End 13-game winning streak with humbling defeat to the Argos 37-18 before 18,088 Molson Stadium spectators.
The worst fear of every professional football team is losing its starting quarterback. Those fears were realized Thursday night by the Alouettes.
Cody Fajardo suffered a hamstring injury at the end of the first quarter against the Toronto Argonauts after completing his first five passes for 62 yards. Rolling to his right, Fajardo’s attempted pass for Reggie White Jr. was incomplete. Fajardo was heard screaming in pain on the play by RDS sideline reporter Didier Orméjuste and immediately went to the dressing room, clutching his right hamstring. He didn’t return.
Montreal is no longer undefeated following its humbling 37-18 defeat to the Argos before 18,088 Molson Stadium spectators. The Als, who were playing their second game in five days, now have a 5-1 record and lost for the first time since Sept. 15, ending a 13-game winning streak, including playoffs and the Grey Cup.
The Argos improved to 3-2, ending a two-game losing streak.
While it would be easy to pin this defeat on Caleb Evans, who replaced Fajardo, the Als lost on all three phases. Their defence couldn’t stop the run and didn’t make enough plays, while their special teams were atrocious. But the finger-pointing and spotlight always will go back to the quarterback, and Evans wasn’t nearly good enough.
In Evans’s defence, he receives few practice reps during a normal week — and Montreal held only one full workout leading up to the game. It’s also difficult for any quarterback to come off the bench and enter a game cold.
“I feel like it’s always tough,” Evans said. “You’ve got to expect the unexpected and it’s hard to expect the unexpected. It’s always tough. You’ve got to get a little rhythm going, kind of get your feet wet and get comfortable. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t do it today.”
Evans won two games for the Als last season when Fajardo was injured, but both were against Ottawa, his former team, and the Redblacks weren’t good. Against Toronto, he completed only 12 of 22 passes for 127 yards. While Evans threw touchdown passes to Charleston Rambo and Tyson Philpot, he also was intercepted twice.
One, by Wynton McManis, was returned nine yards for a touchdown midway through the second quarter. Evans displayed poise on his 22-yard scoring pass to Rambo at 10:39 of the same period, eluding Toronto pressure. It was Rambo’s first touchdown this season.
“In every game you play, there’s always some ups and downs,” Evans said. “Not my best game at all, I don’t think. It’s just about getting comfortable. It’s a good time for the bye week to come up. I’ll be able to lock in for a full week and a half, two weeks and get in that rhythm.”
Defensively, the absence of veteran rush-end Shawn Lemon, suspended at least three games for wagering on CFL games, remains conspicuous. Lemon generates pressure on the field and his veteran leadership in the dressing room can’t be diminished. While Montreal sacked Toronto quarterback Cameron Dukes three times, that wasn’t nearly enough.
Dukes, a better runner than passer, didn’t beat Montreal. Instead, it was tailback Ka’Deem Carey, who gained 94 yards on 16 carries. Dukes, in his first season as the starter, had 46 yards off nine carries.
“The run defence wasn’t to our standard,” defensive-tackle Dylan Wynn admitted. “Obviously too many yards on the ground. We’ve just got to tighten up, be really detailed, buckle down and regroup after this bye week. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to do better. I don’t think it’s an effort thing, anything like that. Football’s a game of inches. We were inches away. We’ve just got to come out better.”
“It don’t matter,” he said. “We work in the off-season for this kind of stuff. We train for this kind of stuff. I’m not willing to lean in on something like that. Today just wasn’t our day and we’ll come out better.”
The Als must also improve on special teams. Janarion Grant returned two kickoffs for 145 yards, including one of 103 yards for a touchdown following Philpot’s score. Grant also had five punt returns for 97 yards.
“It has been hard on special teams,” Alexandre Gagné said. “Our force is the cover teams. We’ve been giving too many yards to the opposing teams, and it’s not only tonight. Tonight was more obvious. We’ve got to make some plays, get downfield and tackle.
“That Grant touchdown was a killer, and we know it. We can’t be the ones pulling everyone back. We know it.”
