Prefontaine, Inman go from goats to heroes for Argonauts in ridiculous 39-36 win

When looking for words that describe the thrill of the CFL, "insanity" is a common choice, and it's a perfect description for what happened Saturday in Toronto. The hometown Argonauts' clash with the Stampeders became notable early on when Calgary quarterback Drew Tate went down with a shoulder injury, but backup Kevin Glenn's underwhelming early performance and a 23-14 Toronto lead at halftime suggested that the game itself might not have a thrilling conclusion. Boy, was that ever wrong. The Argonauts eventually triumphed 39-36, but getting there took some spectacular performances and some unexpected twists, including two would-be goats becoming heroes in perhaps the most exciting CFL game played so far this season.

Toronto continued to move the ball well in the second half and had some excellent opportunities to put the game away, but the Argos were forced to keep settling for Noel Prefontaine field goals. Meanwhile Calgary created a 10-point swing when one of those field goals missed and led to a 125-yard Larry Taylor return for a touchdown, tying the game at 29 after a two-point conversion with just over 11 minutes to play. The last few minutes saw even further craziness, as Ricky Ray engineered a spectacular drive that ended with a Dontrelle Inman touchdown grab, but Calgary responded with another ridiculous Taylor return following an Argonauts' punt and a quick touchdown pass to Nik Lewis to tie the game at 36. There was enough time for one last Toronto drive, though, and much like Inman earlier, Prefontaine overcame his previous struggles to give the Argonauts a victory, nailing a perfect 28-yard field goal with no time left on the clock to give Toronto a bizarre 39-36 win.

Some of the key moments that caused the Argonauts' struggles in this one can be laid at the feet of Inman and Prefontaine. Ray threw a perfect first-quarter pass for Inman that bounced off his hands right to Calgary safety Eric Fraser, who returned the interception 61 yards for a touchdown, while Prefontaine missed one field goal from 50 yards and another from 43, the latter of which set up Taylor's spectacular return for a touchdown. However, both more than redeemed themselves over the course of the night. Inman caught three passes for 107 yards and two crucial touchdowns, while Prefontaine made the remaining six of his field goal attempts, including the crucial game-winner at the end. The mistakes by Prefontaine and Inman are still problematic, but they and their teammates showed resilience and an ability to overcome those, something that hadn't been seen in Toronto in a while.

There are still plenty of concerns for the Boatmen, including how their special teams were consistently bamboozled by Taylor (whose 441 all-purpose yards were the second-highest single game total in CFL history) and how their offence had to keep settling for field goals (and also couldn't convert on a fumble that set them up right near the Stampeders' goal line, as their subsequent drive ended with backup quarterback Jarious Jackson being stuffed on a third and short), but they got impressive performances from Ray (30 completions on 40 attempts for 407 yards and two touchdowns, with a 75.0 per cent completion rate but two interceptions), Andre Durie (10 catches for 118 yards), Chad Owens (seven catches for 88 yards, plus some good returns),and Cory Boyd (20 carries, 101 yards, 5.1 yards per carry and a touchdown). This was a more promising performance than the one they turned in during their opening-week loss in Edmonton, and that bodes well for this team; the way even their one-time goats bounced back is also encouraging. They'll be hoping to have some of their wins this year be a little more comfortable and a little less crazy, though.