Argos have very weird claim on the Grey Cup

The 105th Grey Cup had a lot of things that reeked of Canadiana: a blizzard, snowplows, Shania Twain on a dogsled.

But it was something else that was perfectly representative of a Canadian football championship game. It was a wild, ridiculous affair, one the Calgary Stampeders thoroughly dominated yet the Toronto Argonauts kept close thanks to two touchdowns that went for a combined 209 yards. That’s one way to swing a game in your favour.

The Argos used a late field goal and an even later interception to seal a most improbable Grey Cup victory, 27-24.

It was a bitter, crushing loss for the Stampeders, the most dominant team in the CFL the last two years but with just two late losses in the championship game to show for it. Calgary coach Dave Dickenson said he didn’t really have anything to say to his players.

“Any words I will say will not resonate,” he said. “They are just words.”

“Man, that’s a tough one.”

In the Calgary locker-room, receiver Marquay McDaniel bluntly blamed his teammate Kamar Jorden, who lost a fumble deep in Toronto territory that turned into a 109-yard touchdown the other way, for not keeping two hands on the ball.

“I just don’t get it,” McDaniel said. “What are you doing?” Jorden was despondent.

“I just had to be smart with the ball,” he said. “I cost this team the game.”

For the Stamps, this is what it has come to: reconsidering the plays that killed them.

Before the game kicked off, there were many ways to convince yourself it wasn’t going to be the football version of a teenager sitting on his little brother’s chest and punching him with his own fists.

Yes, Calgary won 28 games over two seasons and Toronto won 14. Yes, the Stamps beat the Argonauts twice easily this year. But the Argos finished strong with six wins in their last eight and were playing like a new team that just recently figured things out.

Then the game started, in a mild blizzard, and the Stampeders sat on their chest. Stop hitting yourself, Argos. Stop hitting yourself.

Calgary started playing like the far better team we kind of knew they were. The Stampeders suffocated Toronto’s run game and harassed Argonauts quarterback Ricky Ray. Bo Levi Mitchell was piling up completions while avoiding the big mistake. The resulting 17-8 halftime score in Calgary’s favour flattered the Argos.

Other than a 100-yard touchdown pass from Ray to DeVier Posey, the Stamps were utterly dominant. Mitchell completed 17 passes to Ray’s six. Calgary’s Jerome Messam outgained Toronto’s James Wilder Jr. 52 yards to seven.

Although the second half looked more like normal football, with the snow having tapered off and the league able to clear the field somewhat at halftime, that just meant both teams moved the ball more easily.

With the Stampeders leading 24-16 late and closing in on what would be a clinching score, Jorden fumbled near the Toronto goal line. Cassius Vaughan of the Argonauts scooped up the loose ball and raced 109 yards for the absurd score. A two-point conversion tied the game at 24.

It was not at all what some Stamps predicted.

“We are 100 per cent confident in what we’re doing as a team and we have the approach that we’re the best,” defensive lineman Charleston Hughes had said earlier in Grey Cup week. The Argos were notably more cautious in their predictions. They said they believed in each other, they said they knew they were just getting started under new coach Marc Trestman, they said they knew Calgary would present a challenge.

“We just know we’re playing good teams and we have to play our best,” Ray said. “We have to prepare hard. We believe we can play with anybody but we have to go out and do it.”

They did, but barely.

Until Sunday, the last seven Grey Cups had been won by seven different teams.

The Argonauts are now the most successful CFL team of this decade, with their second championship.

Toronto, admittedly, has a very weird claim on that title. Even with the two championships, the Argonauts have a 67-77 record over the past eight seasons. The team has also battled indifference in its market, went years trying to find a new owner and has yet to sell out a game at its new stadium.

Calgary now has another playoff disappointment to go with their impressive regular-season accomplishments: a 107-35-2 record since 2010.