Argos win first game at BMO, but lose Ricky Ray in the process

"One more such victory, and we are ruined!" Greek general Pyrrhus of Epirus was perhaps the first to make statements along those lines, but it may be Toronto Argonauts' head coach Scott Milanovich feeling like he attained a Pyrrhic victory Monday night. The Argonauts put on an impressive performance and picked up their first victory at their new home of BMO Field, knocking off the Montreal Alouettes 30-17. However, they lost quarterback Ricky Ray late in the game after a hit from Vaughn Martin that appeared to damage his knee, and the early prognosis for him isn't terribly good, according to head coach Scott Milanovich:

Of course, that's far from the worst news we could have seen in this scenario, but losing Ray for 4-6 weeks could still be highly problematic for the Argonauts. They don't have a proven backup in place, and that's even more true after they sent Mitchell Gale to Saskatchewan as part of the Shawn Lemon trade earlier this month. The next two guys up Monday were Logan Kilgore and Cody Fajardo; Kilgore completed just one of three passes for 15 yards with an interception, while Fajardo completed his only pass for a four-yard touchdown. That's a better showing from him than Kilgore, but it's an incredibly small sample size, and neither player has much CFL experience. The Argonauts do have a more experienced option in Adrian McPherson, who they brought back last week, but he's currently on the six-game injured list. Regardless of who winds up starting for Toronto while Ray's out, it seems unlikely they'll get the level of quarterback play he can provide.

The really unfortunate part for Argos' fans is this was perhaps the best game Ray had played this season, and one that suggested he's still capable of being an elite CFL quarterback. He completed 29 of his 34 passes on the night (85.3 per cent) for 235 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. That kind of efficiency is what we're used to from him, but something we haven't always seen this year. Sadly, it might be the last one we see from him for a while if that forecast is accurate, and that could certainly be a big problem for the Argos and their fans. Hopefully he'll only been gone for those four to six weeks.