet that hasn’t been used.
“We’ll go out there and walk through, we’ll stretch get activated a bit by doing a little running, but nothing competitive. No offence versus defence, special teams…just enough to get them moving around.”
Duron to debut?
Duron Carter could possibly see his role increase this week. Trestman had said initially that their recent signee would sit out the first two games, but it sounds like he’s making good progress with his new team.
“I can’t say he will or he won’t play. We really haven’t had the discussion and I’ll leave it at that,” Trestman said, before adding that Carter’s doing a lot of things the right way since he’s arrived in Toronto.
“The one thing that I am very, very pleased with is the way he’s assimilated with our football team. I’m extremely impressed with him in his actions, his demeanour, his words,” the coach said.
“I’ve talked to a number of players, that’s where I get my information relative to Duron. He’s been great in the locker room and I’ve been extremely impressed with him in the meetings. He’s asked questions. Those questions have not by any intention been made to draw any attention to himself. They’ve been very well thought out and very on point and that’s been impressive.”
Linebacker Marcus Ball is questionable for Saturday’s rematch. He’s dealing with a leg injury and will be evaluated by doctors this week.
