Toronto Argonauts use strong start on offence to beat Tiger-Cats, remain unbeaten

The Toronto Argonauts put up a big first half on offence and came up with a crucial drive late to Hamilton Tiger-Cats 31-15 Friday night.

After putting up a big performance against the Alouettes, Chad Kelly completed 20 of 27 pass attempts for 306 yards and two touchdowns while adding another score late on a sneak.

Toronto would once again put up over 100 yards on the ground as they continue to show their versatility on offence as A.J. Ouellette had 84 yards on 10 carries.

In his first CFL start, Taylor Powell completed 26 passes for 273 yards while running in a touchdown.

Kelly didn’t waste much time testing Hamilton’s defence as he found Dejon Brissett for a 50-yard gain. That would set the stage for a Cameron Dukes quarterback sneak to give them the 7-0 lead early.

Gittens Jr. would continue his strong half getting his first touchdown of the season on a nine-yard catch. At one point in the game he was a perfect 5-for-5 with 62 yards receiving and the touchdown.

After Jamal Peters had his pick-six negated by a Wynton McManis penalty, Kelly would find DaVaris Daniels in the middle of the field and he would bounce off a couple of tackles for a 32-yard touchdown.

After a creative special teams call by Hamilton, they got the ball back on the 39-yard line but the Argos defence limited them to a field goal to make it 20-3.

The Ticats continue to put pressure on Kelly bringing the Argonauts quarterback down for their second sack of the half.

Toronto would go into the locker room with a 20-3 lead with Kelly completing 15 passes on 19 attempts for 248 yards and two touchdowns.

After allowing a 71-yard kick return to start the second half, the Argonauts defence held Hamilton to a field goal in the redzone again. They would respond with a field goal of their own after getting Ouellette going in the rushing game as he broke free for a 36-yard run.

Just when it looked like the Argos defence was going to get themselves off the field late in the third quarter, a facemask penalty on Jared Brinkman extended the drive. Hamilton would get down to the two-yard line but a unnecessary roughness penalty on Brandon Revenberg would push them back to the 17-yard line.

A great pass breakup by Qwan'tez Stiggers in the endzone negated what looked like it would have been the first touchdown for Hamilton. The Tiger-Cats would have to settle for three points to cut the deficit to 23-9.

The offence struggled in the second half to manufacture much in the passing game as they only had three points in the third quarter.

Hamilton’s offence would finally break through with five minutes left in the quarter as Powell would run in the touchdown. After a missed point after attempt by Marc Legghio, the Argos lead would get cut down to 23-15.

Toronto would respond with a 35-yard completion to Daniels get into Hamilton territory. Ouellette would get Toronto to the Hamilton 13-yard line with a 25-yard run.

Kelly would get Toronto to the two-yard line and after Dukes was unable to sneak the ball in on the first attempt, he would come back in and get the ball in for the touchdown to pad their lead to 30-15.

The Argos would earn another point on a late rouge off a punt that was not returned out of the endzone to make it 31-15.