Throughout the season, the Montreal Alouettes have had a knack for shooting themselves in the foot. Whether we’re talking about the home losses against Edmonton or Ottawa or the two losses on failed kicks at the start of the season. To this list, we can add Saturday’s loss against the Toronto Argonauts.
A victory would have allowed the Alouettes (8-9) to fight for first place in the section next week, against those same Argos (11-6). This 24-23 loss — ironically, on a failed field goal by Boris Bede on the last play of the game — instead confines the Alouettes to the Eastern semi-finals, on November 6, against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Only consolation, this first elimination match will take place at home.
“Lack of opportunism”
“[Je suis] disappointed, with our lack of opportunism in the first half, said head coach Danny Maciocia, referring to the first two streaks to the attack of his stopped in the paying zone of the Argonauts. We had chances with our attack, we were quite aggressive, I think. We wanted to set the tone for the game.”
These two sequences were played until the third try. The first resulted in an interception by Jonathan Jones brought in for 40 yards. The second was stopped by the Argos defense, at their line of 1.
“I would like to see that game again,” Maciocia said of the interception. Players and coaches believe there has been obstruction on [Régis] Cibasu.”
“I asked Danny to challenge the decision because from my perspective, I thought an opposing player was holding Regis by the hip,” said Trevor Harris, who has passed 4,000 yards this season. thanks to a collection of 413 yards in this duel. I saw Régis’ body turn.
The challenge came to nothing: the decision was upheld.
“We have no excuse”
The players were in league with the coach, who had told them of his desire to be aggressive if such a situation arose. It is clear that with the luxury of hindsight, going there for placements would have had a huge impact on the outcome of the meeting. The truth is, you can’t blame the coach and game selector, Anthony Calvillo, for that. Especially with Dominique Davis, who has been very effective on sneaks this season.
But at the end of the day, these two sequences highlight the difficulties the Alouettes have experienced in recent weeks once the opposing 20 line has been crossed. Against Ottawa two weeks ago, the Montrealers scored only one touchdown in six occasions. Saturday, only two, including the last following two spectacular catches by Eugene Lewis, on five occasions.
“Any time we lose a close game like this, there are always questions about decisions we made,” Harris said. On two occasions we were within 15 yards of the end zone and didn’t score a point. It’s our fault.”
“We didn’t score in the pay zone and we have to do it,” Lewis said. When we are on the line of 1 or 2, we have to find a way. We could have taken the lead very quickly and given another tone to this game, but we didn’t. We have no excuse. Toronto made one game more than us. We have to give them credit.”
Great performances
This loss is all the more unfortunate as it ruined some very good performances from a few Alouettes.
Harris finished with an excellent 124.9 efficiency rating and almost 76% completion rate. Walter Fletcher had 99 passing yards and 24 rushing yards. Jake Wieneke caught five passes for 121 yards and a touchdown. Chandler Worthy and his 216 yards in punt returns. And Lewis, of course, who stood out when the most important moments of the meeting came. He finished with six catches for 72 yards and a spectacular touchdown.
Maciocia also liked the performance of William Stanback (10 carries, 65 yards), who seems to be gradually finding his rhythm after three games.
It remains to be seen who will make the trip to Toronto next week, now that this game no longer means anything. The organization cannot afford to lose one of its stalwarts in this meaningless game.