Argonauts.ca
As a fan of good content, my Toronto Argonauts and the CFL as a whole, I could not be more thrilled to see Chris Jones back on the sideline as a defensive consultant with the Double Blue.
Yes, that means many close-ups of his face where he was aggressively pressing on his cheeks for some reason but I am here for all of it. During his last year with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, I wrote about the importance of having him in the league:
“You wouldn’t want a league full of Chris Jones.’ No league could survive that level of chaos but I always want one or two mavericks on my football sidelines. I like to think of Jones as the coaching version of Paprika. Too much of it and you’re gonna kill the stew but a nice hearty dash makes the meal just that much more flavourful.”
I stand by that quote.
I’ll get into my favourite Jones memories in a moment but let’s get back to the present. I have no idea if this marriage between Rich Stubler and Chris Jones will work for Toronto. They are the football equivalent of ‘The Odd Couple’ with Stubler playing the role of the conservative Felix Unger and Jones as the more free-spirited Oscar Madison. Anyone under 40 please just Google “The Odd Couple” and my musty, 50-year-old reference will make sense. A more current reference was during the Friday night broadcast of Toronto’s 30-27 win over the Montreal Alouettes as TSN reporter Matthew Scianitti had a report on just how different the styles are between these two coaches.
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I will not pretend to be smart enough to explain how Toronto can best mesh Stubler and Jones’ defensive philosophies but I can tell you we saw one huge difference for the Argos defence on Friday night: turnovers. I was shocked when previewing this game that Toronto was a minus 10 in turnover margin and was second last in turnovers forced with just eight. How can a team be .500 and have such a negative turnover differential? I don’t care how talented you are, no team will survive over the course of an entire season with such poor production from the most important statistic in the game. That, of course, all changed with their victory over Montreal.
Argonauts defensive back Chris Edwards picked a great time for his first pick of the 2021 season. With the first half coming to a close Edwards managed that fine line of covering his man, Jake Wieneke, all the while reading what Vernon Adams Jr.’s eyes. His intuition paid off as Adams tried to force one in and Edwards was there to swoop in front of Wieneke and collect the interception. Two plays later McLeod Bethel-Thompson would catch the Alouettes off guard hitting Chandler Worthy on a 45-yard touchdown giving Toronto a 21-10 lead. It was such a pretty pass it almost made you forget that Thompson would only complete two more passes the rest of the night.
Shaquille Richardson may have had a rough first half but he made up for it with a forced fumble in the third quarter and an interception in the fourth. Montreal was putting together yet another long drive when Richardson managed to jar the ball loose from B.J. Cunningham, who was fighting for extra yards. This was simply the case of Richardson and a handful of other Argonauts just fighting like mad for a turnover. Toronto would not score off this Montreal mistake but it did keep the Alouettes out of the end zone.
The second Adams interception looked like pure Chris Jones with a heavy blitz off the edges causing a back peddling Adams to once again force a throw right to the Argo defensive back. This was the critical defensive play for Toronto as it led to a field goal that pushed their lead to 30-20 and kept the ball away from Montreal until there were just under two minutes to play.
I don’t know what the numbers would say but this game felt like we were watching a more aggressive version of the Argonauts defence. That assessment could be just the result of seeing a 100 isolation shots of Jones on the sideline or it could be the turnovers, the two sacks or the number of times Adams felt pressure within two to three seconds. Of course, there is still a ton of work to be done. Montreal put up 560 yards of offence and all you have to do is watch Wieneke wide open all over the field on the Alouettes final touchdown drive to see there are communication issues and growing pains going on with Toronto’s defence. But for one night it was fun watching this team fly around making big plays, sometimes for the opponent, but most importantly creating turnovers that often directly led to points for the offence.
I have a Microsoft Word document titled “CFL 2017.” Yes, it’s not a very original title for the over 300,000 words of my CFL coverage going back five years. I went and found every time I had written about Chris Jones in the past. Here are some of my favourite Jones moments:
1. This quote about the time he cut a young Charleston Hughes back in 2008 while Jones was a part of the Calgary Stampeders:
“My dumb ass sent him home and we kept a guy named Fontaine Hunter. Hunter got hurt in game one, Charleston came back and the rest is history.”
2. Chris Jones is unpredictable!
- Remember when Jones referred to the legendary Darian Durant as “moderately successful”?
- Remember the 2017 Eastern Final when he kept going back and forth between Brandon Bridge and Kevin Glenn?
- Remember when he would put his best receiver, Duron Carter, at defensive back for long stretches?
3. What I wrote about him when he left Saskatchewan: “Hate him or hate him Chris Jones knows how to build a winner through any means necessary and sometimes by doing it within the rules.” (Note: This was not me taking a personal shot at Jones, rather it was a reflection of the time when everyone was so confused with his coaching moves.)
4. Finally, I even did a “Dear Chris Jones” column that started like this:
“Hi, it’s Matthew Cauz here from CFL.ca. I have a very important message for you: Please never change. Don’t listen to everyone that is freaking out about your quarterback rotation or your insistence on playing Duron Carter at corner. Oh sure, at some moments it looks like the CFL on TSN crew wants to fight you, but you’re one of the best things we’ve got right now in the world of Canadian football. You represent one of the most important aspects needed for all sports: the villain! I mean, you look the part, always dressed in black no matter what the temperature is.”
Beyond everything else this coach has unquestionable credentials. He took over a 4-14 Edmonton team, coached them to a 12-6 season and a Grey Cup win the following year. He never won a Championship in Saskatchewan but with his guidance he transformed a 3-15 squad in 2015 to a team that was knocking on the door to the Grey Cup in 2017 and won 12 games in 2018.
I imagine the Argonauts are happy to have Chris back within the organization especially with the turnovers created against Montreal. I’m wildly curious to see how this defence will look by the end of this crazy season now with Jones and Stubler running the defence. The great thing is in a season of unpredictability it just got a wee bit more chaotic and I’m here for the chaos.
