It was a very quiet Toronto Argonauts post-game dressing room on Friday night.
The Argos (7-7) had fallen to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 33-31 as time expired in the key CFL matchuo, with a 48 yard field goal from Marc Liegghio in front of 18,210 at BMO Field.
Ticats (5-9) quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell led the way with 362 passing yards, connecting on 31 of 40 pass attempts to go along with one touchdown pass, his league leading 24th of the season.
Argos head coach Ryan Dinwiddie said afterwords that his team simply isn’t playing well enough right now.
“We’ve shown moments that we could be a good team but were playing average football and that’s why were 7-7.
“We’re not playing consistent enough, I told the guys we all got to have a mirror, everyone in the building, not just players, we all got to have a mirror and look at it and find a way to get better.”
Including Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly.
Kelly’s first completed pass of the night was in the second quarter and went to the opposite team, throwing directly in the hands of Ticats defender Stavros Katsantonis for the defender’s first interception of the year, sixth of his career.
Dinwiddie said that he wishes he saw a different decision from his QB on the play.
“It gave them points there and were backed up, sometimes you got to let plays die. You know second and long, let it go,” said Dinwiddie. “We can’t expect him just to play at MVP level when he hasn’t been around for a while.”
Argonauts defensive leader Wynton McManis had eight tackles in the game, leading the team in his first game back since injury.
McManis said at the end of the day the defence made some plays but doesn’t think they understood the situation on the final drive that led to the winning kick.
“They kind of just dinked and dunked it down and got the yards they needed.”
However, the veteran leader believes his team is going give they’re on all every play.
“Every time we take the field, we have to come out like we have something to lose, we’ve got to come out and fight for are life, which we are.”
Kelly responded well, after starting 0-for-4 with one interception, and in the rest of the first half he would go 10-for-10 for 133 yards and a touchdown pass to give the Argos an 18-14 lead.
Although it was short lived.
The Ticats came out firing in the second half, going 72 yards in only four plays, ending in a Ante Milanovic-Litre two yard rush for the touchdown to give the Tiger-Cats back the lead 21-18 with just 10:08 left in the third quarter.
The teams would then exchange field goals back and forth before Marc Liegghio had a chip shot from 25 yards out to give the Ticats a 27-21 lead at 7:25.
Kelly and the Argos didn’t throw in the flag though, as he connected with Daniels once again on a bomb down the field for 66 yards, two plays later Kelly would get his second touchdown of the night on a one yard touchdown run.
Lirim Hajrullahu would tack on the extra point to give the Argos a 28-27 at 5:52 in the fourth quarter.
Argos defence was in the mindset of bend but don’t break allowing the Ticats to go down the field but only walk off with field with three points at 12:50 to give them a 30-28.
A pass interference call on the Ticats in the end zone would have put the ball on the one yard line for Toronto was overturned by the command centre and left the Argos with no choice but to kick the field goal to give them a 31-30 lead with 0:56 left.
On the previous play Kelly had Daniels wide open in the end zone but stumbled on a deteriorating turf surface that had caused trouble most of the night. That forced a rushed pass, and an overthrow on a wide-open receiver.
The Argonauts will look to avoid back to back loses when they take on the Montreal Alouettes next Saturday, while the Ticats will look to close the playoff gap even more and make it four wins in a row when they play the B.C. Lions on Friday.
