OTTAWA—In Corey Chamblin’s mind, the Toronto Argonauts have finally responded to hardship.

McLeod Bethel-Thompson threw three touchdowns and two interceptions as the Argos downed the Ottawa Redblacks 46-17 on Saturday for their first road win since 2017. The Argos scored 21 points in the fourth quarter and had more than 30 points for the first time all season.

“This was the first time we handled adversity the way we should have and then bounced back and moved forward,” said Chamblin, the head coach. “I think today was enough’s enough (for the players). They understand who they are, understand who they can be … and that was the biggest thing because they thought that enough was enough. They stepped up today.”

Bethel-Thompson completed 26 of 39 passes for 411 yards for the Argos (2-9) and Derel Walker scored the team’s first rushing touchdown of the year.

James Wilder Jr scored three touchdowns, one that followed a fumble by Redblacks running back Mossis Madu at Ottawa’s 13 late in the game. Toronto outscored Ottawa 28-4 in the second half.

“We started rough, but bounced back in the second half,” Bethel-Thompson said. “This is huge. We’ve had our backs against the wall and kept getting deeper in the hole and farther against the wall and we just fought back.”

It was another disappointing outing for the Redblacks (3-8), who dropped their fourth straight game and eighth of their last nine.

“We knew what we needed to do and this was a huge game, especially with Montreal winning (Friday) night,” Madu said. “We needed this one bad so it hurts, it really hurts. We’ve got to be better.”

Ottawa quarterback Jonathon Jennings was 32-for-41 for 320 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

“We just didn’t end up making plays in the second half and obviously it went sideways,” Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell said.

Ottawa had far too many penalties and made too many mistakes to come back. The Redblacks had 13 penalties for 120 yards, compared to Toronto’s six for 50 years.

“Things unravelled in this game and not in our favour,” Ottawa defensive back Chris Randle said. “We should have capitalized on this game. This is definitely a missed opportunity on our end. We’ve got to soak this one in and be uncomfortable with this feeling.”

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The turning point could be considered the start of the second half as Brad Sinopoli fumbled the ball at Ottawa’s 47 and it was returned by Qudarius Ford for a touchdown to give the visitors a 25-13 lead.

“That’s a huge momentum swing,” Jennings said. “It takes away a drive that we had going and obviously gives them a big momentum swing with the points on the board. It was tough, but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t dig out of, but we just didn’t make the plays to get ourselves out of it.”