The last time the Toronto Argonauts were at Mosaic Stadium, Kris Sweet remembers, things did not look nearly as good as they do now for the team’s offensive line. It was last July, and they were just trying to make it to the final whistle, somehow.

“Last time we were here in Regina, we had so many injuries in that one game we had guys playing in positions they’d never played before for a series or two just to get us through the game,” said Sweet, the veteran offensive line coach who is in his first year in the position with the Argos.

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For much of this season, the Toronto offensive line struggled mightily for an identity, battling through injuries, and searching for traction that could lead it to becoming a dominating force against opponents.

Now, as the team gets set to take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 109th Grey Cup, the Toronto offensive line is talked about as an exclamation mark, not a question mark.

Lately, the unit has found the range, playing most probably it’s best game of the year in last week’s Eastern Final, meaning they are brimming with some timely confidence.

“They’re playing physical,” said head coach Ryan Dinwiddie with a smile, undoubtedly thinking of the line’s exceptionally strong performance in that 34-27 win over the Montreal Alouettes. A win that was capped by a clock-chewing drive to end the game, and punctuated with clear lanes for running backs A.J. Ouellette and Andrew Harris, as well as a solid protective bubble around quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson, who was not sacked once during the game.

That game, and that last drive, said Sweet, signalled an arrival of sorts for the offensive line. “I thought we were finally being the group that I want us to be,” he said, with satisfaction.

Sweet, the man charged with juggling bodies this season – as well as adjusting expectations – says he is proud of the way the line has come together and of the hard work the crew has been willing to put in.

“It’s an unselfish bunch,” said Sweet, gravelly-voiced after a couple of hours of shouting instructions during the Argos’ last full practice before Sunday’s game.

“Throughout the whole year we’ve had to plug guys into different spots and hope for the best,” said Sweet. “They’ve done a good job adapting through the whole year. We’re finally seeing the fruits of our labour at this point.”

The juggling act included bumping veteran guard Philip Blake out to the left tackle position, after starter Isiah Cage went down with a head injury during that early season game against the Roughriders that Sweet referenced.

The 36-year-old Blake (he’ll turn 37 a week after the Grey Cup) had been a tackle while he played in college, but as a pro he has mostly played guard, pitching in as a centre as well. And this season, when the Argos asked him to protect Bethel-Thompson’s blind side, he did so while nursing one broken hand and then another, never mind making the adjustments while being completely healthy.

“Playing tackle is a natural position for me,” said Blake. “It’s just that when I go back out there it takes me some time to get used to it.”

He has gotten used to it again, and part of the reason he is now excelling on the left flank is due to the good relationship he has with Dejon Allen, the right tackle who was named Toronto’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman in 2022, and an East Division All-Star.

Allen, Blake said, provided him with good advice while he was in the process of assimilation. “He’s done a wonderful job this year, in my opinion, said Allen, the second-year vet who battled a bad back for a good portion of the regular season, gutting things out and playing in sixteen games. “What he’s done is really hard to do and I praise him for that,” said Allen. “He’s a big time vet.”

Both Allen and Blake had more praise for their teammates along the line, including centre Justin Lawrence, who was thrust into the starting position when Toronto’s rookie of the year in 2021, Peter Nicastro, was forced to miss the season while rehabbing a knee injury.

“This was (Lawrence’s) first year starting at centre,” said Blake. “He came in, didn’t skip a beat.” And according to Sweet, the 26-year-old from Edmonton did so while exhibiting some impressive toughness of his own, pushing through the pain of more than a number of minor injuries.

Rookie Gregor MacKellar was asked to do more than he was originally planned, too, starting at left guard ahead of his time, before NFL veteran Ryan Hunter signed with Toronto in September. MacKellar ended up being named Toronto’s top rookie in 2022, and Hunter has fit like a glove since being inserted into the line-up in Week 17.

“He came in from the NFL so he was kind of ahead of the curve as a rookie,” said Blake of Hunter, the native of North Bay, Ontario who was selected ninth overall by the Argos in the 2018 draft. “He understood what we’ve gotta do and he’s doing a great job.”

At right guard, Toronto has been set with five-year veteran Dariusz Bladek, who played in seventeen regular season games. It was Bladek who said, in September, that he believed the Argos’ offensive line was heading for very good things as the season wore on.

He was right.

Toronto’s running backs have noticed the rise of the line, and both Ouellette and Harris got front row seats to the unit’s fine play in the Eastern Final.

“They’ve really come a long way,” said Harris, who rushed nine times for 42 yards and a touchdown in his first game since Week 10. “They work so much more cohesively now. You can see it in the run game, you can see it in the confidence with them in the pass game. And they’re playing for each other.”

“O line’s playing great right now,” said Ouellette, who ran six times for 38 yards in the Eastern Final, while catching two passes for 53 yards, including one for a touchdown. “I believe that their hard work and their communication through the season is starting to pay off right now. Towards the end of the season we could see it.”

In facing Winnipeg’s ferocious front four – one that includes terrorizing ends Willie Jefferson and Jackson Jeffcoat as well as a linebacking corps anchored by Adam Bighill – the surging Toronto offensive line will face a big challenge in the Grey Cup.

“They’re good athletes,” said Blake of Winnipeg’s disruptive defenders. “They’re good at what they do. We want to shut them down. We’re gonna come out there and show what we can do.”

And what they can do – what they have done lately – is different than what the Argos’ offensive line could do earlier in a season that ravaged the unit with injury and doubt.

“There’s a different kind of edge to them,” said Harris of the improvement. “Yeah, they’re playing great football right now.”