Chad Kelly shows off his 'swag' in Toronto Argonauts' season opening win over Tiger-Cats

It was a first half to remember for Chad Kelly who scored three touchdowns in the Toronto Argonauts season opening-victory against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Kelly went 14/23 for 208 yards while letting his legs do the work in the red zone with all three of his touchdowns coming on the ground.

In front of a crowd of 15,967 at BMO Field, Kelly outduelled Bo Levi Mitchell who had his struggles throughout the game finishing with 158 yards and two interceptions. With the loss, Hamilton starts the season 0-2 after another tough offensive performance from their big off-season acquisition.

“The first one is always the hardest one, right? And I thought it was a great team effort,” Kelly said after the game. “We took care of the football. The o-line did a fantastic job and you know, running backs ran hard, and wide receivers got open and made plays and obviously defense did their thing.”

Damonte Coxie led all Argos receivers with six receptions on seven targets for 131 yards. A.J. Ouellette saw the bulk of the work at running back finishing the game with 13 carries for 60 yards.

When Dinwiddie first arrived in Toronto he had his sights set on bringing in Coxie but wasn’t able to and he’s glad that his patience paid off and believes there’s more the 26-year-old can offer.

“He’s got a little rust that he’s got to build through but he’s a good football players, Is he at his best now? No, he didn't have a full camp, he only got like the last week of training camp,” Dinwiddie said. “When he was there in that final week, he made a lot of plays. So we feel good about Coxie, he’s a good young kid and has a bright future.”

The first possession didn’t start off the way the Argos would have liked with an incomplete pass. Pushed back by an offside penalty, Toronto was forced to punt the ball after being unable to move the chains.

For head coach Ryan Dinwiddie, he believed there was more the offence could have done especially early in the game.

“You can see we're a little rusty in the first quarter I thought we could have done some more things offensively. Defence kept us in it and then we got the big second quarter but thenwe came out a little flat in the third,” Dinwiddie said about his team’s performance. “The two special teams penalties were unfortunate and those are things we keep harping on all week and we got to clean up. But we were off for a week and everybody's got a head start on us. So I thought for the most part it was a good team win and we know we got to improve.”

Fortunately, a great punt pinned the Tiger-Cats deep with a penalty forcing them to start at the one-yard line. Some strong pressure from the defensive line kept Hamilton from moving forward and it led to a punt out of the endzone.

Toronto would start their second series of the game on the 37-yard line and chose to have Ouellette get things going on the ground. A holding penalty negated a pass completion to DaVaris Daniels and on the following play, Kelly would attempt a long ball to Cam Phillips in the endzone that fell incomplete.

After originally setting up for a field goal, Toronto then decided to punt the ball which bounced into the endzone for a single point.

On Hamilton’s second series of the game, Mitchell worked through a clean pocket to complete a deep ball to Duke Williams. Mitchell would move the chains again as he escaped the pocket to pick up a first down.

In an attempt to throw the ball away, Mitchell would get intercepted by Qwan’Tez Stiggers to end a 10-play, 60-yard drive that looked like it was going to lead to some points for Hamilton.

The 21-years-old didn’t look out of place in his first professional game despite not playing for over a year. Dinwiddie said the coaching staff had a lot of faith in him and are excited by his potential.

Dinwiddie credits defensive coaches Corey Mace, William Fields and Joshua Bell for making sure Stiggers was ready.

“He’s a really good player and I think we found something with Stiggers,” Dinwiddie said about Stiggers. “He doesn’t have a lot of experience but we really liked him out of camp. Jamal Peters is going to be our boundary corner, for sure. Stiggers has a bright future, I don't know exactly where that's going to be as far as lining him up.

“Petey being here for a week, we didn't feel like he was quite ready. being in the NFL which is a different game. We felt like we trusted a young kid and that's a tough decision to make.”

On the first play after the interception, Kelly would work the left sideline finding Coxie open for a big gain. After Hamilton forced a six-yard loss on a run play with Ouellette, Kelly would complete a pass to Coxie that was short of the first down but a misconduct play would keep the drive going.

A completion to Daniels plus a roughing the passer call on former Argo Chris Edwards set up Toronto on the seven-yard line. Kelly would decide to keep the ball and run the ball in for the first touchdown of the season.

Hamilton’s defence would step up with a couple of big hits including a sack on Kelly that would force Toronto to punt out of their own endzone. This would set up the Tiger-Cats to start their next possession on the Argos’ 46-yard line.

Running back James Butler would respond with a couple of big plays including a 10-yard run for his second touchdown of the season cutting Toronto’s lead to 8-6.

Kurleigh Gittens Jr. would record his first catch of the season in the second quarter after being left open for a 24-yard completion. In the red zone, it looked like the Argos drive was going to end with a sack on Kelly but a facemask penalty would keep it going.

Toronto decided to go for it on third down with Kelly keeping the ball and getting himself over the goal line for his second touchdown of the game. That would complete a 12-play drive that showed a nice mix of the Argos’ pass and rushing attack.

After another interception by Mitchell brought in by DeShaun Amos, Kelly wasted no time finding Coxie for a 59-yard completion to put Toronto in scoring position. Kelly would finish off the drive with his third touchdown of the first half to give Toronto the 22-6 lead.

In the first half, Kelly went 9/14 pass attempts for 185 yards and three rushing touchdowns.

“If you look at the grand scheme of things, we didn't have any turnovers, which is good, but we got to make sure we stay in positive situations,” Kelly said about what he learned from the game. “When we get a second and 15, the defence can play prevent, and we're gonna have to check it down. We got to make sure we just stay focused, keep gaining positive yards, stay consistent in the sticks, because it's a lot harder playing from behind.”

Both defences dialed up the intensity in the second half and it led to a scoreless third quarter. Both John Haggerty and Bailey Flint did their jobs with some accurate punts that made it a field position battle.

After Mitchell was replaced by Matthew Schiltz following a lower-body, Robbie Smith was able to get the sack to continue a strong performance from the Argos defence.

Andrew Harris would put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter with a 10-yard touchdown run to make it 29-6.

Schiltz would connect with Tyler Ternowski on a late touchdown to make it 29-14 Toronto. In relief of Mitchell, Schiltz went 11/12 for 115 yards through the air and a touchdown pass.

Near the end of the game, Kelly showed his ability to scramble and make plays with his legs but also took a hit while trying to get the first down.

Dinwiddie didn’t like to see his quarterback take a hit like that, especially at a point in the game when he didn’t need to. Kelly also heard it from his uncle Jim Kelly when he checked his phone after the win.

“I'm still hearing it from every single uncle already to get the hell down,” Kelly said. “I guess I gotta learn, but they don't understand. I was trying to get the first down.”

On their final drive of the game, the Argos would respond to Hamilton’s touchdown with a 27-yard field goal by Boris Bede.