TORONTO — It appears that the Canadian National Exhibition wasn’t the only circus in town, as the Toronto Argonauts and Saskatchewan Roughriders provided a game that only the CFL could produce.
The Argonauts needed all three phases to come through for the victory in quarterback Chad Kelly’s highly anticipated return to play.
It was looking like the Argonauts were going to come out on the losing end, but a crucial error by Roughriders head coach Corey Mace set the stage for Lirim Hajrullahu’s walk-off rouge, which allowed Toronto to steal a 20-19 win over the Roughriders in front of a season-best 19,327 at BMO Field on Thursday night.
The Argos improved to 6-4, while the West-leading Roughriders are 5-5-1 as their winless streak reached five games.
Taking the field for the first time since his return from a suspension that had him miss two pre-season games and nine regular-season games for violating the league’s gender-based violence policy, Kelly was greeted by a small amount of cheers from the crowd.
“It’s always good to play in front of the home crowd,” Kelly said about the reception he received. “I was obviously excited to be here and first game back. I had a lot of nervousness in me, but we came out on top.”
There were certainly moments when the league’s reigning most outstanding player showed rust in his game, which was to be expected for a quarterback who was playing for the first time since last November in the East Final.
Kelly finished the game with 322 passing yards with no touchdowns and one interception.
“I thought I was good up until that last interception,” Kelly said about his performance. “For only two days of practice, I thought we had decent chemistry, but in the end, a win’s a win. That’s what it’s all about.”
Perhaps the best example of rust was his chance to throw for a wide-open touchdown on a flea-flicker attempt. The clever play design would go to waste after a bad throw from Kelly forced Argos receiver Makai Polk to slow down just enough for the Roughriders’ defenders to catch up and force the incompletion.
It was clear from the start that the Roughriders’ game plan was to limit the Argos’ ability to run the football, forcing Kelly to throw the ball in more second-and-long situations.
Kelly and the Argos struggled to find their rhythm early on in the game. Five straight drives ended in a punt, and Saskatchewan built up a 13-0 lead.
It would be up to Toronto’s defence to try to keep the score close or provide a spark with a turnover to give the offence a chance to put points on the board.
Argonauts defensive back DeShaun Amos took advantage of a mistake by Harris to secure his fourth interception of the season. This led to a quarterback sneak by backup Cameron Dukes, finally getting the Argonauts’ offence in the end zone, cutting the deficit to 13-7.
Kelly eventually found some comfort in the passing game late in the second quarter, finding Polk for a 29-yard reception along the sidelines. Saskatchewan’s defence would hold up on the goal line as Dukes was stuffed on third down after a Ka’Deem Carey rushing touchdown was taken back by a review from the command centre.
There was no shortage of excitement in the final minute of the first half as Harris threw another errant pass that would get picked off by defensive back Benji Franklin, putting Toronto in a position to take the lead.
The command centre would once again get involved after it appeared receiver Damonte Coxie made a tough catch for a touchdown in the end zone, but it was ruled incomplete as Coxie did not secure the ball as he hit the turf. It was the second touchdown the officials in the league office called back.
“I don’t know why we have a command centre, I really don’t,” Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie said about the calls that were reversed. “What is it doing slowing down games I just don’t get it. I’ll leave it at that.”
For most of the game, the Roughriders kept star returner Janarion Grant at bay. However, with the Argos trailing 16-13 early in the fourth quarter, Grant took a punt 48 yards into Saskatchewan territory with a facemask penalty, adding another 15 yards to the end of the play.
Kelly then found receiver DaVaris Daniels for a 26-yard completion to the goal line. However, after two failed attempts to sneak the ball into the end zone, Toronto turned the ball over on downs for the third time in the game.
“Offensively, we got to get better,” Dinwiddie said about his team’s inability to get the ball into the endzone on the goal line. “I have to sit down with those guys and find ways to get better. We just couldn’t get there and you have to execute at a high level to get there. We have to find a way to win the football game more cleanly.”
Fortunately for Kelly and the offence, the defence was able to force a punt by the Roughriders out of the end zone, which set them up past midfield with 8:31 to go in the game. Toronto put up a field to cut the lead to three, which Saskatchewan would respond with three points of its own to restore their lead.
Trailing 19-16 in the final two minutes of the game, Kelly and the Argos drove down the field to set up a 50-yard field goal by Lirim Hajrullahu.
On the ensuing drive, Mace called a timeout just before the ball was snapped on a play in which his team got a crucial first down. The Argos would force a three-and-out and another punt by Saskatchewan out of its end zone.
This would eventually set up the game-winning rouge by Hajrullahu, who missed the 40-yard field goal, but it went wide left and out of the end zone for the deciding point.
With punter John Haggerty suffering an injury in warmups, Hajrullahu had to handle all the kicking duties for Toronto.
“I watched the other team, and they didn’t have a clue that we won,” Dinwiddie said about winning on a rouge. “This has been around the league forever, just don’t hit the upright. We’ve been through the scenario, and we always feel like the best thing is to go for a field goal because every time we try to punt it, it hasn’t worked out for us.”
There were some questions as to how effective Kelly could be with just two full days of practice under his belt, considering how Nathan Rourke’s first start with the B.C. Lions went the week before. Rourke completed just 8-of-25 passes for 126 yards and threw two interceptions.
“I thought Chad was seeing the field well, doing the things he needed to do,” Dinwiddie said of Kelly’s performance. “Scrambing and giving guys like Coxie a chance to make a play. We were going to push the ball down the field and give guys a chance to make a play.”
Next up for Toronto is the Labour Day Classic on the road against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, which always proves to be a challenging environment to play in as the home crowd will surely do its best to try and throw Kelly off his game.
The Argos quarterback knows the focus heading into Hamilton will be on cleaning up areas of the game that could have cost Toronto a victory.
“We got to put in a lot of work. It’s all about the details,” Kelly said. “We’ve got a lot of penalties to clean up. There was like five touchdowns out there that were on the one-yard line, we’ve got to get it in. We’ve got to be more aggressive. I’m sure it’ll change.”