Cole Spieker has never been the most comfortable in interviews. So at the end of each of his short answers, out of nervousness, he smiles.
If that grin makes up for his lack of verve, he’s at his best in the end zone. On Sunday, in a hard-fought 21-17 win over the Edmonton Elks, the Montreal Alouettes receiver was the spark plug for his team with two touchdowns in the third quarter.
“Coach needed me. We needed offense. I just caught Cody’s great passes [Fajardo] ” explained the 27-year-old American after the match.
This resurgence of Spieker, author of three majors before the start of the game, comes at a time when we were mainly waiting for Austin Mack. Barely back from the Atlanta Falcons camp, the star receiver was almost invisible upon his return to Percival-Molson Stadium. Reunited for the first time with his sidekick Cody Fajardo, Mack caught three passes for 32 yards.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Cody Fajardo completed 22 of 34 passes for 336 yards.
Despite a less electrifying performance than expected, Mack praised Spieker, who finished the game with 107 yards passing.
He works like a madman. He always does the right things. He is not the most exuberant player, he may not get all the attention, but when you need him, he responds. He proved that today. You can trust him.
Austin Mack
Spieker’s awakening after halftime didn’t happen by accident. During intermission, with just six points scored and 133 yards of offense in the first 30 minutes of the game, Jason Maas had to find a way to get his squad going again. And he had to deal without a tablet, an essential tool in today’s football. When the Elks’ devices lost signal early in the first quarter, the Alouettes were forced to put theirs away.
Thus, during the presentation of certain members of the 1974 edition of the Alouettes in the center of the field at halftime, the Montrealers were able to make the necessary adjustments.
“We have plays designed for all the players in our offense,” Maas said. “And when we thought about the adjustments we had to make at halftime, based on the defensive schemes, we felt like those plays could pay off for him.” [Spieker]. We practiced them in training and we were comfortable. We wanted to be aggressive in the second half. And that’s mission accomplished.”
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Cole Spieker catches the ball for his second touchdown.
With Tyler Snead, Kaion Julien-Grant and Tyson Philpot out, Spieker stepped up. Despite not touching the ball in the first half, he answered his coach’s call in the third quarter. On the team’s first drive, he rushed for 77 yards and eventually scored a touchdown on his third catch.
“We saw that we could benefit from good duels,” Spieker added. “We had good protection, and Cody passed the ball well.”
The defense resists
Trampled in the first half, notably by ball carrier Kevin Brown, the Alouettes’ defense showed courage in the final moments of the match.
After not allowing any points in the third quarter, the Alouettes resisted the Elks’ final attacks, deep in their territory, while they led 21-17 with about forty seconds left on the clock.
Quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson’s final pass of the game was touched by Marc-Antoine Dequoy with his fingertips to end the hostilities. The Alouettes shut out in the second half not only a team with the wind in its sails, but also a team that had scored an average of 40 points in its last three games.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Tyrice Beverette and Marc-Antoine Dequoy block the last pass of the game between the Montreal Alouettes and the Edmonton Elks.
“You have to be able to focus,” Dequoy said. “I think being tired keeps you from getting too excited. It allows you to focus on your job. It’s just execution. It’s moments like that that show you the true colors of a defense.”
Incisive on second downs, the locals owe a large part of their success on Sunday to Geoffrey Cantin-Arku. The Quebec linebacker distinguished himself with two quarterback sacks, “almost three,” as he himself recalled, to crush the offensive threat represented by the Elks.
I was hot! The team put me in position so I could make plays. I’m moving all the time, from left to right. They never know where I’m coming from. I think we’re doing a good job with [Darnell] Sankey.
Geoffrey Cantin-Arku
The Alouettes’ brilliance on defense limited Bethel-Thompson to just 91 passing yards in the final half of the game.
And as Dequoy pointed out: “In this league, if you hold a team down by 17 points, that’s a good way to win.”
The Return of Fajardo
Cody Fajardo also made a return to play. For the first time since his injury on July 11, he stepped onto the synthetic turf of the McGill University field. He finished the game with two touchdown passes, one interception, 336 aerial yards and 22 completions in 34 attempts. Satisfying statistics but above all a satisfactory result: “I was 90% comfortable. […] I’m exhausted at the moment, because it’s been a long time since I played, but I’m proud of this team, especially the way we manage to win games, even if it’s not always pretty.”
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Cody Fajardo
The team is still missing a lot of players, not to mention the loss of Pier-Olivier Lestage early in the game. So, before heading off for the second week off of the season, Maas was pleased to see that Fajardo’s performance was appreciable.
“He did very well. He stood up, he spotted the receivers well, he was accurate and he made big plays with his legs.”
The Alouettes remain atop the Canadian Football League with a record of 10 wins and 1 loss. The team will begin the final leg of the season on September 6, when the BC Lions will visit Montreal.