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Argos Offence Unable to Sustain Drives in Week 9

With the Argos offence unable to sustain a drives consistently. Edmonton QB Mike Reilly carved up Toronto for 3 passing TDs in a 46-23 rout at BMO Field.

The Edmonton Eskimos made a statement that they are a power to contend with in the CFL this year. The defending Grey Cup Champions blew out the Toronto Argonauts in a 46-23 rout on the road giving the Double Blue their second home loss in as many weeks in front of the 15,157 spectators at BMO Field. The game was the second of the Argonauts three game home stand in August. Since moving into BMO Field the Argos are 1-4 while being outscored 169-110 by their opponents. Throughout the game the Boatmen’s offence couldn’t sustain drives and that had a trickle down effect on the rest of the game.

Argos Offence Unable to Sustain Drives in Week 9: Eskimos Win 46-23

Argos strike twice in Opening 28 seconds

After Edmonton conceded a single point on the opening kickoff. Mike Reilly put the Eskimos in a hole early getting picked off by Argos linebacker Keon Raymond. The 40-yard touchdown interception return put the Double Blue up 8-0 early. Reilly was trying to get the ball to Adarius Bowman when Raymond jumped the route for an Argos score on Edmonton’s first offensive play in the game.

The Reilly Show

Edmonton’s quarterback put on a clinic in ball distribution in the first half against Toronto. After the pick-six Reilly settled in and he completed passes to seven different Eskimos receivers in the opening 30 minutes. By halftime Reilly was 16/20 passing for 280 yards and three touchdowns against two interceptions.

His opponent Logan Kilgore was 7/13 for 41 yards and one interception at that point. Despite a fair amount of pressure from Toronto’s defensive front seven, Reilly was able to avoid being taken down and extend plays with his feet consistently, causing noticeable frustration for the Argos pass rushers. With the Argos unable to sustain a drive on offence Reilly had an ample amount of opportunities to go at the Argos defence. Making throws of more than 50 yards twice, with a pass to Bowman coming in at 52 yards and a pass to Cory Watson for 70 yards.  Two separate touchdown drives covered over 95 yards in less than a minute in three plays, with the touchdowns being scored by Nate Coehoorn and Derel Walker.

Kilgore to Watkins….

On Toronto’s first offensive series Kilgore’s first pass attempt was intercepted by Patrick Watkins trying to get the ball to Kenny Shaw. Watkins returned the ball to Toronto’s six-yard line setting up a Calvin McCarty rushing touchdown two plays later giving the Eskimos a 14-8 lead with 5:01 left in the first quarter.

The Argos received the ball to start the second half but the Eskimos took it away just as quickly. On the second offensive play of the half Kilgore was intercepted by Watkins again. The pick marked Kilgore’s 10th interception of the year and 7th in the last two games eventually leading to a 1-yard touchdown run by Reilly five plays later, increasing the Esks lead to 40-14.

Post game Kilgore was very blunt in his self-criticism.

“I touch the ball on every play and even though there’s twelve guys on the field, the quarterback touches the ball and I’ve got to make better decisions.

“It’s tough, nobody wants to go out there and not play well. We’ve got to grow from it, correct some things and move on.”

Fajardo’s Dangerous on the Ground

After a 16-yard field goal from Sean Whyte put the Green and Gold up a commanding 43-14, coach Scott Milanovich put in Cody Fajardo at quarterback with 5:34 remaining in the third quarter. At that point Kilgore had gone 7/14 for 41-yards and two interceptions in the game.

Fajardo, with the game well out of reach, didn’t fare much better than Kilgore passing, 6/12 for 44 yards. However the Argos were able to run the ball much more efficiently using Brandon Whitaker who had a couple of nice runs to put Toronto in the red zone before a third down pass was broken up by Cord Parks resulting in a turnover on downs. Like Reilly did for Edmonton, Fajardo used his feet effectively to evade tacklers. Whitaker for his effort finished the game rushing for 103 yards on 14 carries.

Milanovich praised Fajardo post-game.

“I thought Fajardo did a nice job, he made some mistakes but he plays hard, he’s done it for us in short yardage and he’s done it for us on punt team, we wanted to get him in there taking some reps (at quarterback) and see how he handled the pressure, I thought he did a good job overall.”

Fajardo eventually cut the lead to 23 points with an 8-yard run that saw him scramble in the pocket before breaking for the right sideline. On the play Fajardo was sprung by a massive block from his running back Whitaker before diving into the end zone for his second rushing touchdown of the game.

After the touchdown, Fajardo while returning to his own sideline was greeted by an admirer stopping him to have a brief comment face to face. The encouraging fan was none other than the star of the game, Edmonton’s quarterback Reilly. The veteran quarterback apparently had a few words of encouragement for the young passer.

“He said it was a nice play and he didn’t think I was that athletic,” Fajardo said.

The backhanded compliment gave the young passer a quick chuckle and he elaborated on that and some of the other things he’s experienced in his short time on the field.

“It was good to see that guy who’s looked up to in the CFL, have some kind words like that. (Trash talk)’s part of the game and it makes it fun, when I first went in, I think it was (Odell) Willis and he was like,’hey seventeen welcome to the CFL’. It makes the game fun when guys can chirp back and forth.”

Fajardo had stayed down following the scoring play with an apparent injury to his right shoulder when he got up clutching his arm. He didn’t return to the game for the Argos last offensive series late in the game.

With regards to the injury to Fajardo, Milonavich said, “we think it his AC joint. I don’t know his status but my guess is he’s probably going to be out.”

Argos Defence impaired by lack of offence

Bryan Hall wanted his defensive line to create havoc for Edmonton’s offence. Following an Argos turnover on downs at Edmonton’s one-yard line, Hall got penetration by bull rushing the offensive line and took down Reilly for a 2-point safety cutting the lead down to 44-16 at that point. The safety was the third time the Argos had gotten to Reilly in the game for a loss of yards. Shawn Lemon had two sacks during the second quarter, when the game was still somewhat close. Reilly handled the pressure in stride throughout the game and was able to make the Argos pay when they couldn’t get to him.

Milanovich thought that his defence played well at points but they couldn’t limit the big plays from Reilly and his receivers. The Argos offence had one drive of more than five plays in the first half which resulted in little to no momentum for the unit ultimately bringing down the rest of the team. And that one successful drive in the first half was hardly smooth, aided by two pass interference penalties from Edmonton and needing two separate 3rd and short conversions with goal line personnel, the Argos grinded out those points in some ugly football. That first half series was eventually capped off by Fajardo on a quarterback sneak.

“We didn’t coach well enough, we didn’t play well enough offensively and defensively, we had those two turnovers defensively in the first half and we struggled to stop them after that. This is as disappointing a loss that I’ve ever been apart of,” Milanovich said post-game clearly frustrated.

The head coach said that one of the reasons for the trouble sustaining drives initially was the quarterback’s difficulty distinguishing a defensive scheme that Edmonton was playing in.

“They did a couple of things early that we’re different in coverage, that took him to a place we didn’t want him to go, but that’s not on him. We just couldn’t sustain a drive.”

Unable to sustain any offensive momentum the defence seemingly never came off the field long enough to catch a breather and it showed as the game wore on.

Moving Forward

The Argonauts will have to wait to take on the B.C. Lions in their Week 11 match-up, with the game taking place on Wednesday August 31st. The weeknight match-up will be the last of three straight home games for the Argonauts at BMO Field in the month of August.

Milanovich welcomed the 11 days between their next game and the hopeful return of Ricky Ray but stated that’s not the whole problem.

“One man isn’t going to change everything. We’ve got to get back to the drawing board. We’re going to get some people healthy. We’re going to have to evaluate what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and do it better.”

The Lions are the West Division’s number two seed and are coming off an embarrassing loss against the Division’s top seed, the Calgary Stampeders. The Stamps stomped the Lions Week 9 in Vancouver, winning by a score of 37-9.

With the Ottawa Redblacks losing to the Montreal Alouettes Friday the East Division is wide open with half a season still remaining. After the Lions, the Argonauts will take on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Tim Horton’s Field in Hamilton in the first game of a two-week home and home series between the Souther Ontario rivals.

Main Photo.

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