The curse of Labour Day comes back to haunt the Toronto Argonauts

After a bizarre day with a weather delay, the Toronto Argonauts were unable to get over the curse of the Labour Day classic losing to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Since moving to Tim Horton’s Field, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats have not lost to the Toronto Argonauts in the Labour Day Classic and that streak continued following a weather delayed showdown. Despite Hamilton’s being winless heading into this game, the script was setting up for a tough game.

New head coach June Jones was making his debut and Jeremiah Masoli was taking over as the starter for Zach Collaros. The Argos are still dealing with major injuries to their defence and the offence was coming off a poor showing against the Calgary Stampeders. This game should have been a chance for the Double Blue to get everything back on track, instead it was the exact opposite.

Wasted chance in the first half

The Tiger-Cats offence struggled in the first half and the Argos failed to capitalize on it especially with an early interception that had the Argos on the Hamilton 31-yard line. They were only able to get a field goal after the turnover and it did not help that a 10 yard run was wiped out by a holding call.

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Ricky Ray has not been afforded the time in the pocket to look downfield as  often as he probably would like. Hamilton did a good job forcing him to check down and settle for shorter completions. It took some time but the offence did find a rhythm which allowed them to move the ball efficiently. Unfortunately that did not come until the second half with the Argos trailing.

Really one of the few bright spots was the play of receivers SJ Green and Devier Posey. Green finished the game with 103 yards and helped move the chains on countless occasions. His performance now has him at 1002 yards on the season. He is only 31 yards behind Greg Ellingson which is not something people thought would be possible given the long road back for Green after a devastating injury.

Posey did not put up as many yards as he did in the season opening game but he had two big touchdown receptions giving him four on the season despite missing time with an injury. He is a tough player to cover especially when he has time and space to make a play as it showed on his second score. It helps that Green helps draw defenders away from the receivers and now they will need to find a way to get down the field quicker for Ray to move the ball with some deep options.

Special teams not so special with penalties and blunders

The weather definitely played a factor on special teams which had a tough night and was a deciding factor. It starts with the penalty that took away a 101 yard touchdown run by Martese Jackson. It is the second time this season that a penalty has taken away momentum from the Argos after a big return.

Then to add insult to injury, Jackson fumbled a ball off the kickoff which was recovered and returned for a touchdown by Hamilton. The team was able to recover from that but in the end a missed field goal took away the chance to force the game to overtime. That is not something Marc Trestman wanted to see after a poor effort in Calgary and a BYE week coming up.

Officiating was rough but not the reason for the loss

Is it fair to say that there has been criticism towards CFL officials but last night was a tough one for Argos fans especially with the backlash on social media. It all started with the challenge on the Masoli fumble which was ruled an incomplete pass but it did not look like he was in the act of throwing. That call was upheld by the command center and the Argos lost their challenge for the rest of the game.

Later in that drive, it appeared that a completed pass bounced on the turf, although the replay showed that there was enough to overturn the play. Then Hamilton challenged for pass interference against Rico Murray after some contact was made on Luke Tasker. The contact was not anything noticeable and it set the Tiger-Cats up for the eventual game-winning score.

While the Argos did not get the benefit of the calls from the officials, that is something that every CFL has to deal with. While the calls against Toronto came at the end of the game, the team did not do themselves any favours with their effort throughout the game.

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Now they have a chance to come back from the BYE week healthier and a chance to get back on track at home where they have played their best football this season.