WINNIPEG – Janarion Grant is known for his talented feet, but it was his arm that was responsible for a key play in the Toronto Argonauts’ 30-28 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Friday.
With two minutes left in the game and Winnipeg holding a 28-27 lead, Grant fielded a punt and then quickly threw a perfect lateral pass to receiver Dave Ungerer, who gained 32 yards.
Quarterback Chad Kelly then guided the offence far enough for Lirim Hajrullahu to boot a 36-yard field goal with 27 seconds remaining.
“I got a little arm on me, nothing crazy,” Grant said with a smile. “I played quarterback a little bit in high school (in Dade City, Calif.).
“I know I still can throw. There wasn’t no nervousness or anything like that. We just had to execute the play, and that’s what we did.”
The elite kick returner had earlier taken a missed Sergio Castillo 45-yard field-goal attempt 128 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter – the fourth-longest return of its kind in CFL history.
The victory extended Toronto’s win streak to four games (9-6), while Winnipeg dropped to 7-7 in front of a sold-out crowd at Princess Auto Stadium.
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Toronto head coach Mike Miller said special-teams co-ordinator Mickey Donovan came over to give him the heads-up about the Grant passing play and he gave it the green light.
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“Give those guys credit, they did a great job executing it,” Miller said. “JG (Grant) and Dave and the blocking downfield.
“What a huge play we needed at that time.”
Kelly upheld his reputation as a gunslinger when he threw touchdown passes of 56 yards to Tyler Kahmann and 84 yards to Damonte Coxie.
He completed 22 of 31 pass attempts for 290 yards with the two TDs and two interceptions.
The Bombers looked like they might 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.
Hajrullahu also made a 19-yard field goal, but missed a 52-yard try. He was good on three converts. 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.
“I think you could imagine everyone’s pretty upset,” Brown said. “We just didn’t come out in the second half and execute well, in moments that we needed to stay on the field.”
Aside from Brown’s touchdown run, Tim White and Dorian Singer had TD catches for Winnipeg. Brady Oliveira rushed 18 times for 139 yards.
Castillo made three converts, but missed the 45-yard attempt Grant took back and another from 55 yards.
“When you have someone like JG back there, he’s an amazing player,” Castillo said of Grant. “For him to keep doing it at this age, at 32, he’s an amazing guy back there.
“At the end of the day, it should have just gone in. But onto the next one, you know? That’s something, like I said, I’ve been able to do pretty well in the past two or three years.”
The longest missed field-goal return in CFL history 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.
“It feels great. I’ve just got to keep climbing the ladder one play at a time,” said Grant, who played for Winnipeg from 2019-23.
“I can’t do it alone. My guys, they made it happen, all the blocking they set up and all I had to do was run.”
Winnipeg led 14-7 after the first quarter, 21-14 at halftime and it was tied 21-21 heading into the fourth quarter.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2026.
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