May 23, 2022

Hogan: Training Camp Diaries – Day 4

It was a necessary evil.

The Toronto Argonauts played their annual inter-squad “game” Sunday night at Alumni Stadium on the University of Guelph campus and to no one’s surprise, it was far from pristine.

The format was not a true exhibition game. Head Coach Ryan Dinwiddie devised a series of situations for the team to execute at full speed. To reduce the risk of injury there was no hitting; a play was blown dead when an offensive player with the ball was touched.

The Argos first played a full quarter with game timing in effect, including a 20-second clock. There was punting, but only once were there return teams, after that there was only a returner.

Following that there were then two segments where the last five minutes of the second quarter was replicated, including timing inside three minutes. It gave the new players to the CFL a chance to experience new rules for them in a game situation.

When those sessions ended, the team worked on the final seconds of the half. The ball was placed on the defensive 22-yard line and 24 seconds were placed on the clock. It was a chance to work on clock management.

The team would also work on the offence when starting on its own 5-yard line, with a chance for that group to stay on the field if it made a first down or two.

All of this was done in real-time, allowing coaches to make substitutions at game speed when a punt or field goal was attempted.

The CFL provided an officiating crew, giving the zebras a chance to knock off any off-season rust and it certainly added to the authentic nature of the night.

It also allowed some die-hard fans to sit in the stands and enjoy the experience of watching live football again.

If it sounds confusing, at times it was. There were a couple of procedure penalties and a time count violation, but the exercise was an important one to go through. It means when the Argos play their two pre-season games, CFL rookies will at least have a taste of how quickly things can move.

In terms of the action on the field, things played out like they do virtually every training camp, particularly so this early in camp – the defence was ahead of the offence.

The primary reason seemed to be timing. Some receivers seemed late at times, perhaps still thinking about their route instead of just running it; something that will come with more reps.

A couple of new receivers had the most catches, as A.J. Richardson had 4 grabs for 27 yards, and Isaiah Wright had 3 for 27 (all stats unofficial). Receivers with 2 catches were Earnest Edwards, Sam Baker and Jamari Hester. Hester had the night’s only touchdown catch, a 22-yard pass from McLeod Bethel-Thompson. The pair almost connected a second time from 16-yards out, but at the very last second, the ball was knocked away in the end zone on a nice play by Maurice Carnell IV.

It wasn’t the only time Carnell flashed. Along with the TD-saving break-up, he picked off two Antonio Pipkin passes, returning them for a combined 54-yards. The third interception of the night came from Wynton McManis. The WILL linebacker started at depth and read the play like he knew it was coming. He jumped a curl route, picked off the pass from rookie Austin Simmons and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown.

When all was said and done it was a valuable exercise. The defence continued to grow as a group and is playing with a ton of speed and an equal amount of confidence. Multiple players made big plays either at the line of scrimmage or in coverage.

The first offensive line group looked good, featuring Isiah Cage, Philip Blake, Justin Lawrence, Dariusz Bladek and Dejon Allen.

Toshiki Sato hit both of his mid-range field-goal attempts, while Boris Bede was also perfect off the tee and launched an enormous punt from his own side of midfield that went out of bounds inside the 15.

When all was said and done and the personnel department had reviewed the game film as a group, Argonauts.ca asked General Manager Michael “Pinball” Clemons what he got out of the night.

“When you turn on a new car for the first time you understand that there’s a chance that a couple of things have gone on. It’s the first time we turned on the car and we got a chance to see that it actually does run.”

Not the most glaring compliment, but an accurate assessment of what the exercise was supposed to do.

“I really thought that generally the defence is ahead of the offence, and that’s expected. I thought we saw some really, really good things on both sides of the ball. And Boris can still kick (laughs).”

It was difficult for the G.M. to put his finger on one specific thing that impressed him the most.

“It’s hard to say the one thing that made me most optimistic because there were a few. The offensive line did a really solid job; the first group did a really good job of playing off of each other having not been together long. We’re excited about where that group can go.”

That was the prevailing attitude when the night was over. There were some nice things in place, especially so early in camp. There’s also the realization that there’s a lot of work to do. Last night’s game film will certainly give the staff a lot of “coachable moments” to work with.