Kelly leads Toronto to 37-22 Labour Day win over Ticats to clinch season series

Chad Kelly and the Toronto Argonauts took a huge step toward punching their playoff ticket Monday.

Kelly threw three touchdown passes to lead Toronto to a 37-22 Labour Day victory over Hamilton. The Argos (6-6) clinched the season series 2-1 but more importantly moved four points ahead of the Tiger-Cats (4-9) in the battle for second in the East Division with a game in hand.

"To win head-to-head is huge," Kelly said. "Obviously this puts us in a good position to make the playoffs.

"We're excited that we came out here from the first snap to the last, didn't fall apart — offence, defence and special teams. It was a good combined win."

Lirim Hajrullahu's nine-yard field goal at 7:31 of the fourth boosted Toronto's advantage to 30-14. Harrison Frost found Kurleigh Gittens Jr. on a six-yard TD pass, then Ante Litre for the two-point convert at 12:46 to pull Hamilton to within 30-22.

But Kelly cemented the win with a 21-yard TD pass to David Ungerer III at 13:17. Kelly completed 23-of-35 attempts for 319 yards but also threw his CFL-high 18th interception that set up Tre Ford's 23-yard TD run at 5:06 of the second quarter to put Hamilton ahead 7-6.

"That was the moment where I was like, 'OK, we've got to really be meticulous about working down the field and just take our shots when they're needed," Kelly said. "I thought we were really good at dinking and dunking and taking our shots when they were there.

"They had some exotic pressures that we were ready for but if (they) blitz you've got to be ready to get the ball out and I thought we did that. On one-on-one plays, guys made plays."

Monday's contest was Toronto's 10th road game this season with the World Cup staging games this summer at BMO Field. Argos' head coach Mike