Toronto Argonauts outlast Edmonton Elks in entertaining victory

It was a back-and-forth affair as the Toronto Argonauts earned a 39-36 walk-off win against the Edmonton Elks.

Lirim Hajrullahu's late field goal in the final seconds of the fourth quarter put the game away after a big stop from the Argos defence to provide them the opportunity to get the ball at the end.

Making just his second career start at home, Cameron Dukes went 18-for-21 with 214 yards through the air and a pair of touchdowns touchdown while adding three carries on the ground for 16 yards and a touchdown.

In his return to Toronto for the first time since returning to the CFL, McLeod Bethel-Thompson tied a career-high with four touchdown passes on 342 yards through the air.

While still early in the season, it was a pivotal one for Toronto to at least keep pace with the Montreal Alouettes who are 3-0. The reigning Grey Cup champions will come to Toronto in a rematch of the East Final on Friday.

Here are the takeaways from an action-packed Saturday night at BMO Field.

With the Argos struggling to contain the Elks' pass rush, head coach Ryan Dinwiddie turned to the run game to try and move the chains.

In the end, Toronto finished with 186 yards on the ground on 29 carries, an impressive 6.4 yards per carry. Dinwiddie said after the game that the team's goal is to reach 100 yards rushing every week, and it's easy to see why, considering the offensive line's ability to provide the running backs with the lanes they needed.

It all started on their third possession of the game, it was the Ka'Deem Carey and Deonta McMahon show, with the latter breaking free for a 44-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7-7.

With the Argos trailing in the third quarter, Carey would continue to see a fair amount of work and would be rewarded with his first touchdown of the season.

It was one of those games where it didn't make sense for the Argos to go away from running the ball especially with the way they were able to move the chains. This also allowed Toronto to dominate the time of possession which certainly helped their defence in a big way while also keeping the Elks defence on the field.

While the Elks have had a tough time scoring this season, they do have a number of weapons, and the options certainly overwhelmed the Argos in the first quarter.

Bethel-Thompson started the game going 9-for-11 with 127 yards and two touchdowns, with Mitchell and Eugene Lewis seeing a good share of the targets from the veteran quarterback.

It also appears that communication issues led to the Elks' second touchdown of the game. Benjie Franklin was late reacting to Lewis being wide open in the endzone, and Deshaun Amos trailed behind. The Argos' zone defence was picked apart on the play with Franklin not sure where he is supposed to be covering.

In the second quarter, the defence would start to find their rhythm with some key stops that put Toronto in the driver's seat in the second quarter. Edmonton had just five receptions for 59 yards in the quarter, with most of it coming in the final minute as they to get some points heading into the locker room.

What helped the Argos cause was keeping the Elks run game in check with Kevin Brown not getting a lot of work, and when he did, it wasn't for a lot.

The big blow came in the fourth quarter, with Mitchell once again getting behind the secondary for a 36-yard reception. Initially, it looked like he was going to go all the way to the endzone untouched, but the play was called back by a review with Franklin continuing to struggle.

The Elks would continue to pound away at the boundary side, and eventually, former Argos receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr. would get free in the endzone to tie the game 29-29.

Then with the Elks driving down the field late in the fourth quarter a defensive pass interference penalty on DaShaun Amos set the stage for the game to come down to the wire.

He didn't have to be the saviour, but Dukes certainly needed to make the plays when called upon in this game.

It was clear the mandate for the second-year player was to avoid the negative plays and avoid the back-breaking turnover.

With Dukes looking for something in the endzone, it was Rasheed Bailey who once again gave his quarterback an outlet to throw the ball.

Even with a defender draping him, Bailey was able to turn around and secure the ball for his second touchdown of the season.

It was a big play in the game as the Argos took some time to get their receivers going but that also had a lot to do with the running game getting a fair share of the work in the first half.

With veteran DaVaris Daniels out with a groin injury, it was expected that Bailey would be a go-to target for Dukes who has built trust with the first-year Argo.

The Argonauts had won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball first. They were able to get a first down, but a penalty and a sack had the team backed up on their own end.

After a punt return by former Argo Javon Leake set up Edmonton on Toronto's 50-yard line, Bethel-Thompson led his team down the field and found Dillon Mitchell in the endzone for a 30-yard touchdown.

Obviously, the Argos felt confident enough to get off to a good start on offence, but even if they didn't get anything on the opening drive, their defence would be able to step up.

Unfortunately, Bethel-Thompson was able to spread the ball around and took advantage of an inexperienced Argonauts secondary.

It might make Toronto rethink its strategy when it comes to taking the ball first going forward.

The story of this game shouldn't be the attendance, but it's hard to ignore another game with a subpar crowd in Toronto.

You can see why, in the past, it was hard to convince people to come to Argos games, especially pre-COVID. The product on the field was tough to watch especially when they made their move to BMO Field in 2016.

Let's get one thing out of the way though, the weather forecast was not looking great for the game and that might have kept some people from making the trip down. On top of that, the construction on the Gardiner Expressway has made driving in the area a real challenge plus concerts at Budweiser Stage across the way makes it more of a traffic nightmare which doesn't entice people to come out and probably decide to watch the game at home.

However, this is a team that went 16-2 last season and lost just one game at home in the playoffs against Montreal. This season they are 2-0 at home despite having to pivot to their backup plan at quarterback with Chad Kelly suspended for at least nine games.

At a time when the only teams playing are the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto FC, MLSE has missed an opportunity to try to get fans in the stands. Sure, it doesn't help that the CFL hasn't scheduled many games during the day, which might encourage more families to come to games, but maybe the marketing strategy needs to change.

I get asked often about the team, which is another issue that the CFL and the Argos have. The team definitely doesn't get consistent coverage from mainstream media, which isn't just an Argos problem, as TFC doesn't get coverage on a daily basis like the Maple Leafs, Raptors and Blue Jays.

Granted, the scale of the CFL doesn't compare to the NHL, MLB and NBA but it also shows the lack of resources for local sports coverage.

It's tough to say whether this will be something that will be an issue all season but the Argos certainly deserve more support than they're getting but getting that reach in this city continues to be a struggle.