Ugh.
Calling the play-by-play of a 41-38 game that has three lead changes in the last two minutes is easy, the game virtually tells its own story. The broadcasters just relay what’s happening on the field. Keeping a broadcast compelling during a blowout? Not so easy.
Likewise it’s easy to write about a close game, or a game where the team you’re covering wins big. People are happy to talk to the media after a win. Smiles are easy to find and so are ‘feel good’ angles.
Finding a solid lede is not easy after a game like Friday’s 40-14 loss in Winnipeg.
Was James Franklin the biggest story? The turnovers? The penalties? The coverage? The shoddy tackling?
It’s not an easy decision because so much went wrong. Let’s try to work through this bit by bit.
It was a decent half, but a pretty bad game.
As the Argos headed to the locker room at half time, they trailed the Bombers 23-8. It wasn’t a good half by any standard, but there were some positives. They put together an impressive drive in the second quarter, mostly behind a rejuvenated James Wilder Jr., and capped it off with a touchdown instead of a field goal attempt, the norm this year.
Wilder carried the ball six times for 44 yards and a touchdown in the first half, he also caught a pass for five yards.
Conversely the defence did a nice job on Andrew Harris. After torching the Boatmen for 161 yards a week ago, he was limited in the first 30 minutes to 20 yards on six carries, catching a pair of passes for 19 yards.
And then there was Franklin. He threw a bad interception late in the half, but there were many more positives than negatives. Unofficially he was 13/17, 76.5%, 156 yards.
There was life, there was some reason for confidence. Maybe, just maybe, despite some mistakes and some officials’ calls that even the national TSN crew questioned, the Argos could overcome the two score deficit.
Nope.
The second half was a different story. While you have to take into consideration it’s tougher for an offence playing multiple score catch-up, the numbers tell the story.
Franklin was 7/14, 50%, 80 yards, two more interceptions and a couple of failed third-down attempts. Wilder carried the ball more, but accomplished less, rushing nine times for 37 yards.
Declan Cross failed to catch a ball for the second-consecutive game.
Special teams are not immune from criticism. Winnipeg ran a reverse on the opening kickoff and it went for 55 yards and directly led to three points. The Bombers blocked a punt where the protection was so bad the ball was knocked away from Ronnie Pfeffer before it hit his foot.
They lost the turnover battle 7-1. It’s tough to imagine a situation where a team is a minus-6 in that category and wins, or even comes close to winning.
Defensively there were many problems. The tackling was not great. Matt Nichols looked too comfortable in the pocket, he wasn’t sacked once. There were blown coverages. There were some ill-timed penalties, whether or not a couple of the big ones were deserved is another matter. There were breakdowns and too many big plays against yadda, yadda, yadda.
It would be easy to throw a flag for piling on at this point (insert tired CFL officiating joke here), but there were not a lot of positives on Friday night.
While Michael Clemons would be hard pressed to be optimistic after that outing, there are a couple of blessings here, which of course become moot if things don’t get cleaned up soon.
The toughest part of the schedule is all but done. If you were to do a CFL Power Ranking it would be tough to not have Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg in the top three slots. The Argos have played five of their first six games against these teams, and would’ve/could’ve/should’ve been 3-3 at this stage.
Some of the injured players are ready to come off the six-game injured list, most notably Bear Woods. He’s a sure tackler and a team leader. His return will help both on and off the field.
It’s a veteran-laden locker room. The panic button won’t be pushed, but the sense of urgency will be heightened.
Beginning with Thursday’s home game against Ottawa (7:00 TSN, TSN 1050), four of the next five games are against Eastern opponents. The opportunity is there to make up ground, and fast.
The Argos are 1-5 and as Friday’s game came to an end they were remarkably just two points out of a playoff spot. The door is open for them to walk through, but it has yet to be determined if this is just a slow start, or if the problems are much deeper than that.
We’ll get a good indication on Thursday.