Kelly, Argos squeeze past Blue Bombers behind two late scoring drives

Lirim Hajrullahu booted a 36-yard field goal with 27 seconds remaining to lift the Toronto Argonauts to a 30-28 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Friday that extended their win streak to four games.

Argos quarterback Chad Kelly upheld his reputation as a gunslinger when he threw touchdown passes of 56 yards to Tyler Kahmann and 84 yards to Damonte Coxie.

Kelly completed 22 of 31 pass attempts for 290 yards with the two TDs and two interceptions to boost the Argonauts’ record to 9-6.

Toronto receiver Janarion Grant ran a missed Sergio Castillo field-goal attempt 128 yards for a touchdown.

The Bombers looked like they were going to hold on for the win when backup quarterback Bryce Perkins turned a third-down, one-yard push into a 76-yard touchdown run at 8:50 of the fourth quarter that put the home side up 28-24.

Kelly then used a 38-yard pass to Coxie and a Winnipeg pass-interference penalty to march the Argonauts down the field, but settled for a 34-yard field goal from Hajrullahu to squeeze the score 28-27 with 2:38 remaining.

When Toronto got the ball back, Grant took Winnipeg’s punt and threw a lateral to Dave Ungerer, who gained 32 yards. Toronto got the ball back and marched down the field enough for the winning field goal. 

Coxie led all receivers with seven catches for 149 yards.

Dru Brown, making his fifth start of the season in place of injured Zach Collaros, was 16-of-28 passing for 193 yards with two touchdown passes and two picks. He also ran in a six-yard TD.

Winnipeg dropped to 7-7 in front of a sold-out crowd at Princess Auto Stadium.

Aside from Brown’s touchdown run, Tim White and Dorian Singer had TD catches for Winnipeg.

Castillo made three converts, but missed field-goal attempts from 45 and 55 yards.

The 45-yard wide kick was costly, as Grant took the ball in for the score four minutes into the first quarter.

Grant’s TD return was the fourth-longest missed field-goal return in CFL history. The longest was 130 yards by Ken Hinton with the B.C. Lions in 1977. Two players had 129-yard TD returns, including Tristan Jackson with Saskatchewan in 2012 and Bomber Trey Vaval in July this year.

Hajrullahu went wide on a 52-yard field-goal try, made a pair from 19 and 34 yards and was good on three converts.

Winnipeg led 14-7 after the first quarter, 21-14 at halftime and it was tied 21-21 heading into the fourth quarter.

Castillo’s miss on the game’s opening drive ended his stretch of 26 consecutive field goals.

Winnipeg responded on its next possession with a four-play, 69-yard drive capped by White’s 22-yard TD catch.

The drive was aided by a 25-yard run from Brady Oliveira, who finished with 79 yards rushing in the first quarter and 139 yards on 18 carries for the game.

Kelly’s penchant for the long pass went awry early in the second, when the ball bounced off the hands of intended receiver Kevin Mital and into the gloves of Bombers defensive back Deatrick Nichols. It was Kelly’s 23rd interception of the season.

The turnover led to Singer’s 17-yard TD catch at 5:36, but Kelly wasn’t daunted.

He returned to the field and tossed a 56-yard TD bomb to Kahmann to make it 21-14. Hajrullahu went wide on the 52-yarder with a minute left in the first half.

After being sacked to open the second half, Kelly heaved a long pass to Coxie, whose catch-and-run went 84 yards for the TD and tied the game after Hajrullah’s convert.

Interceptions made fans’ heads turn early in the third. First, Brown was picked off by Alex Teubner, then a Kelly pass was grabbed by Vaval in the end zone. A Winnipeg unnecessary roughness penalty wiped that out, but Toronto’s reprieve was short lived when Evan Holm intercepted Kelly in the end zone.

The Argos went ahead for the first time in the game with Hajrullahu’s 19-yarder 3:12 into the fourth that made it 24-21.