ARGOS DISMANTLE BLUE BOMBERS

The Toronto Argonauts used a stifling defense and some timely scoring to defeat the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers 19-5 on Friday night and even their record on the young CFL season at 2-2.  Argos kicker Justin Medlock booted four field goals and Jamal Robertson scored a 1 yard rushing touchdown, and with the stop unit completely shutting down the Bombers’ offense that was all the scoring Toronto needed.  A first quarter FG was all the scoring Winnipeg could muster, with the team added two points on a conceded safety late in the contest.

Toronto rewarded their backers with the straight up win as +4 road dogs, and the combined 24 points scored never threatened to go OVER the posted total of 50.  The Argos evened their ATS record at 2-2 with the win, and has now gone UNDER in three of their four games this year.  Winnipeg dropped to 1-3 straight up, 2-2 against the number and has also gone UNDER in three of four games.  The two teams will face each other again this coming Saturday in ‘The Queen City’.
 
After the game, Argos rookie coach Bart Andrus didn’t get a chance to celebrate the victory as he faced questions from the media about a player that wasn’t even in the building.  Andrus had suspended receiver Arland Bruce III for the game for unspecified ‘unprofessional behavior’ and had little patience for reporters’ insistence that he address the issue:

"I don't think Bruce's absence had any effect on the game," Andrus said. "This was about the guys who were here playing the game. It was about them doing the right things, them taking the game to the next level and executing and being determined and playing physical football. That's what it was all about tonight for me."

Toronto quarterback Kerry Joseph was more conciliatory in his remarks about Bruce:

"Arland is a great football player, but we knew the guys that we had here we had to be together and we had to get it done and that's what we were able to do.”

Joseph gave the bulk of the credit for the victory to the Argos’ defense that had been ripped for a total of 90 points in the past two games:

"We knew we had to come in and play better and we were able to do that. It wasn't the prettiest win, but it was a win. On the road, they're hard to come by so we'll definitely take it."

Bombers’ first year coordinator Mike Kelly accepted the blame for his team’s sputtering offense while praising the rest of the squad:

"The defence played well enough to win, the special teams played well enough to win. Offensively, we have to make plays and we didn't make plays. We certainly tried a variety of things and nothing was working. That's the bottom line."
 
Winnipeg ended up using all three of the QBs on their roster, with starter Stefan LeFors getting the hook in the first half.  He indicated in his postgame comments that this very well might be the low point of his football career.  LeFors spent the previous two seasons as a backup in Edmonton and clearly isn’t happy with how the season has played out so far:

This is rough. We can't go any lower than this, I don't think, so we've just got to keep plugging away, keep working at it and, hopefully, we get a little bit better."

Following Saturday’s rematch between the two teams at Toronto’s Rogers Centre Winnipeg will travel west for a game against the Calgary Stampeders on August 8th.  Toronto, meanwhile, will face their biggest test of the season so far as they hit the road to play the CFL leading Montreal Alouettes at Molson Stadium on August 7th.