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It only figures that Raymond Fontaine's favourite stage play is Hamlet.

Two brilliant defensive plays by the Ottawa-born linebacker set up Toronto Argonaut touchdowns in a 16-8 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before a sellout crowd of 40,116 at the Rogers Centre.

The win moved the Argos into first place by a point over Winnipeg in the Canadian Football League East. It's defence, not scoring, that has put them there. Saturday's win was the second consecutive game that the Argos offence was held to just 16 points.

To paraphrase the bard who wrote Hamlet: there is something rotten in the state of Toronto's offence.

"We need and want to field a better offence, but the only thing we need to do is to keep scoring one more point than the other team," said Toronto head coach Michael Pinball Clemons.

"Michael Bishop was a little frustrated at the end of the game, and that's to be understood. We all feel that way," he said of the Argo quarterback who has been the pivot for all Toronto's 10 wins this season. Toronto has won six in a row and eight of its last nine after a brutal 2-6 start.

"We hung in there and we did enough to win."

Most of it was done by the Toronto defence, which preyed upon an injury-riddled Winnipeg team. They caught a break in that they didn't have to deal with Winnipeg tailback Charles Roberts - who has always played well against Toronto - who is among the injured.

Toronto's defence has yielded only 14 points in its last two games. The top-ranked defence in the CFL, Toronto contained Winnipeg and league leading passer Kevin Glenn to 216 total yards in total offence and forced two turnovers. Glenn had no running game to add any mystery to what he would attempt offensively. That made him predictable. In the fourth quarter, the defence kept Winnipeg at bay until Bishop gave Toronto some breathing room by threading a pass between two Winnipeg defenders to hook up with Arland Bruce on a 17-yard touchdown strike to put the game away.

"I opened the season with an AC joint injury (anterior cruciate ligament) and missed a couple of games. It was a rough beginning, but a beautiful end," said Fontaine, 26.

He played at the University of Kentucky and earned his degree in marketing and communications. Because the Ottawaan is fluently bilingual, the Argos made use of his language skill while he was on the injury list, putting him to work in the team's ticketing office.

"I missed some games, played a little hurt, but I'm feeling great now," Fontaine said. Special teams played a role in the win as a punt attempt from Winnipeg's Pat Fleming was blocked by Fontaine, who scooped it up and ran it back to the one-yard line. John Avery then punched it in to give the Argos an 8-4 lead at halftime. Then in the fourth quarter, his deep coverage on Keith Stokes allowed him to punch the ball loose on a punt return, setting up the Bishop-to-Avery connection.

Toronto can secure first place in the East and home advantage throughout the playoffs with a win in the season finale in Regina, Saturday. Friday night, Winnipeg is in Montreal and can take back first place with a win. A Bomber loss, however would clinch first in the East for Toronto, regardless of the Regina outcome.

The Blue Bombers are stumbling home — partly because so many are on the limp — and have lost four of their past six games.

Toronto's offence should have been poised to plunder a Bombers' defence that was minus tackle Doug Brown and defensive backs Juran Bolden and Davin, but never got the job done convincingly.

Argo QB Bishop completed 10 of 29 pass attempts for 145 yards with one interception.

While John Avery, Toronto's main running back in place of an injured Robert Edwards, had 70 yards rushing on 15 carries. Bishop was inconsistent at best.

"I played terrible. If I don't get it going, we don't get it going," Bishop said. "We didn't do enough to win a Grey Cup. We've got to get some more points and I can't turn the ball over.

"There were plenty of opportunities and we didn't connect. It's an off day."

The kicking game was no prize. Noel Prefontaine missed field goal tries of 32, 45 and 47 yards.

Winnipeg's offensive struggles on Saturday resulted in just two singles and a Troy Westwood 19-yard field goal in the second quarter. Westwood added another field goal in the fourth quarter. Glenn completed just 21 of 46 passes for 181 yards.

Rogers Centre throng of 40,116 was the biggest of the season and deemed a sellout because the upper deck seats were unavailable, covered over by gigantic posters of the all-time Argo heroes. Toronto has an average attendance this year of 30,931, its highest since 1992.