It was bound to happen. The Montreal Alouettes have lost a meaningful game for the first time since September 15 of last year.
Playing on five days of rest, they lost both the physical and the strategic battle against a Toronto team that came to town ready to fight. Below are my thoughts on the game.
Ultimate loss
This game’s biggest storyline is undoubtedly Cody Fajardo’s injury. Montreal’s franchise quarterback got injured on the last play of the first quarter after escaping the pressure and immediately held his hamstring. He went to the locker room and didn’t return.
Head coach Jason Maas didn’t say much about the injury post-game but told the media that Fajardo wanted to play in the second half. He will do everything he can to finally face his former team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, in two weeks.
Caleb Evans took over and couldn’t keep a consistent level of play. It started with a bad pick-six thrown to a stumbling Walter Fletcher on a screen pass. Wynton McMannis, who was well-positioned after reading the play perfectly, said, “Merci beaucoup,” and scored the game’s first major.
Evans answered well as he led two long drives to the end zone. He was calm under pressure and delivered two touchdown passes while getting violently hit.
However, the rest of the game was a poor display by the whole offence. The longest drive of the second half was 27 yards on four plays. It led to the only points scored after the break, a 50-yard field goal by Jose Maltos. Caleb Evans finished the game with 12 completions on 22 attempts for only 127 yards, with his two touchdowns accompanied by two turnovers.
Davis Alexander deserves a shot
We don’t know the extent of Fajardo’s injury, but if it lasts more than two weeks, the Als will need to name either Caleb Evans or Davis Alexander as the starting quarterback. At this point, the latter deserves a shot.
Alexander has been in the organization for a long time but has never gotten to play significant minutes. We all know what Evans is able to do — and most importantly, not able to do — in a football game. The team’s third-stringer has shown great things every time he has been sent onto the field and deserves at least a chance to prove he can be the quarterback of the future for Montreal.
Physically beaten on all levels
Winning the physical battle against the Argos is a complicated task on any day. After a short week of rest, it is even more challenging. It proved to be too much for the Als to handle on Thursday, as they lost on all fronts.
It started with the offensive line, which didn’t give Fajardo and Evans enough time to get comfortable in the pocket.
Defensively, the Als couldn’t stop Toronto’s run game. Ka’Deem Carey, Daniel Adeboboye, Deonta McMahon, and Cameron Dukes combined for 183 yards on the ground. The Argos’ running game killed the clock in the fourth quarter, while the Als’s offence could only watch.
The most apparent domination happened on special teams. For one of the first times since Byron Archambault took over the special teams unit, the Als were dominated physically and strategically. Janarion Grant had fun all night, gaining 242 yards on kick returns. He scored a touchdown on a play where nobody won their one-on-one battle for Montreal.
Canadian infirmary
Over the last two weeks, the Als have lost Canadians Marc-Antoine Dequoy, Kaion Julien-Grant, David Cote, Louis-Philippe Bourassa, Frederic Chagnon, and Brock Gowanlock to injuries. Justin Lawrence and Geoffrey Cantin-Arku temporarily joined the list, as they got injured during Thursday’s game but were able to finish it.
These players, many of whom play on special teams, are generally very effective. However, the difference in level was noticeable, as their replacements couldn’t keep up with the visitors.
Receiving corps’ depth answers well
With Julien-Grant out of the lineup, other receivers needed to step up, and Cole Spieker and Charleston Rambo did. The latter scored his first CFL touchdown on a nice post route, finishing the night with 53 yards on four catches.
Spieker likes playing against the Toronto Argonauts. After the best performance of his career in The Six two weeks ago, he had another great showing with 70 yards on six catches. With his position inside, he has to pay the price almost every time his quarterback targets him but he never backs down. He plays a solid role in protection as well.
The five-day rest
The game was another proof that no team should play two games in five days. Jason Maas’ players just didn’t have the energy to play 60 minutes of good football and with fatigue also comes a greater risk of injury.
The Als lost a lot of soldiers during the game. Was the short week a factor in all of them? We can’t say definitively but it certainly didn’t help.
Maas didn’t use the short week as an excuse for the bad performance but he is definitely not a fan of those situations. After the game, he said that he didn’t want to elaborate more on the scheduling problems to avoid being fined by the CFL.
This game reminded me of last year’s Alouettes home game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The visitors were also coming back off of five days rest and couldn’t compete properly. They also lost their starting quarterback along the way.
What’s next?
The Alouettes will have their first bye week of the season before receiving the Riders on July 25 at 7:30 p.m. EDT.
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