Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca
HAMILTON — Chad Kelly knows that it’s not necessarily about how you start, it’s about how you finish.
Toronto’s quarterback wants to continue working on getting better every day despite winning their fifth straight with a 31-15 triumph over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday.
The defending champions continue to rely on an offence that scores when it matters most to put teams away in the fourth quarter. Kelly orchestrated a late game-sealing drive with a strike to veteran wide receiver DaVaris Daniels for 35 yards followed by a quarterback sneak, Toronto’s 12th rushing score of the season.
The major came right after Taylor Powell and the Ticats crept back into the game, after trailing 20-3 at halftime, with a late touchdown drive to pull within one score in the fourth quarter. It is the second consecutive week that the Argos finish an East Division opponent trying to stay in the game after doing the same last week against the Alouettes in Montreal.
The signal-caller knows that consistency like the one displayed by the Argos starts months before the first game is played.
“We’ve been putting in work since February and it’s paying off,” said Kelly to TSN’s Matthew Scianitti. “It’s still a long road to go, but it’s a good start.”
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The quarterback had his second consecutive game with more than 300 passing yards, throwing for 306 and a pair of scores to go alongside his rushing touchdown.
Kelly became the first pivot to win four consecutive starts last week for Double Blue since Zach Collaros did it in 2013 and now is the first to lead them to a 5-0 start since 1960.
Not that the quarterback is satisfied with any of those numbers.
“I think we just got to keep on working and keep getting better each and every day.”
It is still early on in the season but Toronto has established itself as the team to beat in the East Division with wins over the Ticats (twice) and Alouettes. Double Blue has scored 186 points in five games and has scored 31 or more points in each of them.
Linebacker Wynton McManis echoed his pivot’s thinking that what matters most is the next game.
“I didn’t know we were 5-0, I thought we were 1-0,” said a grinning McManis to Scianitti. “We just take these games one by one.”
The next one for Toronto is a trip to Halifax for this year’s Touchdown Atlantic against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday, July 29.
