The Toronto Argonauts are in Ottawa Friday to take on the winless Redblacks, who are just two losses away from completing the worst season in CFL history at 0-18.
Argos head coach Mike Miller is not allowing the sorry state of the Redblacks to mask what will still be a challenge for his team, and he is sticking to his mantra set this season of treating every game as an opportunity to learn and improve.
Miller joined First Up on TSN1050 on Friday morning to discuss his thoughts on the game against Ottawa, the team’s development over the season and his experiences in his first year as a head coach in the CFL.
“Our team is very much aware of [the Redblacks’ struggles],” Miller said. “Our history, with our team, we have great respect for them and guys on their staff, and you watch the film - they’re playing hard. This is professional football. You gotta come ready to play, every game.
“We know it and we aren’t looking past tonight, I can promise you that. I feel we’ve had a good week of preparation, we’ve gotta go out and we’ve gotta play hard ... As we say, we gotta play smart, fast and physical. This is the opponent that’s in front of us, and our goal is to go win this game and play to the standard that we’ve set this year.”
The Argonauts enter this game at 9-7, with the second spot in the East Division locked up weeks ago. Toronto essentially has nothing to play for in this game in terms of playoff seeding, as they are set to host the East Semifinal.
But the Argonauts still have things to work on, starting with getting the offence back in order with the return of quarterback Chad Kelly on Friday. Kelly sat out the team’s last game two weeks ago, a 24-17 loss to the BC Lions, with a hand injury.
Miller was asked whether the team will have any limitation in the offensive playbook, given Kelly’s return from injury after three weeks out of action.
“No, no, no... What we do is what we do,” Miller said. “Chad had a really good week of practice, I feel good about our preparation. What we run will be available, and obviously we’ll put wrinkles in, do some different things based on the opponent, but our offence is the offence and Chad’s more than capable of executing it.”
Miller and the Argonauts have dealt with unusual circumstances throughout the season - the team had to spend the first seven games on the road due in part to the FIFA World Cup being hosted at BMO Field in Toronto, and will play only six of their 18 games at home in total.
Part of what has allowed the team to overcome that issue and bounce back from a trying 5-13 campaign a season ago has been Miller’s coaching identity and ability to keep his players focused.
“We just actually talked about this last night a little bit, the evolution of a season,” Miller said. “It really starts with one day at a time, and I talk about that quite a bit. Because that’s where I want our focus [to be]. Our coaches and our veteran leaders have done an outstanding job, and then the rest of the team just continuing to push through with that message, that we’re only as good as the next day, and the next game.
“We say we’re process driven. Regardless of a win or a loss, it’s all about us getting better. We’re not a finished product, we still know there’s areas where we need to improve, and that’s where our focus is.”
That focus will be front and centre against Ottawa once again, even with the playoffs looming and a struggling opponent on the schedule.
“Somebody asked me about this earlier this week and said, ‘How do we keep our focus on this game when guys are already thinking about the playoffs?’ I said, ‘well that’s what our approach is, that’s what we build in.’ Everyone talks about the seven road games to start the season, and we didn’t look at it like that. We looked at it as, ‘we got one game at a time. It doesn’t matter to us where you put the field, just put the ball down and tell us what’s the down and distance.’
“Because we have to focus on execution, and we know adversity is going to come, and we have to be able to hold together, find those answers and push through to work to be successful. I believe that we’ve done that. And our players have done an outstanding job, as has our coaching staff. Really proud of their efforts but tonight’s another game, it’s another challenge, it’s another opportunity for us to learn and grow together as team.”