Red and Black 21-Alouettes 47 | When everything works

The Montreal Alouettes no longer need to prove their worth. A championship, two victories in the West at the start of the season and a packed house of 23,035 spectators for their opening match. But just because a team has established its value doesn’t mean it can’t improve it. And the Alouettes have understood that well.

The second quarter of Thursday night’s game between the Alouettes and the Ottawa Rouge et Noir was still in progress when the composition of this text began. A way of doing things that is generally not recommended, because the beauty of sport lies in its unpredictability. However, even the least attentive neophyte would have understood, at 27-1, after Tyson Philpot’s 51-yard touchdown, that this clash was over. “It was this catch that set the tone for the match,” said Cody Fajardo at the end of the match.

From the first quarter, Montreal dictated the pace of the match. The meeting began with the unveiling of the 2023 season champions banner and ended with a 47-21 victory.

Jason Maas’ men returned home with a perfect 2-0 record thanks to victories in Winnipeg and Edmonton. They then faced the least well-resourced team in the Canadian Football League on paper.

And the Alouettes players wasted no time in proving their superiority. From the first half of the game, runs by Cody Fajardo and Caleb Evans for touchdowns, two turnovers by linebacker Tyrice Beverette and three successful field goals by David Côté allowed the Sparrows to suffocate their prey like hungry boas: gradually, saving themselves and taking advantage of the weaknesses of their enemies.

“It was probably the best football we could play,” Maas admitted of the first half.

The merciless Alouettes

The Rouge et Noir’s defense could not have offered Fajardo and his attack a better playing field. The Alouettes’ quarterback took advantage of the mediocre defensive scheme proposed by his rivals to inflate his personal statistics. After two quarters, he had completed 20 of his 22 passes. He ultimately only missed 7 passes and accumulated 393 yards.

But the porous Ottawa defense above all allowed the Alouettes receivers to express themselves fully. Plays of 49 yards to Kaion Julian-Grant and 41 yards to Philpot, in particular, seemed to delight the fans gathered at Percival-Molson Stadium. Almost as much as the show by the group Kaïn at intermission.

Philpot, by the way, has really established himself as the number one receiver on this team, even if Maas and the coaching group hate to bring up this idea of ​​hierarchy. The Canadian receiver and hero of the last Gray Cup set the tone at the start of the game with numerous catches in the back of the territory. Fajardo turns to him now, almost by reflex. And also because Philpot has become the most reliable receiver in the group. “That’s how we play, the Alouettes. Cody believes in me and I’m going to get the job done,” No. 6 said breathlessly after the game.

Honorable mention, however, to Reggie White Jr. In his first game in 2024, the receiver caught 2 passes from Fajardo in the end zone, in the space of 4 minutes, in the fourth quarter.

Even if this meeting was not the most exciting, the Alouettes can, with good reason, rejoice in this victory against this division rival. At the end of the season, it’s this kind of lackluster and somewhat forgotten victory that can make the difference between a home and away match once in the playoffs. Especially since with a differential of +26, the Alouettes give themselves good chances in the event of a tiebreaker.

The defense, again

At the risk of repeating ourselves, the Alouettes’ defense excels, and as in 2023, the players of this unit shine one after the other.

Marc-Antoine Dequoy in the first match, Nafees Lyon in the second and Tyrice Beverette in the third. From the start of the match, the Alouettes linebacker made it clear to quarterback Dru Brown that he was going to have to endure a real ordeal for 60 minutes. “It’s difficult to explain,” assured Beverette regarding the versatility of his unit. It’s like before every match, we knew we were going to win, but we just didn’t know how. »

Beverette’s mother, visiting from New Jersey, attended the game. She won’t have moved for nothing, because son was in all the fights with an interception, a quarterback sack and a fumble recovery. For his part, Brown suffered 14 incomplete passes in addition to being the victim of theft.

In this title defense season, it would have been difficult to ask for better from the Montreal defense. In three games, she allowed an average of 17.3 points per game. Aware that victory was theirs, the Alouettes slowed down a bit in the second half. The fact remains that for a third week in a row, their work was almost impeccable in defense. And it gives a strange feeling of déjà vu.

An imperfect match

However, the Alouettes suffered a real momentary slump in the third quarter. The locals were dominated 11-0 after half-time.

Obviously, the head coach had a hard time being completely happy with the outcome of the match due to this slight letdown.

Indeed, even if elements displeased Maas, the latter still leads the best team in the CFL according to the ranking. With a 3-0 record, the defending champions couldn’t find themselves in a better position heading into another rival, the Toronto Argonauts.

The match concluded with a standing ovation from the fans. The ball sat as the final seconds ticked away and John Denver boomed through the stadium speakers with Take Me Home, Country Roadseven if The Ballad of happy People also lent itself rather well to the style of this emotional encounter.