‘I gotta control the game’: Chad Kelly takes responsibility for interceptions in Toronto Argonauts’ blowout loss

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Chad Kelly’s exit from Thursday’s loss to the Calgary Stampeders was not performance-related, but that didn’t diminish the sting of being pulled.

“It sucks,” the Toronto Argonauts’ star quarterback stated bluntly when asked about his removal.

“They have a great team, great coaches, but we got beat tonight. We flat out got beat. It is what it is.”

Kelly got the hook with six minutes remaining in the Stampede Bowl, which ended in a 58-36 rout for Calgary. While the Argos went through the motions, scoring a late touchdown and attempting an onside kick, head coach Mike Miller indicated post-game that he no longer believed victory was achievable by the time he benched his starter. The rest of the charade was merely an attempt to get valuable live reps for other players.

“I think we were down 28 at that point with six minutes left. I didn’t want to subject (Kelly) to any unnecessary hits, and it was an opportunity to get Nick (Arbuckle) some work,” he explained.

The Stampeders held Kelly under 300 yards passing for the first time this season, though his early exit was the primary factor in that stat line. He finished 22-of-33 passing for 294 yards and three touchdowns, plus another major along the ground. However, the biggest difference in his duel with Vernon Adams Jr. was what he put up in the interception column, getting picked off twice by rookie Zy Alexander.

“I look at my (first) interception, not controlling the game; that was some momentum. Then you look at the second one, yeah, we’re down three scores, whatever it was, but we’ve got to communicate. We’ve got to do better,” Kelly admitted.

“They kind of played the same defence the whole time. They brought up some guys every once in a while to make us hot, but nothing too complex. They’re really a good team; they have really solid players on the back-end, linebacker, D-line, obviously. They didn’t do too much to confuse us. We just maybe got too cute sometimes, tried to do too much, and I gotta control the game with  my two interceptions.”

Miller agreed that his quarterback was caught pressing on the first turnover, which came late in the first quarter with the game knotted at seven apiece and resulted in a spectacular one-handed stab from Alexander. The second takeaway took much less effort from the defence, but won’t cause any loss of sleep for Toronto’s bench boss.

“I will say the one, and I think he’d be the first to admit, I don’t think we managed that situation as well as we could,” he said. “I believe the second one, where we are in the game at that point, he’s trying to make a play. That comes with it. At that point, we were having to throw quite a bit”

Kelly entered Week 5 as the CFL’s most intercepted quarterback with six picks, three more than the next worst offender. Much of that sizeable lead came as a result of a four-interception outing against Ottawa in Week 3, though this latest multi-pick outing has raised his season total to eight and won’t do anything to dispel the narrative that he can’t protect the football.

Miller does not believe that is a source for concern, as Kelly has a strong chance to exit the week as the league leader in passing yardage and touchdowns, as well. All that has been accomplished despite the fact that he missed all of last season with a broken leg.

“This is a guy that’s still coming back. He’s going to continue to get better; he gives us a chance to win each week. He’s a great competitor,” Miller insisted. “No, I have no concerns.”

The Argos have a long road ahead and will remain displaced by the FIFA World Cup for four more weeks, despite the fact that Toronto has already hosted its final soccer match. Kelly admitted that their path does not get easier, and believes his team must quickly flush this defeat and focus on improvement.

“Anytime you lose, it’s not a good feeling. Guys are frustrated. We put in a lot of work during the week, and obviously this wasn’t the outcome (we wanted), but we’ve got to clean things up,” he said. “If it means scoring 60 points, we’ve got to do it.”

Toronto (2-2) will return to action on Friday, July 10, when they visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a game in which they will technically be considered the home team. Kickoff is slated for 8:30 p.m. EDT at Princess Auto Stadium.

J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league’s Global initiative.