TORONTO — It’s a band of brothers with a ‘lean on me’ mentality as times have indeed been rough in the Big Smoke this past season for the Argonauts.

It was a long time coming for the Argos to find themselves back in the win column. After re-discovering their game on a seven-game losing skid, the Double Blue finally managed to find another ‘W’ in their final home game of the season at BMO Field.

Now, they’re preparing for yet another game against the very same Montreal Alouettes that pushed last week’s game right down to the final play that, luckily for the Argos, ended with Antonio Pipkin getting sacked on a designed Hail Mary attempt.

It’s not always the most ideal situation to have to face the same team back-to-back. In fact, there seemed to be a general consensus with the Argos that the downside of having a back-to-back series was quite simply put as ‘having to face the same team’.

“Pros are we know what they want to do,” said Alden Darby on Tuesday. “We know the mistakes we made — we know kind of how they want to attack us. Some of the cons are… we’ve got to play the same team. Everything that goes on the field and all the chirping back and forth, and now it’s like I’ve got to go see these guys right back.”

“If you happen to lose the game, you’re able to get right back at it and play them again,” said Argos receiver S.J. Green. “The cons are that you’ve got to play that team again.”

Luckily for the Argos, as Green explained, they weren’t on the losing side of last week’s tilt, but nonetheless, with Green’s comments, the Alouettes can be expected to be wanting to snag another win at home before the season is done.

The Argonauts and Alouettes will meet up against this week on a unique Sunday afternoon slot in Montreal with a 1:00 kick off scheduled.

When asked what the Boatmen need to do to ensure they come out on top yet again, the game plan seemed fairly basic as the season draws to its conclusion.

“Just keeping No. 2 in the pocket,” Darby said, referring to what the Toronto defence will need to do and what they can build on from last week’s game. “Making sure our lanes and integrity of tackling is on point.”

“We only gave up 220 yards passing. In the CFL, that’s really good. No touchdowns in the second half, 13 points total — in the CFL, that’s winning football for a defence.”

“It really is as simple as us executing our game plan,” S.J. Green says. “It really is that simple.”

It’s quite simple, and it seems at this point in the season, the Argonauts are leaning and relying on each other to find success rather than stirring up a complex game plan week-to-week. That mindset was on display last week when the Boatmen got their first win after losing seven straight.

“For us to get that ‘W’ after a long time,” Darby explained. “Kind of just shows that we all keep fighting for each other and we can get it done.”

It’s the culture that’s been surrounding the Argonauts organization during a troubling season. A first-hand account of just how tightly-knit the locker room is with the Argos is and just how loyal the fan base is, one doesn’t have to look any further than Toronto’s kicker Drew Brown, who was added to the team’s practice roster back on September 28 and activated to the active roster ahead of last week’s game.

“We obviously haven’t had the best season we could have asked for coming off the championship last year,” Brown told Argonauts.ca on Tuesday. “Just the fact that the fan base shows up to for a team that’s struggling, they come up and they’re ready to go. Especially towards the end of the game, the fan’s energy helped us on defence especially when they were trying to drive down the field and score. It’s unbelievable the support fans can have for a team that’s struggling. It can help a ton. We can’t thank them enough.”

“With this league, there’s so much turnover in players — you’re getting new guys in every single week. Some guys, they might have to leave or they get injured, so you’re meeting new guys every single week and it’s a real testament of how tight-knit this group is, and I experienced it first-hand coming here a couple of weeks ago and everyone bringing me in like I was their own. It’s really cool to see now that I’m a part of it. It made my transition easier.”

Win or lose, it’s a band of brothers inside any locker room, especially when it comes to the life lessons a sport like football can teach an athlete.

“That’s what lets us win games like the one a couple of days ago when you’ve got to lean on that family aspect.”