Argonauts Capture Grey Cup

[Jenya]

Argonauts Capture Grey Cup

By DAVID NAYLOR
Globe and Mail

Monday November 22, 2004

Ottawa, ON — This Toronto Argonaut team will not be remembered for its greatness or for dominating games from start to finish.

But give the Argos this: They were efficient this season, and whenever an opposing team dared to give them life, they made it pay.

The Argos captured their 15th Grey Cup in franchise history last night with a 27-19 win over the B.C. Lions in a game that typified the Toronto style of victory all season.

Underdogs going into the game, the Argos gave up the first score early and trailed 7-3 midway through the second quarter. But while the Lions made small miscues and took bad penalties, the Argos played nearly error-free and were ready whenever opportunity knocked.

Like their playoff wins over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes, the Argos won by simply staying patient and sticking to a smarter brand of football than their opposition.

"I'm going to use one word, it's a word we use all the time, every day, every practice, almost every huddle — it's family," Toronto linebacker Mike O'Shea said.

"I don't want to get too deep on you, but the idea of family is unconditional love. That we will lay it on the line for each other. We believe we're united and have the ability to play as one. We're not the kinds of guys who just give that lip service. We understand that."

The key for Toronto was 41-year-old quarterback Damon Allen, who played a spectacular first three quarters, left the game briefly with a leg injury and then returned to drive his team toward a final field goal with less than three minutes to play.

Allen, the game's outstanding player, won his fourth Grey Cup championship in five tries, a triumph for a player who had been released by the Lions before the 2003 season and who missed a large chunk of this campaign with a broken bone in his foot.

"Someone asked me which Damon Allen would show up today," said Michael Clemons, the first black head coach to win the Grey Cup. "I told them on Grey Cup Sunday there's only one Damon."

Among those in the crowd of 51,242 at Frank Clair Stadium was Allen's older brother Marcus, the former National Football League great who was attending his first Grey Cup.

"I was vicariously playing through him, so it was hard on me," Allen said. "I was so glad to be here. I actually started crying upstairs because I was so happy for him. I knew how important it was."

Toronto led 17-10 at halftime and 24-13 late in the third quarter when Allen left the game with what appeared to be a cramp or muscle pull. Michael Bishop came on in relief and avoided any major mistakes, but he was unable to add to the Toronto lead.

Lions quarterback Dave Dickenson then drove his team 98 yards, largely on the legs of Antonio Warren, who went over the 150-yard mark for the game by ripping off two runs for a total of 51 yards. From there, Dickenson carried the ball in to trim Toronto's lead to 24-19 midway through the fourth quarter.

Dickenson had been a surprise starter over Casey Printers, the CFL's outstanding player this season, who started the West Division final against the Saskatchewan Roughriders last week before leaving with a shoulder injury.

Printers was given the news on Saturday that head coach Wally Buono was opting to go with the veteran over him.

"Absolutely, I could have played," Printers said. "I'm just as healthy as any other guy in this locker room. Our coaching staff just decided to go with another guy. I can't do anything about that. It's not up to me.

"I think I handled it pretty well. It was such a tightly contested game. Any time a game is like that the likelihood of them pulling a quarterback is pretty low."

Trailing by eight points late in the game, the Lions had one final shot at trying to force overtime. But unlike a week ago against Saskatchewan, Dickenson had no miracles in his hip pocket, and the Lions punted. They never got the ball again.

"We feel offensively we [we beat ourselves]," Dickenson said. "They made a few plays, but we just couldn't recover from second-and-20. We'd start getting momentum and make a bad throw, or jump offside or take a big penalty. They did a nice job, but we would have had to play a much sharper game to beat them."

Allen opened the second half by picking apart the Lions' secondary before carrying the ball himself from a yard out to make the score 24-10 with 10 minutes 6 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

On the Argos' next possession, Allen was injured while sliding at the end of a run in Toronto territory.

The Lions went on the ground to open the second half, riding the legs of Warren, who took them into field-goal range. Duncan O'Mahony made the score 24-13.

The Lions began the game as if they would move the ball at will against the Argos. With slightly more than four minutes gone in the game, Dickenson completed a seven-play drive by hitting wide-open Jason Clermont in the end zone to give B.C. a 7-0 lead. Clermont was chosen as the game's outstanding Canadian player.

"It was just a matter of [our defence] getting to the sideline and working out a couple of things," O'Shea said. "At no point were we worried or concerned that the game was in jeopardy. They have a good offence, they scored, so what."

But as the Argos stumbled during their first few possessions last night, the Lions failed to take advantage. In fact, thanks to a number of Lions gaffes on special teams, the Argos gradually gained the field-possession advantage, which helped turn the tide in the first half.

O'Mahony, the hero a week ago for his game-tying and winning field goals against Saskatchewan, had a horrific first half punting the ball. His first three punts averaged 16 yards, as he failed to take advantage of multiple opportunities to bury the Argos deep.



Photo: Ryan Remiorz/CP

Toronto Argonauts' linebackers
Antonious Bonner, top, and Michael
Fletcher gang up on B.C. Lions
running back Antonio Warren during
first quarter Grey Cup game
action in Ottawa, Sunday