Argonauts drive past Alouettes
Ray and Slaton connect for two key touchdowns, Boatmen atop East at 2-4
> ARGONAUTS 31 > ALOUETTES 5
MONTREAL— By no means are they where they want to be, nor are they where they expected to be, but at least the Toronto Argonauts can head into their CFL bye week feeling much better about themselves.
They were not dominant in beating the woeful Montreal Alouettes 31-5 at Percival Molson Stadium here Friday night, but they were as efficient as necessary for just their second victory of the season.
“It was big,” coach Scott Milanovich said of the win. “The big thing was, we bought into what it takes to win. We had less penalties, protected the ball better, protected our quarterback, got after their quarterback. That’s our whole formula. It’s about the first time we grasped that, a really good win for us.
“Records aside, it was a very, very important game.”
Now leading the Eastern Division with an underwhelming 2-4 record, the Argos were hardly electrifying in subduing the 1-4 Alouettes, but they were good enough for long enough to win with relative ease before an announced crowd of 20,692, which was reduced to about half of that by the end of the third quarter.
The defence stymied an inept Alouettes offence — league lows in points and first downs entirely on merit — while quarterback Ricky Ray and the offence produced just enough to win.
“It’s kind of weird to get our second win of the season and say we’re in first place,” said Ray, who completed 16 of 29 passes for 166 yards and two touchdowns. “We’re trying to inch our way back into playing some good football, and tonight was a good start.”
Two touchdown passes from Ray to Steve Slaton — one on the last drive of the first half, the other on Toronto’s opening possession of the second — were enough for the Argos to take command of the game. “He’s explosive. He’s got some good speed. He can make guys miss, and obviously in the passing game we were able to get him matched up on some linebackers and he was able to make some plays,” Ray said of Slaton, whose TDs were his first of the season.
Slaton had missed four weeks with injuries — adding to the total on the decimated Argonaut offence — but was easily the most effective offensive player against the Als. He had six catches for 48 yards and Toronto’s only two offensive touchdowns. “Steve’s talented. Unfortunately he’s been hurt for four of our first six games,” said Milanovich. “But he’s got some burst. . . . He’s another weapon. He’s a matchup problem. We have to keep finding more guys who can do that.” But there remains much work for the Argos to do. The defence and special teams dominated an offensively-inept Alouette team that’s statistically the worst in the CFL, but except for the two drives that produced scores Toronto’s offence still wasn’t clicking. “We did some good things offensively,” said Milanovich, “but our blocking on the perimeter is horrendous right now and that’s the difference between being second-and-12 and second-and-four.” Montreal’s overall ineptitude was never more evident than on an eventually aborted third-down gamble. With the ball just on their side of midfield and facing third-and-one, the Als wavered about going for it before calling a timeout. They decided to gamble, but somehow managed to have too many men in the huddle and the five-yard penalty forced them to punt.