Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca
A shadow is starting to be cast over Trevor Harris. It’s a shadow of a man with three Grey Cup Championships, three CFL All-Star nods, two CFL Most Outstanding Player nominations and a salary near the top of the league.
In fact, Ricky Ray is everything Trevor Harris wants to be.
Over the next three weeks Harris will be battling opponents as hard as the inevitable quarterback controversy that looms should he have consecutive games in which he struggles.
Last week, Harris had his toughest effort of the season. Three interceptions, his second worst completion percentage and lowest QB rating of the season.
Timing is everything and for Harris it is not a good time to hit a bump in a road with Ricky Ray now ready to take his starting job back.
There is a lot on the line for Harris going into this week’s game against the Montreal Alouettes.
First and foremost is the team’s standing. Tied right now with the Ottawa REDBLACKS and just a game back of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in a tight Eastern race. There is no room for a slip up with three remaining games against teams below the .500 mark. The door may open to even take top spot in the East with Ottawa and Hamilton playing each other back-to-back to finish the season.
The pressure is on Harris to perform in crunch time and the first impression last week against a Grey Cup contender like Calgary was not a good one.
For Harris, he’s lucky the team will give him the chance at a re-do.
Next week, he won’t be so lucky.
The Argonauts are in a tough position with the way Harris has played for most of the seaosn. He is MOP worthy. In fact, Harris could do something Ricky Ray has never done in his CFL career which is win the league’s top award at the end of the season.
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Harris started the year on fire, three touchdown passes, then four, completion percentages in the mid to high 70s and with a QB rating more often than not easily eclipsing the 100 level.
While Henry Burris is starting to run away with the yardage lead, Harris is doing the same with touchdown passes. Harris is at 32 right now, the most since Burris threw 43 in the 2012 season.
For Harris to build his resume for the Eastern nomination, he needs to finish strong.
A strong finish will also solidify himself as the team’s quarterback moving into the playoffs. If he were to stumble again this week against Montreal, Head Coach Scott Milanovich will have to get Ricky Ray ready to play.
There are only two weeks left after this game on Friday night and only two opportunities for Ray to pick up valuable game action. And while the common thought would be ‘you go with the guys who got you there’, Ray is the exception to the rule.
The most accurate passer in the CFL throwing to this young talented group of receivers has to be appealing for Milanovich. The thing we haven’t seen is Ray have a group of receivers like this maybe since his days in Edmonton with Jason Tucker, Ed Hervey, Mookie Mitchell and Terry Vaughn.
Then there is the long term for Trevor Harris.
He’s a free agent after this year and there will be plenty of teams interested if he were to get to the February deadline. The Argonauts will have first dibs and with solid play down the stretch and a playoff victory or two, with new ownership coming in, it could be a remarkable pay day for Harris if he can complete this season as strong as he started it.
The story was out there last week that Harris is seeking to be paid as the top quarterback in the league.
For him to accomplish that, he needs to lead the Argonauts to the 103rd Grey Cup and finish the job he started back in June.
While he’ll be fighting off the Montreal Alouettes this week, he’ll also be fighting off his backup quarterback from taking the starting job and Ricky Ray may his stiffest competition to date.
The games will only get bigger from here for Argonauts and they have one quarterback with a proven track record of thriving in crunch time. Harris needs to make it two.
