THE CANADIAN PRESS
Football on a Tuesday night, at first it just sounds odd, doesn’t it? No one associates cheap movie night with the B.C. Lions taking on the Toronto Argonauts. But when you consider that this schedule quirk happens every year, the weather was gorgeous and the depressing Blue Jays are on the West Coast, well suddenly the idea of going to the game doesn’t seem that strange. Besides it’s live football, who really cares what day of the week it’s played on?
So with only two games coming up this week I decided to piggy back a night out with a buddy of mine (Father of two, could not have been happier for a night out. Apparently having two children takes a lot of work, who knew?) with this week’s column where I’ll chronicle some of the sights and smells that can only be found while taking in a battle of the past two Grey Cup winners.
I know I shouldn’t get excited when I see Argonauts jersey’s in public but I just can’t help it. Maybe it is because I am constantly getting beaten down with the idea about how apathetic the Toronto’s sports culture is when it comes to the majority of teams in this city. It always warms my heart to witness multiple Argonauts jerseys throughout the city. Now that said, I have to question the motivation of the three different fans I saw wearing Michael Bishop gear to the game. I’m going to assuming these people knew what they were doing ahead of time.
You know what I’ll be nice and just say Bishop had an undistinguished career. Would it have killed these people to have found a throw back Matt Dunigan jersey? I’ll admit that I spent way more time than I should have wondering just who these people were. Quick aside, the pre-game portion of the evening was spent at Real Sports Bar & Grill. Great bar, solid food, excellent wine list but I think we can do without a lot of the teenage pop music. I don’t mean to go old man on you but I’m guessing most of the clientele that night did not need to hear Carly Rae Jepsen.
The most predictable part of the evening had to be the souvenir stand where Saskatchewan Roughriders products ranked a close second to Argonauts paraphernalia being sold. The Roughriders fan base remind me of slow moving zombies. They’re everywhere, they slowly seep into to every facet of your life and they generally can’t be stopped. I mean this all as a compliment, I swear.
The highlight of the pre-game warmups was Hugh O’Neill’s beard. My buddy summed it up by saying Hugh looked like he belonged as a male model for the Derelicte clothing line from ‘Zoolander’. Oddly that seemed appropriate. His facial hair deserves it’s own reality TV show. Moving on to the game.
You can see why teams would take a chance on Khalif Mitchell. His sack early in the first quarter was a testament to his strength and speed as he just embarrassed the interior of the Lions offensive line. Travis Lulay did not have a chance. 
Obviously I have many thoughts about Zach Collaros and his impressive debut. His first touchdown pass to Jason Barnes was one of those beauty is in the eye of the beholder kind of plays. Everything about the touchdown was ugly except for the result. Collaros managed to escape the rush, a skill he demonstrated all night, kept his vision down field and managed to deliver a strike all the while ignoring the pass rush. But let’s be fair, that pass was a dangerous one.
I counted at least two defenders who had a legitimate chance to pick it off. Credit Barnes who did a great job fighting off those defensive backs for the score. That was the best offensive rebounding I have seen in Toronto since Charles Oakley was intimidating opponents in the paint. Considering this was his first start I’m going with the glass half full analysis: Collaros deftly avoided the rush, read through his progressions and gave his wide receiver a chance to make a play.
Big shout out to the St. Michael’s College Drumline who were a couple rows away from where we were sitting. Entertaining throughout the night, let’s face it football is just better with a drum band, reminds me of watching NCAA Football.
The second Argonauts touchdown drive proved that the first score was not a fluke. Collaros mixed short and deep throws connecting with three different receivers. I’ll be honest, I expected a ton of mistakes, turnovers and hesitation from the entire Argonaut offence. Instead I got a unit that looked comfortable with a rookie under centre and an offence that was not afraid to take chances. Clearly Coach Milanovich has a ton of confidence in his young signal caller and refused to call an ultraconservative game plan.
Quick note to whoever is in charge of the bathrooms at Skydome. I can look the other way if you are not going to supply enough paper towels for an entire game. Hey I’m a realist, you’re not the first stadium to do this, nor will you be the last. But if you are going to go frugal on the paper supply than you need to install those super intense jet-like hand dryers that you see at the airport. Instead we are stuck with weak dryers where the moderately mild air has as much power as a light breeze. I can guarantee you that since the beginning of time itself no man has ever satisfactorily dried his hands on one of those devices.
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I’ve seen him on TV many times but there is just something different about watching Solomon Elimimian live. It wasn’t just his number of tackles (seven but it felt more like 14) it was the style upon which he delivered punishment to whomever had the ball. I didn’t count one miss tackle from him. There isn’t a statistic that measures the potential yards saved by a clean tackle, I wish there was. Because on several occasions Elimimian saved the Lions from giving up huge chunks of yardage with his hustle and his ability to track the ball like a shark on a chubby swimmer. I can’t think of a better 1-2 punch at linebacker than Elimimian and Adam Bighill.
On the flip side can someone tell me what is wrong with Travis Lulay and the Lions offence? Beyond Andrew Harris this unit feels like they are out of synch. Against a new Argonauts defence BC managed just four field goals. Yes they put up nearly 400 yards and 21 first downs but they never could string together a legitimate scoring drive or make the big plays needed on second down. I guess you can chalk this loss up to poor play in the red zone (None of Paul McCallam’s four field goals were longer than 17 yards, a very telling stat) but this isn’t the first week the Lions have struggled on offence.
I, like countless others, have written many times about just how I feel about Rogers Centre. That said, on a night like Tuesday, where the weather is gorgeous, the roof is open and the Argonauts delivered their most impressive performance of the season I can tell you that the atmosphere was exactly what you would want from a home crowd. It’s kind of hokey to say but I will always enjoy high fiving a bunch of strangers especially when your unknown quarterback and your 3rd string running back play like stars.
Yes we will never have that intense passion of attending a home game in Regina but on this Tuesday night, it felt pretty close,.
