The Blue Bombers were appearing in their fifth straight Grey Cup, having won back-to-back before now losing three in a row
VANCOUVER — Evidently the Toronto Argonauts don’t really need Chad Kelly.
Playing without their controversial quarterback, whose broken leg sidelined him for Sunday’s 41-24 crushing of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Argonauts surprisingly won the 111th Grey Cup and earned player-of-the-game laurels for his much-travelled replacement, Nick Arbuckle.
Arbuckle is in his second Argonauts stint plus he played with the Calgary Stampeders, Ottawa Redblacks (twice) and Edmonton Elks, who actually acquired him in a trade that sent Kelly’s CFL rights to Toronto. Arbuckle never fulfilled his promise as a starter and during the offseason was pondering retirement. No wonder the Argonauts were nine-point underdogs!
“If I was in the media and I saw there was a backup quarterback playing, I’d think it would be tough to win, too,” said Arbuckle, who completed 26-of-37 passes for 252 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
“It’s hard to tell you exactly why it happened. It was just a special energy that I felt all week in practice.”
That isn’t enough to convince Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie to move past Kelly, whose recovery is expected to take 6-9 months.
“We absolutely, literally need Chad Kelly,” said Dinwiddie.
“I Facetimed Chad afterwards,” Dinwiddie said during his postgame media scrum as 52,349 spectators left BC Place Stadium. “You know, he’s the best quarterback in the league and I don’t think it’s even close. He makes us a different offence, very explosive.
“Not to take anything away from Nick, he played great, but Chad is our franchise guy and we really appreciate him and everything he had to deal with this year, how he battled through.”
After social-media threatening to avenge himself against everyone who wronged him, Kelly rejoined the Argonauts and turned them into one of the CFL’s hottest teams until breaking a leg while eliminating the reigning Grey Cup-champion Montreal Alouettes last weekend in the East final. Losing Kelly again may have actually fortified the Argos.
“We never know how it’s gonna go,” said Argos receiver Dejon Brissett, who was chosen the game’s outstanding Canadian after catching three passes for a team-high 45 yards and one touchdown. “You can only focus on the next game and the next play and we kind of adapted that mentality.”
Except Bombers returner Lucky Whitehead fumbled away the punt. One play later Arbuckle tossed a 17-yard touchdown to Kevin Mital to take a 17-10 lead. It remained close until the fourth quarter, when the Argonauts repeatedly intercepted Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros, with Robert Priester returning one of the picks 61 yards for a touchdown.
“It’s not an excuse for our performance,” said Collaros, who was 15-of-30 for 202 yards and four interceptions, has lost his last three Grey Cup starts and may now be the epitome of a hard-luck quarterback. “It feels pretty bad every time.”
One of the few people Collaros didn’t throw to in the fourth quarter was the female streaker who stumbled on the turf before being escorted away by security. She wasn’t wearing Argos white. Or Bombers blue.