Toronto Argonauts win first of two games in Ottawa: 'We'll play outside in the street'

Ricky Foley smiled when asked whether he is a Blue Jays fan.

Save for their star defensive end, the Toronto Argonauts don't want to talk about being bumped for as many as three October home games during the three-team race for first in the Eastern Division. It is their daily reality and there is something compelling, so quirkily CFL, about a team making a run for the Grey Cup while in a grey area that is being second fiddle to Toronto's playoff-bound baseball team. Saturday's 35-26 win against the Ottawa Redblacks at TD Place — they'll meet there again in 11 days in what was originally a Toronto home game — was their most thorough performance in several weeks.

"Oh, I am," Foley said after Toronto moved into a second-place tie with Ottawa, each one game behind Hamilton (8-4). " I grew up a Yankees fan because my dad [Don Foley] was since there were no Blue Jays when he was growing up. But I live right next door to the Skydome and it's an unbelievable vibe right there right now. Hopefully I can catch some playoff games. But — they're kicking us out of our stadium. That part sucks, but what are you going to do?

"What else is new?" added Foley, whose team never trailed and had four sacks on Redblacks QB Henry Burris. "We started the season in Fort McMurray [in a 'home' game against Edmonton on June 26]. We let it bring us closer together — us-against-the-world mentality. It was really big team win tonight. So many guys made plays and that is what you need to win in November. So much of this game is playing for the guy beside you and that's what we had tonight."

Toronto did not make their season debut at Rogers Centre until Aug. 8 and might not play there again until Oct. 30, depending on how long the Jays last in the MLB playoffs. It's not really a black eye on the CFL; it just so happened the Jays peaked during the final year of the uneasy cohabitation before the Argonauts move to BMO Field. The big takeaway from Saturday, where the Argonauts were up 14-0 just 6½ minutes into the game after an 87-yard punt return touchdown from veteran Chad Owens and never trailed, is that their season is taking on new momentum.

"I did something a little differently tonight," said Owens, who has been shunted into a supplementary role offensively with the emergence of younger receivers such as Tori Gurley, Kevin Elliott (two touchdowns on Saturday), Diontay Spencer and Vidal Hazelton (scratched Saturday for disciplinary reasons). "I went around the locker room before the game and told every one of my teammates that I love them. When you love someone, you show them that you love them. They're going to love you back and give you that much more. When you know that, you don't want to let them down. That's what I did before. I put everyone else first and said, 'let's get this.'

"It doesn't matter where we play," added Owens, who ran back six punts for 135 yards as Toronto handily won the special teams battle, clinching the win on a late 50-yard field goal from Justin Palardy that was set up by a 41-yard kickoff return by Spencer.

"We'll play outside in the street. If the game matters in the standings, we got to go out there and win. We can make excuses but that will get you nowhere. Press forward and get the job done."

Coach Scott Milanovich sensed a different energy before his  team stepped up to clinch the season series with the Redblacks. They also halted Ottawa's three-win streak.

"I saw it in the locker room before the game," MIlanovich said, who declined to touch on on the loss of home field for Oct. 6. "I could tell in the walkthrough that our guys understood it was time to show up and start to make our run. I've been waiting to see it. The bye came at a good time [after losing at home to Hamilton on Sept. 11]. They were locked in.

"We hadn't played well in a couple weeks. This league is such a league of streaks. It's the teams that can manage and limit the negatives, the downs. Every team will go through a losing streak except the top team, top two teams. As young as we are, at some point you have to stick your foot in the ground and say, 'enough's, enough.' "

Quarterback Trevor Harris finished 24-of-36 for 282 yards with two interceptions balancing out the two TDs. The Argonauts led by 14 points twice. Ottawa got as close as four in the third quarter after kicking a 37-yard field goal on third-and-two following a clutch tackle by Matt Black on Ottawa's yards-after-the-catch specialist Brad Sinopoli.

Burris had another quality stat line, finishing 27-of-38 for 313 yards with two TDs to Greg Ellingson. The 40-year-old was also interception-free for the seventh time in eight games, but Foley and the young Toronto defence largely forced Burris to work fro the pocket and prevented explosion plays.

"That was our main objective," Foley said. "We had to be unselfish and sometimes that is hard. You want to beat a guy and get in there, but Hank has been doing a good lately of getting out of the pocket and hitting long balls. Scott just told us, 'keep him in the pocket, be unselfish.' It sucks because I want some numbers, but we won. We shut them down for the most part."

There is no knowing how being deprived of home field for the stretch run

"We're super-young on defence," Foley said. "Even if the guys with NFL experience, this is their first year with CFL, getting used to the [unlimited] motion, the waggle. Hopefully we're starting to take strides. The young guys are maturing.

"I have three rings in this league. Before the game I told the guys, 'the guy next to you, you have to want it for him.' We saw that tonight. If we continue that, we have a chance."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @naitSAYger.