Argonauts need to 'create chaos' to turn season around, Dinwiddie says

The Toronto Argonauts are stuck alongside the Edmonton Elks and Ottawa Redblacks in the CFL basement, and the defending Grey Cup champions know the pressure is mounting to turn their season around.

Entering Week 8, the Argonauts (1-5) are tied with the Elks (1-4) and Redblacks (1-6) for the fewest wins in the league, with every other team having won at least three games to this point.

The schedule doesn't get any easier, with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers - their opponent in last year's Grey Cup - coming to town on Saturday.

Head coach Ryan Dinwiddie joined First Up on TSN1050 on Friday to discuss what has gone wrong for the team this year, how they can improve, and what he expects out of Saturday's game against Winnipeg.

"We understand where we're at, the urgency's there," Dinwiddie said. "It might not have [shown in the results] in some of the games of weeks past, but it's been urgent. We haven't played our best football, the guys understand that."

The Argonauts have lost two games in a row, with a particularly stinging loss to the Montreal Alouettes a week ago in which two fourth-quarter turnovers allowed Montreal to erase an 11-point deficit and win 26-25.

Dinwiddie admitted the result against Montreal felt a bit worse than other negative results this year.

"It was a tough pill to swallow. You don't have a lot of words after games like that," Dinwiddie said. "You try to keep everybody in it ... we haven't turned a blind eye to it. We should have won that game. We could've done some different things offensively and defensively to win it, and especially special teams. But that was tough to lose like that and get to 1-5."

Quarterback questions persist for the Double Blue

A major storyline connected to that game and to the entire season for the Argonauts was the play of Nick Arbuckle, the backup quarterback who has started every game this year while starter Chad Kelly recovers from a leg injury suffered in last year's East Final.

Arbuckle lost a fumble and threw an interception on Toronto's final two possessions against Montreal. The Argonauts announced earlier this week that Arbuckle would start again, as Kelly has not progressed in his recovery to a point the team is comfortable with.

"We're just kind of day-to-day," said Dinwiddie regarding Kelly's potential status moving forward. "He got on the practice field twice this week, I think physically he's getting really, really close ... We're just kind of looking for some clarity and some opinions on if it's safe for him to play, and obviously he's gotta go through that as well and then we gotta make a decision there so a lot of grey area there right now."

The team is trying to balance getting their star quarterback and former MOP back on the field for what has been a trying season against keeping his long-term health in mind.

"I'm hoping [he can be ready for next week], as an organization we gotta be smart. We want to get him on the field as soon as we can, obviously, but at the same time we can't jeopardize his longevity, as far as his career and as far as his health," Dinwiddie said.

"I understand where we're at right now in the season, we're not playing good football at this stage, especially up to our standards, but we rush him back, we [may] lose him long-term ... we can't rush that back just because we're getting frustrated. The process of it has to be well thought out and fluid amongst the organization."

Getting the defence back on track

Entering Week 8, the Argonauts are allowing the second-most points per game (31.5). They've allowed 28 points or more in four of six games, and were embarrassed in a 51-38 defeat on home turf three weeks ago against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

As important as the quarterback position is, Dinwiddie knows the team has to play better defensively if they're to turn the season around.

"We gotta get creative, do some different things: three linebackers and three d-lineman compared to four d-linemen and two linebackers, I think we gotta create some confusion there, do some different things to manufacture disruptions," said Dinwiddie.

Toronto has forced only seven turnovers through six games, while committing 11 turnovers of their own. They've forced the second-fewest turnovers in the league and their turnover differential of minus-4 is tied for the second-worst in the CFL.

"Years past, we've had a really good roster," Dinwiddie said. "I still believe in the roster we have now, but it is different and we gotta find ways to create chaos in different ways and that's kind of where we're at right now."

"I think it's a delicate situation with some of these guys that maybe lack confidence when things don't go your way it's really easy to hang your head a little bit but at the same time you gotta bring your lunch pail, your hard hat and get to work," Dinwiddie said.

The Argonauts have had a lot of success against the Blue Bombers over recent years, giving Dinwiddie some hope that the team can take a step forward at BMO Field on Saturday.

Toronto has won five of the last seven matchups between the two teams, including victories in the Grey Cup in 2024 and 2022.

"It's going to be a hard-fought game," Dinwiddie said of Saturday's matchup. "Whoever wins the turnover battle and stays on the field and makes the right plays will win this game. I'm confident going into this thing, and we're going to find a way to turn this thing around."