Argos defence, full team steps up in victory against Elks

TORONTO – On the night of their 150th anniversary celebrations, the Toronto Argonauts stepped onto the field with winning in mind.

Even after clinching the East Division, and confirming they will be hosting the Eastern Final on Nov. 11, the Argonauts aren’t ever a team to be playing meaningless football.

So when the Edmonton Elks came to town, with their own playoff hopes on the line, the Argos weren’t going to make coming into BMO Field an easy feat where they held the Elks to just 12 points.

“Just trusting the play call, we had a good week of film going on, just trusting my reads,” Toronto’s Wynton McManis told TSN’s Matthew Scianitti after the win.

“I understand what my job is, just trusting myself and believing that, don’t second guess yourself, just go out on a limb and I made a great play.”

A great play indeed, as McManis not only kept the Elks from working towards closing the Argos’ deficit, but instead added to the Argos lead with a pick-six for 83 yards, all but ending Edmonton’s hopes of a win in the game.

The pick-six was McManis’ second of the season, and his interception on top of three tackles marked just one glimpse of defensive brilliance for the Argos that was shown all night as they tried to keep the Elks at bay.

“It’s all about work ethic, and the adversity is going to come, I think with us, early in the year, we won a lot of games but we faced some adversity early on in the season,” said McManis.

“I think it helped us to be at the point we’re at now… if we’re kind of flat out on the field, we know how to pick ourselves up, come together and get it going. Adversity helps us a lot.”

The full team effort has been apparent for the Argos this season, who have lost just two games all year, never in front of their home crowd, and already have a path to success for defending their Grey Cup title set up.

But no one player takes the credit for the success – they coach each other, praise each other, and at the end of the day, win for each other.

“It’s been something that we’ve been working on since Coach [Ryan ]Dinwiddie’s been here, since I’ve come, it’s all about togetherness, the locker room, the people inside the room just believing in each other,” said McManis.