A couple of things are at play as Week 6 of the CFL season draws near.
One, there’s a big game coming. And, two, you get the feeling that the Argos are tantalizingly close to emerging as bona fide football powerhouse.
Has that time come?
You sure could feel it at practice on Thursday. The coach wants more and he’s demanding it.
Head Coach Scott Milanovich knows Monday’s tilt against the defending Grey Cup Champion B.C. Lions is a yardstick game – one by which the improved edition of the Boatmen can measure themselves. It’s likely why he gathered the team up in the middle of practice and read them the riot act. Unhappy with the tempo of a team that was practicing for the first time since Friday night’s win in Montreal, he told them that they’d “just lost the first half of practice.”
| The search for the complete game |
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“We haven’t had a full game where we’ve been dominant on defence, on offence and on special teams. I guess that’s ideal, right? I don’t know if you ever get a perfect game. Once we stop thinking so much and we start playing fast, we’re going to be pretty unstoppable.” – Argos DE Ricky Foley |
He then went on to – how shall I say it politely – let them know that he’d had enough of that “stuff.”
“Our tempo wasn’t what we expect it to be,” said Milanovich, shortly after practice had ended. “I gave them a little time to see if they were going to pick it back up, themselves, and it didn’t happen so we’ve got to do a better job getting them ready for practice. It got better after that.
There was a little scuffle here and there and the intensity level picked back up.”
It was a sentiment that defensive coordinator Chris Jones had sympathy for.
“We’re out there basically sleepwalking,” said Jones of the first portion of practice. “Great football teams don’t do that. Great football teams, they come out and they work hard, every single day, every single drill. That’s what the great teams do.”
Jones believes it’s time for the Argos to make that next step. That they’re ready to really emerge, if they want to.
“No doubt we’re a good football team, but at the same time, to be a great football team, we’ve got to come out every day like it’s our last.”
For quarterback Ricky Ray, it’s not an alarming turn of events. Just part of the football landscape when a team is practicing for the first time in nearly a week.
“We’ve had a few days off, so it took a little bit for us to get going. He (Milanovich) just doesn’t want us to waste practice and I think guys responded pretty well,” Ray said.
Up and down the ranks, there was agreement that this next game will reveal, in large part, the measure of the 2012 Toronto Argonauts. At least to this point.
“Until somebody knocks them off this season, they’re the champs,” began Milanovich. “We have a ton of respect for them. It was not an accident that they won the Grey Cup last year. So, it’s a great challenge for us. Looking forward to it, to seeing where we’re at.”
The Lions possess an impressive arsenal of talent on both sides of the ball, and Milanovich is ensuring that his team prepares as thoroughly as they can in advance of that game.
While the Argos of 2012 have, no doubt, been a vast improvement on last season’s edition, there is the sense that their 3-2 record comes built by a squad that, at times,has been dominant on one side of the ball or the other, but not both sides for a full 60 minutes. 
Last week’s game against the Alouettes is a perfect example. Smooth sailing and dominance on offence in the first half. Then, a bit of hibernation, while the Argo defence sprang to life, closing on Alouette receivers and backs with jaw-dropping velocity. If and when they get that kind of consistent and synchronized performance, for an entire game, they’ll know they really have something.
Defensive lineman Ricky Foley gets that sense.
“Yeah, a hundred per cent,” he said, when asked if he agreed with the opinion that not all cylinders have fired at the same time. “We haven’t had a full game where we’ve been dominant on defence, on offence and on special teams.”
“I guess that’s maybe idealistic, right? I don’t know if you ever get a perfect game. Once we stop thinking so much and we start playing fast, we’re going to be pretty unstoppable,” he said.
The Lions come into this game leading the CFL in total offence, with the Argos right behind in second. B.C. is averaging 140 yards rushing per game, and quarterback Travis Lulay may have displayed, in Calgary last week, that he has fully returned to form, along with the weapons around him.
On the other side of the ball, while the Lions’ secondary doesn’t have a single interception yet this season, Ray is aware of what kind of puzzle they will present.
“Defensively, they’re not giving up a whole lot. They play a lot of good zone coverages and they don’t seem to give up the big play. So, for us, offensively, it’s going to be a huge challenge. For us as a team, we want to keep moving forward.”
Forward, if the coaches have their way, will mean taking a step from good to great. A win on Monday could very well signal that step has been taken.
THE EXTRA POINT
I’m reminded of a time, so, so long ago, when another Argo team, coming off a terrible 2-14 season, started out the next year with a 2-1-1 record.
In 1982, there was guarded optimism surrounding the likes of Condredge Holloway, Terry Greer and a ferocious defence featuring Carl Brazley, Zac Henderson and James Curry. But the Edmonton Eskimos were up next and they came to town as four-time defending Grey Cup champions.
Not only that, they had thumped the Boatmen, in Edmonton, three weeks before. Was an improved team ready for prime time? The Argos beat Moon, Kepley and the rest of the Eskies, 30-22, and hundreds of fans stormed onto the field at Exhibition Stadium in celebration, at the final gun. It was a critical moment. The team sailed forward from there, took first place and earned a berth in the Grey Cup Game, and won their first championship in 31 years the following season.
