Do Argos have a hope without Ray?

It's remarkable how an injury to one player can change the entire complexion of a game, and one of the most prominent examples of that in recent memory came with Argonauts' quarterback Ricky Ray's injury in the first quarter of Sunday's game against the Montreal Alouettes. The game set up as an aerial shootout between Ray and Alouettes' quarterback Anthony Calvillo, but Ray's injury gave Montreal complete aerial superiority and turned the game into a 31-10 rout. Things got even worse for the Argonauts Tuesday, as the club confirmed that Ray will miss at least the team's next game Saturday in Winnipeg against the suddenly-resurgent Blue Bombers, and the news that he's sprained his MCL is not good news for fans of the Boatmen; he reportedly won't need surgery, but he'll be out for at least this week and perhaps longer. The implications for this week alone are radical. With Ray, whose offseason acquisition revitalized this team, in the lineup, that looked like a game Toronto should win and an excellent chance for the Argonauts to solidify their playoff position. Without him, it flips to a situation where the 3-9 Bombers will likely be favoured, and one where they may be able to keep their own slim playoff hopes alive.

Do the Argonauts have a chance? Well, in the unpredictable CFL, there's always a chance, and some are clearly buying into the team's prospects with backup Jarious Jackson under centre. Matthew Scianitti of The National Post went as far as to lead his first piece on Ray's injury with "The Toronto Argonauts do not have a quarterback crisis." (Of course, he's since updated it, and pointed out he wrote that before the extent of Ray's injury was known, but he still wrote it.) Sure, some will make that case, and the positive for Toronto is that they're not throwing a rookie in there; given the value of experience for CFL quarterbacks, that doesn't tend to end well. However, there isn't a great deal of evidence that suggests they'll be just fine with Jackson.

Yes, the 35-year-old Jackson has been an effective player at times. After a solid career at Notre Dame, he proved reasonably solid with B.C., stepping into a starting role in 2007 after Dave Dickenson and Buck Pierce got hurt. He played pretty well in 2007 and 2008, recording over 2,000 passing yards each season despite not being a full-time starter and putting up a combined 35 touchdowns against 20 interceptions over those two years. However, his completion percentage of 54.9 per cent both years was well below CFL standards, and he hasn't really been a regular starter since 2008 (despite a brief, effective run in 2009). He completed just 26 passes in 2010 and just 18 last year, and he's barely played this season. Moreover, when promoted to centre stage following Ray's injury, he looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an onrushing train, completing just 15 of 31 passes (48.4 per cent) for 198 yards with no touchdowns and an interception.

Of course, the Argonauts can't be completely written off. "So you're telling me there's a chance?" Sure. Anything can happen in this league. Jackson was rusty coming off the bench against Montreal, and maybe he'll be better with time to prepare. Maybe Toronto can reorient their offence towards the ground game, which has looked pretty solid with Chad Kackert, although it hasn't reached the heights it was at before the Argonauts cut Cory Boyd. Perhaps Winnipeg's beatdown of Hamilton said more about the sad state of the Tiger-Cats than it did about any improvement on the Bombers' part, or possibly they'll regress to the basement-dwelling form they've shown for most of the season. On the whole, though, Toronto's odds here look like those of successfully navigating an asteroid field, and they no longer have a cocky gunslinger who might just be able to pull it off.