CFL Game in 40: Drama in the 6ix

Kristina Costabile

CFL.ca

@kcostabile1

I remember standing behind the fan zone at BMO Field on a warm August night last season.

The game I was watching, a Week 8 matchup between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts, had gotten too exciting for me to sit down.

There was under 30 seconds left and the Argos trailed by six. A touchdown tied things up. A completed convert and the lead was theirs.

Standing with some friends, I looked around at the scene. The sun had set in Toronto and it was a beautiful summer night. I could see a few Argos fans walking out of the stadium, trying to beat the traffic, since they thought their team was going to be handed their seventh loss of the season. Boy, were those people wrong.

That’s the beauty of the CFL, though. You can’t leave early. You can’t turn off the TV before the final whistle. No team is ever really out of a game. There is always a chance to come back.

Every week CFL.ca is rolling out the 10 best games of 2019 in 40 minutes. This week, on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET, the featured game is that Winnipeg and Toronto contest, where the Argonauts completed one of the most incredible comebacks I’ve ever witnessed.

The Argos were the heavy underdog. They were 0-6 and were struggling to find a rhythm to start the campaign. Winnipeg, however, was flying high. They had lost their first game of the season the week before when they had paid a visit to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (who knew that those of us who were at that game were watching a preview of the 107th Grey Cup presented by Shaw) and had the league’s best record at the time (5-1).

The Bombers started the game strong, proving why they were sitting atop of the league. Andrew Harris did what Andrew Harris did best and helped Winnipeg to a 20-nothing lead in the first half with two touchdown runs. Toronto added 10 points before the first 30 minutes were over, thanks to a Tyler Crapigna field goal and a Rodney Smith touchdown with under a minute left on the clock. It was 20-10 Winnipeg at the half.

When the teams came back onto the field after halftime, after Classified performed during the Thursday Night Concert series and I was as close to front row as I could get, the Argos appeared to have a brand new game plan.

Defensively, they shut down the Bombers completely in the third quarter and scored 10 of their own points – another field goal and a big man touchdown from offensive lineman Jamal Campbell (my favourite kind of touchdowns, for the record). The score was tied 20-20 heading into the fourth.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing at that point. A 20-point lead had evaporated for the blue and gold. Poof. There were really excited Argos fans around me. High-fiving. Cheering. “I knew they’d come back!” I heard that a few times too. Those fans could believe what they were seeing. They never lost hope.

Then the fourth quarter began. I remember thinking, “wow, this really is anyone’s game.”

The Bombers scored quickly, Matt Nichols found Chris Matthews in the end zone. Winnipeg took a 27-20 lead.

Toronto scored a single. 27-21.

A promising Argos drive was ended by a massive strip sack from Willie Jefferson. Winnipeg ball. Toronto forced Nichols and co. to a two-and-out and the ball was back in McLeod Bethel-Thompson‘s hands with about a minute and a half remaining.

Bethel-Thompson drove his team down the field and with 13 seconds left, relied on his veteran receiver, S.J. Green. I watched as the ball left the pivot’s hands and flew through the air towards Green. It felt like an eternity, was he going to catch it? And of course, we all know how this story ends: he hung on for the score. Then with the point-after, Toronto took a 28-27 lead and walked away with their first victory of the year.

“I remember walking into BMO Field a few hours before kickoff with Brian Snelgrove, the Argos’ press box announcer,” said CFL.ca’s senior writer Chris O’Leary. “I think I told him I had a bad feeling about this game. The Bombers had lost to the Ticats the week before but were off to such a great start to their season and the Argos were headed in the opposite direction. They’d been blown out in four of their six games and seemed like they were far behind the rest of the teams in the league.

“Brian agreed but said that one of two things might happen. It could be the Bombers blowout we expected, or the Argos just might come out and shock them. It took the entire night, but he ended up being right. It was an anomaly in both teams seasons, but it made for one of the best games we saw last year.”

Remember, you can re-live this epic comeback in 40 minutes on CFL.ca on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET.

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