Loyalty will be the word around Toronto for the off season, loyalty to a long time veteran, which while honourable in the best of intentions, may have been the one intangible that separated the Argonauts from the Alouettes on Sunday afternoon.
The Montreal Alouettes crafted a good game plan, shutting down a CFL icon and in the end held on for an 33-24 Eastern Division win and a trip to the Grey Cup this Sunday.
Montreal put together a winning combination of plays handled well by Anthony Calvillo who, seemed to regain the form he has been know for in seasons past. He offered up a good mix of the pass and the run, allowing his key players to take the Als back to the game they’ve been to five times since 2000. From timely receptions by Ben Cahoon and Thyron Anderson, to rambles by Robert Edwards the Montreal offense seemed to take the game to the Toronto defence with little difficulty through the first two quarters of play.
Toronto’s offense while engaged, never seemed to break the big play needed to regain momentum in the first half and break the cycle of Montreal appearances on Grey Cup Sunday. Damon Allen while not struggling seemed limited in his approach on the day, his passes would go for short yardage, the utilization of the twin backs of Ricky Williams and John Avery ineffective for the most part.
With his mobility not what it once was, Allen couldn’t scramble as he once could, which would have served to have spread out the Alouette defence more. As it was, they could key on a triangle of turf on each play and control most of the flow of the action.
An untimely interception return (for Argonaut fans any wars) for a touchdown didn’t help the cause as Mark Estelle picked off an Allen pass early in the second half and ran it back 78 yards for a touchdown and a 23-3 lead. Allen would be given one more set of downs to try and move his team before Michael Clemons turned to Michael Bishop for the second time in two weeks.
Bishop entered the game six minutes into the second half and provided another spark similar to last weeks Eastern semi final against the Bombers. His appearance would change the dynamic of the on field situation, his arm would launch missiles to Arland Bruce III and Michael Palmer deep into the Alouette end of the field, he set up the field position to allow Ricky Williams to score his final CFL touchdown in his brief but interesting career in double blue and before an Alouette fan knew it the Argos were but a touchdown away from yet another story book finish.
But, in the end, the team that had controlled the bulk of the game would win out, a Damon Duval field goal late in the game capping the victory and bringing to an end the Argos season and perhaps an era or two as well.
The debate in Toronto in the off season will be all about the Quarterback position, Allen realizing that time is marching on now, would like to return but even he is aware that the Argos will be looking hard at all positions heading into a year in which they host the Grey Cup. Michael Bishop laid a stake to the claim of Allen’s heir apparent in the last two weeks, It will be up to the Argonaut management team to decide where they want the ship to go before training camp arrives next May.
Michael Clemons was loyal to his man, Allen of course had led the Argos on to many victories over his years in Double Blue, who is to say that he didn’t have one or two more miracles left in his bag of tricks.
In the end Clemons made some hard decisions, taking his veteran out as his offense stalled, Sunday perhaps he waited a few plays too long to see if magic was going to arrive one more time. It will be the topic of debate for the next six months for all that follow the Double Blue .
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