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 that the Calgary Stampeders thoroughly dominated and yet the Toronto Argonauts kept close thanks to to two touchdowns that went for a combined 209 yards. That’s one way to swing a game in your favour.

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

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 had won 28 games over the past two seasons and Toronto had won 14. Yes, the Stamps had beaten the Argonauts twice easily this year. But the Argos finished strong with six wins in their last eight and they were playing like a team that had 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.

After a few tentative series in which both teams seemed wary of their footing — a reasonable concern given that snow blanketed much of the field at kickoff — Calgary started playing like the far better team that we kind of all knew they were. The Stampeders suffocated Toronto’s run game and harassed Argonauts quarterback Ricky Ray.

Bo Levi Mitchell, who had been awful in the first half of last year’s Grey Cup, was the opposite this time around, 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 that was the result of a bad Calgary gamble, the Stamps were utterly dominant.

Mitchell had completed 17 passes to Ray’s six. Calgary’s Jerome Messam had outgained Toronto’s James Wilder Jr. by 52 yards to seven.

The slippery field forced Calgary into a number of stumbles that led to punts — the teams combined for 12 in the first half alone — but that was about the only thing keeping the game close.

The other stuff that might have given Toronto a chance? A nervous Mitchell, a breakout from Wilder, some timely turnovers? They didn’t happen.

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 — why the plows weren’t available before the game will remain a mystery — that just meant both teams were able to move the ball more easily. Toronto scored to make it close, and Calgary would answer back. With the Stampeders leading 24-16 late and closing in on what would be a clinching score, Calgary’s Kamar Jorden fumbled near the Toronto goalline. Cassius Vaughan of the Argonauts scooped up the loose ball and raced 109 yards, picking up some late blocks along the way, for the absurd score. A twopoint conversion tied the game at 24-24.

It was not at all what some Stamps had 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. “You want to call that cocky, or confident? It’s up to each person to interpret it the way they want.”

The Argos had been notably more cautious in their predictions. 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 had 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 another championship to go with the 2012 win.

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.

Calgary now has another playoff disappointment to go with their impressive regular season accomplishments: a 107-35-2 record since 2010. That is 40 more wins than the Argonauts over the same period. The Stamps have also been in the playoffs for 13 consecutive seasons and have played in four of the past six Grey Cups, but they have only won one of them.

This loss, no doubt, will hurt that much more.