Ferguson: 10 moments from Arbuckle's 111th Grey Cup MVP performance

Yesterday at 02:00 PM

It's Thursday, which means anyone who frolicked around Vancouver last weekend is likely just starting to shake off the shackles of adrenaline and excitement withdrawal from a Grey Cup festival to remember.

While there are many takeaways from the weekend that was, the enduring image that will forever be imprinted in my mind is Argonauts QB Nick Arbuckle running across the field to see his wife and two daughters. The people who have been closest in his support network and gone through the seemingly endless waves of emotion.

111th GREY CUP
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»Nick Arbuckle named MVP of the 111th Grey Cup
» Landry: 3 moments that turned the tide for the Argos
» O'Leary: Argos' win bonds Arbuckle, Dinwiddie
»Cauz: An alternate option for the Grey Cup MVP

Sunday? Sunday was the highest of those waves. Daddy did it, he won the 111th Grey Cup as a starter and the smile across Nick's face screamed of relief and jubilation as it should for a man who has lived the turbulent life Arbuckle has.

I called Nick's first and only regular season start of 2024 for TSN and his raw emotion at getting a chance to show his worth stuck with me. He obviously never could have imagined what the end of the season would look and feel like a few short months later, but little by little a little means a lot. With that in mind here are ten tiny moments from Arbuckle's 111th Grey Cup MVP performance that added up to one big smile.

JEFFERSON AWARENESS

With 10:28 remaining in the first quarter Arbuckle faced a three man rush as he took the snap, flipped his hips right and pumped outside. As he did Deonta McMahon swung out to his right where Nick wanted to go. As he loaded to throw, Willie Jefferson's imposing length made Arbuckle pull the ball down, roll left and find David Ungerer for a completion.

The play was called back on a Peter Nicastro holding call but grabbed my attention early as to just how aware Arbuckle was of Jefferson's reach and habit for knocking down passes, or intercepting them as he would do to Arbuckle later in the game.

LEAD THEM WHERE THEY WANT TO GO

One of the best things a quarterback can do is send his receivers away from defenders. On a first quarter check down to McMahon, Arbuckle flipped it to the outside shoulder leading his tailback to daylight away from Redha Kramdi, creating downhill momentum for the Argos speedy back as he beat Tyrell Ford in space before being pushed out by Evan Holm deep in scoring territory. Much of it thanks to ball placement and accuracy from Arbuckle.

PLAYBOOK MASTERY

The quarterback nerd in me wishes we could hear every play call from every game. Of course that would make play-by-play announcers obsolete which is bad for my son’s college education fund, but man do you ever get a chance to respect the verbiage in all it's glory when the pivots can be heard seamlessly spitting out sentences like Arbuckle did in Vancouver as "Rebel Right X Change R Fly 60 Ruby Backside Cross Read T Wide" rolled off his tongue with no effort in under five seconds.

HARD COUNT SMILE

When you get inside the five yard line on your first possession of the game you want to go for it and score a major. Toronto’s head coach Ryan Dinwiddie thought better of it and took the field goal but not before Arbuckle's acting chops got put on display and his cheeky smile inside the double blue helmet showed just how relaxed he was in the moment.

X'S AND "YO"S!

Early in the third quarter Arbuckle was operating deep from his own end, Ka'Deem Carey was motioning around as Arbuckle yelled "You're there!" pointing for Carey to follow his direction.

Execution is paramount in a Grey Cup and Arbuckle was guiding his offence, helping them get aligned properly all game long which avoided penalties and confusion the Bombers faced all too often.

BALL PLACEMENT… AGAIN

It was great to see Kevin Mital get into the end zone for Toronto in the biggest game of the year after his rookie season started slowly. On a quick inside run fake Arbuckle leaned to his right and once again put the ball perfectly on the up field should leading Mital at full speed towards his six point triumph.

LEAD BLOCKER ?!

Not really, but I love a quarterback who isn't afraid to leave the safety of the pocket on a running play and show their at least interested in helping springing a teammate to the end zone. With 11:28 left in the game Arbuckle handed off to Carey who jump cut left and Arbuckle was off to the races to find work.

SECOND AND SEVEN(TH HEAVEN)

Scrambling is far from Arbuckle's wheel house at this point in his CFL career, but on second and seven he worked the pocket, climbed to the right and made Winnipeg middle linebacker Tony Jones miss just enough to convert for a first with his legs. A classic Grey Cup 'gotta have it' moment.

FILM ROOM

Another big advantage of the TSN Grey Cup coverage is improved access to sidelines. At one point Arbuckle called together the running backs as he held a tablet and showed them Winnipeg defenders tracking 'subs' which are typically cross ball motioning players. Leading even outside the lines, Arbuckle was trying to craft a running touchdown for his backs while using his quarterback eye to identify Bomber tendencies as he told them "if you cut it back here it's just the corner and the end zone".

THROW OF THE GAME

While much of this piece is about little moments, I couldn't end without crediting the best throw of the day on a wonderful concept drawn up by Dinwiddie and his staff.

On second and six Arbuckle threw to a 17-yard touchdown to Dejon Brissett as DaVaris Daniels cleared out the top end while Brissett curled around 10-yards, before spinning around and running a delayed seam route to the area Daniels had just cleared.

Perfect timing, delivery and accuracy for a game changing touchdown.