QB Kelly played nervous, so did coach in Argos defeat

One quarterback looked beaten and susceptible and teetering on the brink and it wasn’t Bo Levi Mitchell.

And it was supposed to be.

The end is apparently near for the great Mitchell. His best-before date is yesterday. But there was at least one classic performance left for a Labour Day Classic and it came from the future Hall of Famer, against a team he wasn’t supposed to beat.

Labour Day is all about dreams and emotion and a football day unlike any other — a different stage in an indifferent season for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — and one last deep breath for the great Mitchell, in a terrific 31-28 win for the Ticats against the much better Toronto Argonauts.

Much better maybe during the season. Not much better on Labour Day. The Argos were 6-4 heading to Monday’s big game. The Ticats were 2-9. This should have been a day about ending whatever race there was in the Eastern Division.

The Argos weren’t good enough — at quarterback with Chad Kelly, at coaching with Ryan Dinwiddie, along the offensive line, on defence, especially in the secondary where DaShaun Amos was all but obliterated. The Ticats’ nifty coaching combination of Scott Milanovich on offence and Chris Jones on defence won the day alongside Mitchell, confusing Kelly when they needed to and almost blowing a big lead to come from behind late to win.

But Labour Day began with the work of Mitchell at quarterback, and at receiver with Tim White, one player who looks to be near the finish line, the other who should be the best receiver in Canadian football but hasn’t had the support around him to get there.

White caught a 57-yard touchdown pass on Hamilton’s second offensive play of the game, dashing past Amos to find himself wide open. And by the time the first quarter was over, White hauled in another touchdown catch, this time a 70-yard catch and run play. Again, Amos looked beaten on the play.

And in the fourth quarter, with the game about to tilt in the Argos direction, Mitchell locked up the win with a long throw to Brendan O’Leary-Orange, no relation to the great Argo Doyle, and again Amos was left hanging on, unable to make the play.

That ended any chance the Argos had of winning. But too many of the Argos players in too many areas didn’t perform well enough to come away victorious on the day unlike any other in Canadian football, the unofficial start of the second half of the East Division standings.

The Argos looked wonky from the start. The Ticats scored touchdowns on their first three times with the ball. By halftime, they had 27 points. Hamilton had the ball six times in the first
half and scored five times.

You can’t win playing that kind of football.

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Kelly has had moments in his first two games since returning from suspension where he has looked like the swash-buckler he can be. But in between, he has had happy feet, he’s looked uncertain, he crashed into his own offensive line, his throws have been all over the place, his patience with officials is still in need of maturity.

The Kelly of last season may not show up this season. The nine-game suspension may have taken that much out of him and out of the Argos offence. Now it’s a matter of pairing him with the suddenly non-gambling head coach in a way to produce more offence.

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Kelly is playing nervous. Dinwiddie is coaching nervous. The Argos needed three more points late to tie, four to win the game. The Argos had the ball in the red zone early and settled for very short field goals instead of giving Kelly the opportunity to be aggressive early. Dinwiddie didn’t show much faith in his quarterback.

Now there’s still almost half a season to play. The usual first-place Argos are clearly in third in the East. No one will catch Montreal this regular season, the way no one caught the Argos last year.

But now, the Argos need to find out who they are and what they are, Kelly needs to come back and find himself, the defence, playing Monday without star Wynton McManus, has to be better. There’s lot to work on and for Kelly, a career and a reputation to rebuild, one independent of the other.

In the meantime, Mitchell, his career looking all but over, the coaches wondering whether to replace him or not, the TSN panel wondering if he will join them next season or the year after that, is seemingly alive, well and living in Hamilton.

For now anyhow. Until next week, when Labour Day becomes background noise and the regular season resumes accordingly, and Kelly searches to become the quarterback he used to be.

ssimmons@postmedia.com
On X: @simmonssteve

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