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Toronto Argonauts Week 6 Notebook: Another home-and-home series

By David Morassutti

TORONTO, CANADA - JULY 5: CFL footballs on the field before the Toronto Argonauts CFL game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on July 5, 2014 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
TORONTO, CANADA - JULY 5: CFL footballs on the field before the Toronto Argonauts CFL game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on July 5, 2014 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
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The Toronto Argonauts will open up another home-and-home series against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers invading BMO Field on Saturday.

The  Toronto Argonauts schedule is one that makes you do a double take to make sure your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. After finishing a home-and-home against the Edmonton Eskimos, they see themselves doing the same thing again against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers starting on Saturday at BMO Field.

There are many matchups to watch for in this game but none will be magnified more than the battle between James Wilder Jr. and Andrew Harris. Both running backs play a big part in their team’s offence.

Harris has hit the ground running leading all running backs with 449 rushing yards this season through five games while Wilder Jr. has 222 through four games.

Both players set out a goal for this season to rush for 1000 yards while adding another 1000 yards receiving which has never been done before in the CFL.

“He’s consistently coming out 100-yard games and scoring,” Wilder Jr. said on what he admires about Harris. “It’s not sometimes that he busts out a big game or has a dropoff of 40 yards, teams try their best to stop him and no matter what he’s able to remain consistent.”

Wilder Jr. is looking forward to the challenge of going up against the league’s leading rusher and the defence knows that they’ll have their hands full as well.

“I’m trying to figure out how to sleep because the kid does it all,’’ said Marcus Ball to the media on Friday. “The guy is fast, he’s physical, he catches, he runs, he cuts, he blocks. I mean, he checks off every box in the book.

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You can bet that a lot of the attention is paid towards Harris and for good reason. As Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun notes, the Canadian is averaging 6.4 yards per carry and 9.9 in his past two games and is now on pace to rush for 1,616 yards.

Offensively James Franklin is getting to the stage where he will want to establish his position as the starting quarterback. Going into his third start he has to show that he can confidently lead the offence which has struggled to put up points.

There’s nothing to suggest that he can’t and hopefully the team can give him an established group of receivers to play with. Llevi Noel has been moved to the slotback position with Rodney Smith getting the start in the outside receiver spot.

Franklin is the type of player that likes to establish relationship with the players he plays with so to get those reps with the receivers should start to translate to on the field success.

The defence will need the offence to try and establish more possession time as Winnipeg will be more than happy to pound the rock with Harris which will wear down the defence.

One player that has started to build chemistry with Franklin is S.J. Green who recorded his first game with over 100 yards receiving with 131 on 10 receptions against Edmonton. If the veteran can establish that relationship with the young quarterback it can be an explosive duo and open up room for the other receivers.

Next: Argonauts look for spark with Dexter McCluster

What are your predictions for the game? What do the Argos need to do to knock off the Blue Bombers? Let us know in the comments below. 

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