Arbuckle completes storybook season with 'one of the most unlikely' Grey Cup MVP honours

Seven months ago, Nick Arbuckle was the epitome of a player whose career was headed in the wrong direction.

Sunday night at B.C. Place he became a Grey Cup champion in the Toronto Argonauts' 41-24 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and one of the most unlikely Grey Cup MVPs in the game’s 111-year history, at least judging by where things were at the start of the season.

Back when Arbuckle didn’t have a job. That is until one day early in Argo training camp, when head coach Ryan Dinwiddie told his general manager he needed to sign Arbuckle to stabilize the quarterback room while Chad Kelly served a nine-game suspension.

Dinwiddie and Arbuckle had a history that went back to 2016, when Dinwiddie was the quarterbacks coach with the Calgary Stampeders 

Arbuckle was elevated from the practice roster to backup for Bo Levi Mitchell. Mitchell struggled with injuries in 2019, paving the way for Arbuckle to make eight starts - where he was brilliant, throwing for over 2,000 yards and 11 touchdowns - which led to Arbuckle signing a lucrative free agent deal to be the starter with the Ottawa Redblacks.

Which is where everything went off the rails. The pandemic wiped out the 2020 season, after which Ottawa had a change of mind at quarterback. Arbuckle spent half a season in Toronto before he was traded to the Edmonton Elks for rights to the player who would eventually become Toronto’s starting QB: Chad Kelly.

Another trade, from Edmonton back to Ottawa, was followed by his end-of-season release by the Redblacks. And then nothing.

Argonauts pass game coordinator Pete Costanza was asked after the Grey Cup victory to describe Arbuckle’s performance, in which he went 26 of 37 for 252 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

“Veteran,” he said.

And that really was what defined Arbuckle’s performance, a game in which he made very few poor decisions while hitting nine different receivers, none for more than four catches and none for fewer than two.

That balance, combined with the efficient running of Ka’Deem Carey, allowed the Argonauts to control the time of possession.

His two interceptions were explainable; one a deep shot to a receiver with whom he was out of sync, a pass that effectively served as an arm punt. And the other was a Willie Jefferson knock down that he managed to hang on to.

The Bombers never successfully jumped a route for an interception in the entire game. And when you’re throwing the ball 37 times against a pass defence that’s as good as Winnipeg's, that’s saying something.

There was no question which quarterback had the better day, as Winnipeg's signal caller Zach Collaros threw four interceptions in the defeat.

Dinwiddie had trusted Arbuckle to make some tough throws when he entered for the final quarter of the Eastern Final against the Montreal Alouettes, something about which the coach had bragged after the game and during Grey Cup week. 

It turns out he wasn’t bluffing.

Trusting a player with Nick Arbuckle’s history to throw 37 passes in a Grey Cup game is a gigantic leap of faith, but one on which Dinwiddie was absolutely correct.

What was important also is that the game script never forced Arbuckle into a situation where he had to play catch up and potentially force throws and thus potentially make mistakes.

The Bombers led 7-3 during the first half when they entered the Argonauts' red zone, and for a moment it felt like the game script was about to go their way with an early two-score lead. 

But the Argo defence held, and two Toronto field goals later they went to the dressing room at halftime trailing 10-9.

The Argos picked up some valuable lessons during the first nine games of the season while Kelly was serving his suspension.

During that time they learned how to win games with defence and special teams, the importance of winning the turnover battle and that the quarterback would have to be a wide distributor of the football.

Then they put that formula in their back pocket should they need it again - and pulled it out for the Grey Cup.

Toronto played better on defence, they got a defensive score, they won the turnover battle and had one of their takeaways on special teams.

That’s exactly how the Argos managed to go 5-4 while Kelly was away and it served its purpose when it mattered most.

There’s an irony here that if the Argos had not been forced to play without Kelly for the first nine games of the season, they wouldn’t have been so well-prepared for how to win without him in the Grey Cup game.

In football, so often, things just have a way of coming full circle.