Riders vs. Argos: Opportunity Knocks

For the second week in a row the Riders find themselves on the road in Ontario looking to stay unbeaten and keep their opponent winless. This time it’s the reigning Grey Cup Champion Argos on tap. While we are all still very appreciative of how they embarrassed Winnipeg in the Grey Cup I do hope this game goes about as well for them as pretty much any time their head coach actually played.

We should and need to win this game. If we are truly one of the top teams in the CFL like we fancy ourselves then we have zero reason to lose to a team missing their best player on both sides of the ball in Kelly and McManis. Its really that simple.

It has been a rough adjustment for Nick Arbuckle to return to the regular season. Grey Cup Arbuckle looked like Doug Flutie. But it turns out regular season Arbuckle looks a lot like Nick Arbuckle. So far in 2025 he has led the 2^nd worst offensive attack, produced a league low 2 TDs, been sacked a whole bunch and led the CFL in interceptions. He is completing just 28% of his passes over 20 yards, by far the worst in the league. As I said, it’s a fitting homage to his head coaches playing career (only difference is Arbuckle did not epically blow it in the Grey Cup).

Argos really need to get the run game going to help old Arbuckle out. Fortunately that have a talented weapon in Ka’Deem Carey who can lead that attack… oh wait. Awkward. We know that shutting down the run is our specialty. So I don’t expect this to be the game where Toronto rediscovers the run. We do allow an eye popping completion % of 74 in pass D so Arbuckle may put up some stats. But we lead the league in sacks and Toronto allows the second most. And Toronto has the most giveaways. Coxie and Ungerer will get chunk plays but they won’t able to sustain drives. I can see this being a game where Mike Rose shows up on the stat sheet.

Offensively the major concern is how much our depth is being tested so early. We are already down 2 top tier Canadian WR in Baker and Emilus. Best way to deal with that is pound the ball in the ground game. Argos are allowing 125 yards per game on the ground. Ouelette and a returning Hudon should be able to power us to at least that. Cam Judge is a playmaker but without McManis that D is vulnerable. In the pass game look for Harris to rely on Johnson and Myers (pretty much by default) but I expect Duncan-Busby and Picton to contribute important 2^nd down conversions. Toronto allows the most pass plays of 30 yards or more so if there was ever a game for Harris to prove he can still go deep, this it. Toronto has just one takeaway all year.

Brett Lauther will not miss this week and if you want to know why the team loves him and has made him a captain just look at how he took accountability this week for his play.

I also want to point out that we’re are the least penalized team so far this year. Last year after game 2 we had 18 penalties. This year we have just 8 (and one of those was pure BS).

Toronto is a tough place to play but if we can’t beat a roster this depleted then we are in trouble. Guarantee we don’t do it convincingly and find some new ways to make my blood boil as we almost blow it, but we’ll win.

Riders by an Ouelette TD.