This time, the magic didn’t work. After two consecutive comeback wins, the Montreal Alouettes came up short against the BC Lions, who ended the hometown favourites’ five-game winning streak with a 37-23 defeat in front of a sold-out crowd of 23,035 at Percival Molson Stadium.
The Alouettes (10-2) came up against a defensive front from the Lions (7-6) in great shape and a solid performance from Nathan Rourke who, despite three interceptions, led the visitors’ attack to four touchdowns, those of David Mackie, Ayden Eberhardt and William Stanback, who had a strong game with 128 yards on the ground.
Rourke (22-for-28, 304 yards, one touchdown, three interceptions) came to nail the Alouettes’ coffin with five minutes left, on a 19-yard run. Sean Whyte added three field goals.
The Alouettes’ response came from Cole Spieker and Dominique Davis. Jose Maltos made three field goals.
Trailing 27-16 early in the fourth quarter, the Alouettes managed to score a touchdown on a Davis sneak to pull within five points of the Lions. The two-point conversion was missed, but the Alouettes (10-2) successfully fielded a short kick to regain the ball at their 48-yard line.
Unfortunately, a missed trick play towards Jose Barbon forced the local favourites to punt. Joseph Zema missed a bit of precision, giving his team a single, but allowing the Lions to resume at their 40-yard line. Stanback and Rourke, on a nice run to his left, came to close the books.
“It’s a tough loss,” head coach Jason Maas admitted. “I thought we had some chances in this game that we didn’t capitalize on. We had four turnovers on defense; offensively, we didn’t capitalize on our opportunities.
“The short kick we get back late in the game and we’re on third and two. I didn’t call a play, we tried to push them deep into their zone, but it didn’t work and they scored. It’s a game where the wind didn’t turn in our favor. But you have to give them credit. We just didn’t do enough tonight. We’ve been very good at learning from our losses. I’m confident we’ll be able to do that again.”
Cannon start
The Lions opened the scoring on their first possession of the game, on a 23-yard play. On second down and one, fullback Mackie was inserted behind the center. Instead of a short gain to get the first down, he ended up with a free pass into the end zone.
While the Lions’ offense had a lot of success, it also committed three turnovers in the first half, while the Alouettes had two interceptions and forced a fumble.
The hometown favorites scored 10 points on those turnovers, including a big touchdown after a Stanback fumble late in the second quarter. Cody Fajardo (27-for-37, 240 yards, one touchdown, one interception) connected with Spieker on a six-yard play. The receiver made quite the catch in the back of the end zone to send the Alouettes into the locker room trailing only 17-13.
A return from the break, the Alouettes were however the victim of their first turnover, which came to cancel a 28-yard return by James Letcher on the kickoff. On the first play of the offensive sequence, Fajardo was caught far behind his line of scrimmage by Jonah Tavai, who made him lose the ball before recovering it at the Birds’ 35-yard line, which led to Whyte’s second field goal of the game.
“We protected the ball well overall, except on the first play of the second half. It interrupted our rhythm, which we had started with the touchdown at the end of the first half. We have to take the time to suffer from this defeat and learn for our next outing,” Fajardo analyzed.
But the defense wasn’t done yet. Dionte Ruffin made the Alouettes’ third interception of the night, putting the Alouettes at the visitors’ 19-yard line. Fajardo tried twice to reach his receivers in the end zone, but the Alouettes had to settle for Maltos’ third field goal. The Alouettes scored 13 points on their four turnovers.
Stanback dealt the hometown favorites a blow on the next drive. The Lions running back made a spectacular 38-yard run, breaking four tackles, to get into the end zone and make it 27-16 with just over five minutes left in the third quarter.
“This race did a lot of good,” said a smiling Stanback after the game. “It confirms who I am, what I do for my team. That’s why they hired me. My technique is to improve by one percent every day. If I’m better every day, I’m doing good things for the organization.”
With the score at 34-23, the Alouettes attempted one last push. However, TJ Lee’s interception sounded the death knell for this comeback attempt.
The Alouettes will play their next three games on the road, in Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto. They will return to Percival Molson Stadium on Thanksgiving Monday.