End 13-game winning streak with humbling defeat to the Argos 37-18 before 18,088 Molson Stadium spectators.
Alouettes quarterback Caleb Evans runs for a first down against the Argonauts in Montreal, July 11, 2024.Photo by Christinne Muschi /The Canadian Press
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.
A pulled hamstring generally takes between four and six weeks for recovery, although there’s no way of immediately knowing the severity of the injury. Even with an upcoming bye week in the schedule, expect Fajardo to miss at least one game and possibly more. Without him, the Als might have challenges remaining competitive.
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.”
The Als still were in this game at halftime, trailing 24-15. But unlike last Saturday night against Calgary, there was no dramatic comeback. Montreal produced only three second-half points against the Argos and wasn’t able to generate any offence. Over the final 30 minutes, the Als were held to one first down, ran 13 offensive plays, had 32 yards of net offence and had the ball for only eight minutes.
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.”
Wynn refused to use the two games in a five-day span as an excuse.
“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.”
The past weekend of football was all about the favourites.
The favoured teams went 13-1 straight up and 10-4 against the spread in the NFL. In college football, the three most teams bet at the BetMGM Sportsbook in terms of number of bets and money all won and covered. All three were favourites.
Trends of the Week
The three most bet college teams that won and covered on Saturday were Ohio State (-3.5) vs. Penn State, Indiana (-7.5) at Michigan State and Oregon (-14.5) at Michigan. Penn State has now lost seven straight home games as underdogs. The Nittany Lions were up 10-0 in the first quarter and were 3.5-point favourites at the time. The Buckeyes won 17-10.
In the NFL, the three most bet teams in terms of number of bets and money were the Washington Commanders (-4) at the New York Giants, the Detroit Lions (-2.5) at the Green Bay Packers and the Buffalo Bills (-6) vs. the Miami Dolphins. All three teams won, but only two of the three covered the spread as Buffalo beat Miami 30-27.
When it came to the players with the most bets to score a touchdown on Sunday, only two of the five reached the end zone — Chase Brown (-125) and Taysom Hill (+185). David Montgomery (-140), Brian Robinson Jr. (+110) and AJ Barner (+500) did not score.
Upsets of the Week
The biggest upset in the NFL was the Carolina Panthers coming from behind to beat the New Orleans Saints 23-22. New Orleans closed as a 7-point favourite and took in 76% of the bets and 79% of the money in against-the-spread betting. The Saints fired head coach Dennis Allen following the loss. They have now lost seven straight games after starting the year 2-0.
Arguably the biggest upset in college football was South Carolina beating No. 10 Texas A&M 44-20 at home. Texas A&M closed as a 2.5-point favourite and took in 59% of the bets and 58% of the money.
NEW YORK – Washington Capitals left-wing Alex Ovechkin, Carolina Hurricanes centre Martin Necas and Pittsburgh Penguins centre Sidney Crosby have been named the NHL’s three stars of the week.
Ovechkin had a league-leading five goals and nine points in four games.
The 39-year-old Capitals captain has 14 points in 11 games this season, and his 860 career goals are just 34 shy of Wayne Gretzky’s record.
Necas shared the league lead with nine points (three goals, six assists) in three games.
Crosby factored on seven of the Penguins’ eight total goals scoring four goals and adding three assists in three appearances. The 37-year-old Penguins captain leads his team with 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 13 games this season.
Crosby and Ovechkin, longtime rivals since entering the league together in 2005-06, will meet for the 70th time in the regular season and 95th time overall when Pittsburgh visits Washington on Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
TORONTO – Running back Brady Oliveira of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell are the finalists for the CFL’s outstanding player award.
Oliveira led the CFL in rushing this season with 1,353 yards while Mitchell was the league leader in passing yards (5,451) and touchdowns (32).
Oliveira is also the West Division finalist for the CFL’s top Canadian award, the second straight year he’s been nominated for both.
Oliveira was the CFL’s outstanding Canadian in 2023 and the runner-up to Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly for outstanding player.
Defensive lineman Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund of the Montreal Alouettes is the East Division’s top Canadian nominee.
Voting for the awards is conducted by the Football Reporters of Canada and the nine CFL head coaches.
The other award finalists include: defensive back Rolan Milligan Jr. of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal linebacker Tyrice Beverette (outstanding defensive player); Saskatchewan’s Logan Ferland and Toronto’s Ryan Hunter (outstanding lineman); B.C. Lions kicker Sean Whyte and Toronto returner Janarion Grant (special teams); and Edmonton Elks linebacker Nick Anderson and Hamilton receiver Shemar Bridges (outstanding rookie).
The coach of the year finalists are Saskatchewan’s Corey Mace and Montreal’s Jason Maas.
The CFL will honour its top individual performers Nov. 14 in Vancouver.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31.
