At a time when the Alouettes’ 2022 season seemed destined to be a resounding failure, Danny Maciocia’s men proved they weren’t going to give up so soon. They surprised the entire Canadian football world by handing the Winnipeg Blue Bombers their first loss of the season in front of more than 30,000 spectators dressed in blue at Investors Field.
Posted at 12:16 a.m.
Updated at 0:27
The 20-17 victory won by the Alouettes in overtime on Thursday night is the kind that can completely transform the course of a season. By beating the best team on the circuit in their own stadium, the Birds have just demonstrated that they can indeed defeat anyone, as they keep telling us since training camp.
Like last week in Montreal, the Bombers and Alouettes were tied after the first three quarters, this time 10-10. We thought for a moment that the Sparrows were going to crash in the fourth like the previous week.
PHOTO JOHN WOODS, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Dominique Davis
Zach Collaros orchestrated a turbo series, which ended with a 19-yard touchdown from running back Brady Oliveira. The Bombers regained the ball after an unsuccessful streak from the Als and looked set to extend their lead to a minimum of 10 points, as they were already in position for a field goal attempt. The Sparrows seemed cooked.
But it was from this moment that the tide turned.
While they had piled up bad plays in the fourth quarter in the first game between the two teams, the Alouettes on the contrary managed several good ones this time.
Thanks to a blitz and a sack from Wesley Sutton, Tyrice Beverette recovered the ball and gave it back to the attack, thus maintaining the slim hopes of victory for his team. Beverette had been singled out by Maciocia for his lack of discipline after last week’s loss, while Sutton has allowed a slew of long plays since the start of the season.
Another player who had a difficult first half of the season then distinguished himself on the attacking side. Two catches by Jake Wieneke in heavy traffic put the Alouettes on the Bombers 4 line. But rather than leave Trevor Harris on the play, the Als gave the ball to Dominique Davis.
The strategy was clear: Davis races.
After gains of 2 yards and 1 yard, Montreal found themselves in a third down situation at the 1-yard line for the Bombers, who managed to stop Davis for the third time in a row and seemed to have won their 10e consecutive victory. Mistake.
The Bombers were instead penalized because the hand of one of their linemen was not quite a yard away from the ball before the throw-in… A little fingertip, no more.
Festival of missed kicks…
The Alouettes were lucky, of course, but Davis finally crossed the goal line on his fourth opportunity. It was 17-17 after converting David Côté, who had missed a 20-yard field goal earlier in the evening.
Collaros managed to lead his men into enemy territory to allow Marc Liegghio to give the Bombers the victory with a 32-yard field goal on the last play in regulation. Except that the kicker missed it…
Côté gave the Alouettes a 20-17 lead at the end of their first series of overtime, then this same Liegghio got a chance to be forgiven. But rather than equalize, Liegghio sent the ball over one of the posts, and poof! The Bombers’ winning streak had come to an end to everyone’s surprise.
Had it not been for the penalty near the end zone and Liegghio’s first missed kick, the Alouettes would have lost again. But if it hadn’t been for the turnover they caused in the fourth quarter or catches from Wieneke, they wouldn’t have won more.
Led by an inspired performance from lineman Mike Moore, the defense played well for the second game in a row. Harris and the offense didn’t do anything remarkable, but they avoided turnovers, while making a handful of opportune plays in the final minutes.
It was far from perfect, but the Montrealers played with abandon, intensity and concentration. And they finally shone in the decisive moments.
It’s often when you give the victory to a team in advance that it gets trapped and that’s what happened to the Blue Bombers. They will recover…
For the Alouettes, this unexpected victory improves their record to 3-6. Nothing to celebrate, but enough to fight in the East. Especially as they will play six of their last nine games at home and seven against Eastern rivals. Nothing is played!