Courtesy Toronto Star:

The Toronto Argonauts got two points for a victory last night, but none for style.

The Argos opened the CFL season with a 23-16 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before a raucous but chilled crowd of 26,155 at Canad Inns Stadium.

But the game was filled with a rash of penalties, several replay reviews and a lot of errant passes.

The Argo offence is supposed to be greatly improved over last year’s Dancing With the Stars version (one, two, kick) but showed little evidence of that last night.

There was little flow, long drives were non-existent and penalties killed momentum time and again.

Quarterbacks Kerry Joseph and Michael Bishop produced only 15 first downs and 230 net yards, but head coach Rich Stubler wasn’t concerned about his offence.

“Our kids played hard, our quarterbacks played well, we ran the ball well, scored when we had to, the special teams stepped up to the plate,” he said.

“For the first time in a long time our whole team contributed to winning the football game.”

As was the case last season, the defence was the dominant factor and did a great job of containing Winnipeg, especially dynamic running back Charles Roberts. It held the Bombers to one touchdown.

Stubler didn’t waste much time in using his two-quarterback system.

Joseph struggled through most of the first quarter, spending much of it trying to dodge the ferocious rush of the Winnipeg defensive line.

At the same time, the Argo offence was doing an impression of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, with a series of penalties stalling drives. One of those was an offside by former NFL star David Boston, who obviously didn’t perfect motion in his week of training camp.

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