It was sometime late on Grey Cup Sunday night that Ryan Dinwiddie went from being a good football coach to a great one.
Maybe an all-time great in Toronto, having won his second Grey Cup championship of the past three seasons.
Don Matthews won two Grey Cups with the Argos, back to back, when Doug Flutie played quarterback better than anyone has ever played in the Canadian Football League and probably he is the best coach in history. Before most of us were born, Lew Hayman won three Grey Cups with the Argos.
Dinwiddie now has two. In four seasons as a head coach. With three first-place finishes. And one record-breaking regular season. And with a different starting quarterback each season and two Grey Cup wins with two different starters who remind no one of Flutie, McLeod Bethel-Thompson and Nick Arbuckle.
It wasn’t one play or one moment that determined the 41-24 Argos victory on Sunday. Really, it was everything, especially everything that happened in the second half against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Former NFL coach Joe Gibbs used to talk about this when he coached the Washington Redskins. About the meaning of second halves of games. The better coaches, he used to say, adjust at halftime, win games in the second half. The way Gibbs won his Super Bowls.
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The second half is where Dinwiddie shone on Sunday. The Argos scored nine points on three field goals in the first half. The second half, and in particular the fourth quarter, was pure Argos dominance and excellence.
Excellence was the way in which Dinwiddie handled Arbuckle, his journeyman starting quarterback, shrinking the playbook for the benefits of his limited QB. Arbuckle completed passes to nine different receivers, two of them running backs, one of them a special teamer, six of them inside or outside pass catchers. He moved the ball around. He fell into no patterns.
One touchdown pass was thrown to the rookie Canadian Kevin Mital. He never scored a touchdown during the season.
A huge touchdown pass was thrown to the Canadian Dejon Brissett, who caught only 14 passes during a mostly injured season. He caught three for 45 yards and a score on Sunday.
In between all that, the Argos picked off Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros four times, some of those coming because Collaros was playing in the second half with an injured finger and a glove on his throwing hand. Some of them coming because the Argos all but eliminated the big play Winnipeg receivers Kenny Lawler and Nic Demski from the game. The Argos secondary that looked so vulnerable against Ottawa and Montreal in earlier playoff matches was superb against the Bombers.
Superb was also how the best Argo, Wynton McManis, played the game. He led the team in tackles, almost scored on an interception, did just about everything you can do as a linebacker to make a difference in a football game.
On the other side, the legend, Willie Jefferson, almost did the same McManis thing did. He sacked Arbuckle twice, rushed him a few other times, knocked a ball out of his hands and picked off a pass in the game. These were all highlights that can be shown when Jefferson gets his Hall of Fame induction in the future. Jefferson would have been the MVP of the game had the Bombers won. But the final quarter ended up as Toronto 24, Winnipeg 11. The second half score: Toronto 32, Winnipeg 14.
The more impressive cumulative total of two Toronto-Winnipeg Grey Cups in the past three years: The sometimes doubted Dinwiddie 2, the great Mike O’Shea, getting the Bombers five straight Grey Cups, on the verge of a dynasty, 0.
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The challenge for any head coach in any sport remains the same every season. How do you get your team ready to play? How do you get your players to be your best players when it matters most? How do you get the most out of your roster? How do you beat a team, in this case, the Bombers, who have been the best CFL team for the past five seasons?
Begin with the challenge of Dinwiddie altering the playbook for Arbuckle. Arbuckle isn’t the swashbuckler at quarterback that Chad Kelly happens to be. He’s not a creator on his own. He doesn’t have a huge arm. He’s limited and Dinwiddie understands that deep down because as a quarterback himself, he was closer to an Arbuckle than he ever was to Kelly.
No one Argos receiver had more than 45 yards through the air. Little David Ungerer caught four passes, the same as big Makai Polk caught. Damonte Coxie, maybe the best Argos receiver, ended up with three catches for 29 yards. Same numbers of yards and one less catch than Coxie managed. He walked away with the MVP.
Dinwiddie now has two Grey Cups. This shouldn’t be the end of that number. Bob O’Billovich won a Grey Cup coaching in Toronto, so did Pinball Clemons and Adam Rita and Marc Trestman and Scott Milanovich. All of them won one. They never got a second one.
Dinwiddie has two wins over O’Shea. That’s two big wins. Two unlikely wins. This win establishing his lofty place in Argo history.
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tap here to see other videos from our team.
The second half is where Dinwiddie shone on Sunday. The Argos scored nine points on three field goals in the first half. The second half, and in particular the fourth quarter, was pure Argos dominance and excellence.
Excellence was the way in which Dinwiddie handled Arbuckle, his journeyman starting quarterback, shrinking the playbook for the benefits of his limited QB. Arbuckle completed passes to nine different receivers, two of them running backs, one of them a special teamer, six of them inside or outside pass catchers. He moved the ball around. He fell into no patterns.
One touchdown pass was thrown to the rookie Canadian Kevin Mital. He never scored a touchdown during the season.
A huge touchdown pass was thrown to the Canadian Dejon Brissett, who caught only 14 passes during a mostly injured season. He caught three for 45 yards and a score on Sunday.
In between all that, the Argos picked off Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros four times, some of those coming because Collaros was playing in the second half with an injured finger and a glove on his throwing hand. Some of them coming because the Argos all but eliminated the big play Winnipeg receivers Kenny Lawler and Nic Demski from the game. The Argos secondary that looked so vulnerable against Ottawa and Montreal in earlier playoff matches was superb against the Bombers.
Superb was also how the best Argo, Wynton McManis, played the game. He led the team in tackles, almost scored on an interception, did just about everything you can do as a linebacker to make a difference in a football game.
On the other side, the legend, Willie Jefferson, almost did the same McManis thing did. He sacked Arbuckle twice, rushed him a few other times, knocked a ball out of his hands and picked off a pass in the game. These were all highlights that can be shown when Jefferson gets his Hall of Fame induction in the future. Jefferson would have been the MVP of the game had the Bombers won. But the final quarter ended up as Toronto 24, Winnipeg 11. The second half score: Toronto 32, Winnipeg 14.
The more impressive cumulative total of two Toronto-Winnipeg Grey Cups in the past three years: The sometimes doubted Dinwiddie 2, the great Mike O’Shea, getting the Bombers five straight Grey Cups, on the verge of a dynasty, 0.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
The challenge for any head coach in any sport remains the same every season. How do you get your team ready to play? How do you get your players to be your best players when it matters most? How do you get the most out of your roster? How do you beat a team, in this case, the Bombers, who have been the best CFL team for the past five seasons?
Begin with the challenge of Dinwiddie altering the playbook for Arbuckle. Arbuckle isn’t the swashbuckler at quarterback that Chad Kelly happens to be. He’s not a creator on his own. He doesn’t have a huge arm. He’s limited and Dinwiddie understands that deep down because as a quarterback himself, he was closer to an Arbuckle than he ever was to Kelly.
No one Argos receiver had more than 45 yards through the air. Little David Ungerer caught four passes, the same as big Makai Polk caught. Damonte Coxie, maybe the best Argos receiver, ended up with three catches for 29 yards. Same numbers of yards and one less catch than Coxie managed. He walked away with the MVP.
Dinwiddie now has two Grey Cups. This shouldn’t be the end of that number. Bob O’Billovich won a Grey Cup coaching in Toronto, so did Pinball Clemons and Adam Rita and Marc Trestman and Scott Milanovich. All of them won one. They never got a second one.
Dinwiddie has two wins over O’Shea. That’s two big wins. Two unlikely wins. This win establishing his lofty place in Argo history.
[email protected]
twitter.com/simmonssteve
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