If anyone is still sleeping on these Argos anymore, it’s got to be a medical condition.

They may have come into the CFL season an unknown but, after two games, both thousands of miles from home, the Boatmen are making believers out of many of the naysayers.

After a second straight win — this one an actual road game in Regina, but technically closer to Toronto than the so-called home game win a week ago in Fort McMurray, Alta., the week before — the Argos are right there with the RedBlacks as early-season surprises.

And let’s face it, there have already been a few of those in this young season.

But the Argos, without starting quarterback Ricky Ray and with a young, mostly unknown defence, were supposed to be a team that struggled in the early going.

Instead, the quarterback position has been stellar for the Argos in the quite capable hands of Trevor Harris while the defence has been equally impressive.

On Sunday at Mosaic Stadium, the Argos’ resolve was challenged several times, but on each occasion, they had an answer.

Harris started the game well with the wind in his favour, but struggled in the second and third going against it.

But despite it being just the third CFL start of his career, the mid-game struggles didn’t stop him.

In the fourth and needing to go 85 yards with just 71 seconds remaining, Harris took complete control of the game.

He wasn’t perfect on the game-tying drive but he looked as cool under pressure as any 10-year veteran in finding the open man and calmly working his way downfield.

He capped it off with a TD strike to Chad Owens with just six seconds left on the clock.

In the overtime, he twice went the alotted 35 yards to paydirt. He was beating himself up pretty good after failing to convert the mandatory two-point convert on the first, but got the second one, which proved to be the difference when Anthony Coombs somehow managed to keep his knee off the ground despite being tripped up two yards from the end zone, pushed himself into the end zone off his left arm.

Harris was but one part of a huge team win, but his youth and the position he plays, not to mention the maturity he showed when it counted was singularly impressive.

For those who judge a man by his numbers, they are there, too. In two games he has now completed 54 of 65 passes for an 84.4% completion rate. He has also thrown seven touchdowns (two in overtime) against just one interception.

Those numbers are nice but the 2-0 record he has led his team to dwarfs all of them.

PLATEAUED YET?

Brandon Whitaker arrived in Toronto a few days before the season opener and then combined for 174 yards rushing and receiving and his first touchdown as an Argo.

As an encore, against a much tougher Riders defence, Whitaker produced 116 yards rushing and receiving and another touchdown.

He looks just as nimble as he did in his Montreal days and has played huge roles in both wins.

The fact that he’s doing so with little prep time makes you wonder what he’ll do when he’s fully comfortable with the terminology and sets the Argos are running.

A QUICK LEARNER

The Argos were rightly expected some nervousness from placekicker/punter Ronnie Pfeffer. The Laurier product, after all, was with the team less than a week and was being asked to take over for the injured Swayze Waters, a guy who is basically Mr. Automatic in the CFL.

Pfeffer, though — and maybe this helped — really had no time to get nervous. His first kick of any consequence for the Argos was a 50-yard field goal attempt in the toughest stadium in the league to play in.

Pfeffer made the kick with ease. The concern was the celebration after the fact. Pfeffer was jumping up and down as the kick made its way through the goal posts. It was reminiscent of Bill Grammatica’s jump for joy after a 37-yard field goal in his first season with the Arizona Cardinals. Grammatica’s celebration, which can still be found on YouTube, ended with him tearing his ACL.

Pfeffer, to his credit, calmed down after that initial outburst.

On the day, Pfeffer went 2-for-4 in field goals, was a perfect 3-for-3 on those not-so-automatic 32-yard point-after attempts and punted three times for a 41.7 yard average.

All in all, not a bad debut filling in for Waters who is out four to six weeks with a hip flexor injury.

AJ TO THE RESCUE

A.J. Jefferson was a man out of place during the Argos rookie camp. Having already played in the NFL and having lined up alongside Patrick Patterson as one of Arizona’s two starting cornerbacks, he was a CFL rookie in name only. But even then, the Argos knew he was going to be something special.

On Sunday, Jefferson gave a taste of both what he can do and what he has yet to learn in the CFL.

The major positive was a 100-yard touchdown return of an interception in which Jefferson stepped in front of Kevin Glenn’s anticipated target and then ran uncontested the 100 yards to the end zone.

But two Saskatchewan possessions later, Jefferson got caught spying the quarterback as Glenn pump-faked a pass to a receiver that got Jefferson to leave his man in anticipation of helping a teammate. When Glenn reloaded and threw a strike over Jefferson’s head to a wide-open Ryan Smith, it was one of those lesson learners for Jefferson.

MAKE ROOM WESTON

Weston Dressler returned to the Riders lineup after sitting out the opener with an unspecified injury.

But it wasn’t Dressler that gave the Argos fits all day. That role belonged to the guy many are saying reminds them of Dressler in Smith. The similarly built receiver out-Dresslered Dressler with eight catches for 184 yards and a touchdown.

Smith was with the Green Riders a year ago, catching 13 passes for 159 yards in spot duty over seven games. But the challenge this year is to push Dressler and everybody else on the roster for playing time. Sunday should earn him some steady time. His second-quarter catch, in which he went vertical for the pass and then came down on the top of his head was one for the highlight reels.

QUICK HITS

Safety Tyron Brackenridge is a difference-maker. Not convinced? His return to the Riders defence altered the entire attitude. A unit that looked lackadaisical and overmatched against the Bombers in Week 1 without him was back to being one with swagger and an attitude against the Argos … As good as a second win had to feel for the entire team, it did not come without a price. Perhaps the saddest sight of the afternoon was slotback Andre Durie on crutches on the sidelines after what looked like a pretty standard block on a rushing Saskatchewan lineman. Durie’s injury woes are well-documented and another long absence would seem unfair given how many times he’s already come back … Note to the guys who place those crowd microphones at CFL games. Nice to hear the crowd noise and all, but both in Ottawa and Saskatchewan this week, the talent, the guys you are paying to talk about and analyze the game, were drowned out far too often by the crowd noise. That shouldn’t happen. And when it is happening, someone should have the sense to either move the mics or silence them … There’s plenty to like about the Argos’ young receiving corps, beginning with size. Vidal Hazelton in particular seems to put that size to good use for yards after the catch … Safety Jermaine Gabriel, who was named a defensive captain by the Argos, left the game late in the fourth and had to be replaced by Matt Black. Gabriel has a knack for being around the ball and is a ferocious hitter. If he is out for any length of time, it will be a blow to the Argos defence. He brings a lot of the confidence this mostly new Argos secondary has shown this year.

WASN'T GLENN'S FAULT

Kevin Glenn may be on the other side of his prime, but he proved again on Sunday that he’s a nice guy to have around when your quarterback goes down.

The 36-year-old Detroit native looked confident and poised in his first start in place of Darian Durant, who is out for the year following a ruptured Achilles tendon in Week 1.

Glenn made only one big mistake all afternoon when he threw back across the field only to have A.J. Jefferson step in front of his throw and return it 100 yards for a touchdown.

Other than that, though, Glenn was sharp, completing 33 of 40 passes for 477 yards and two touchdowns.

Glenn hasn’t been a full-fledged starter for years in the CFL, not since he owned the No. 1 job in Hamilton between 2009-11, but got plenty of playing time in both B.C., and Calgary over the past four years when injuries to those ahead of him on the depth chart occurred.

With Durant done for the year, the Riders are now Glenn’s team, something their fans should be feeling good about after Sunday’s performance.