The Montreal Alouettes returned to Percival Molson Stadium after playing on the road for the last three weeks, but the homecoming didn’t go as expected, as the Als dropped a last-minute thriller 21-20 to the B.C. Lions.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Bad-looking brawl
Let’s start with the end. After the game, Lions’ defensive lineman Kemoko Turay triggered a brawl when he allegedly tried to enter the Alouettes’ locker room. Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund was among the first Als players to respond, and chaos ensued. In the end, a couple of punches were exchanged before everyone was separated.
“Apparently, someone tried to get into our locker room, and you’re just not going to get into our locker room. You’re on somebody else’s team,” Alouettes’ head coach Jason Maas told the media afterwards, admitting that he did not witness the incident.
Adeyemi-Berglund said on the Als’ post-game show that he was trying to give passes to his family when Turay came close to his locker room. He claimed he only responded to protect his teammates and coaches.
I hope there will be consequences for the players involved because the whole scene was a bad look for the CFL. Having the two teams on the same sideline is not ideal, but incidents like this shouldn’t happen.
Bad finish
The brawl wasn’t the only ugly thing that happened at Percival Molson Stadium on Saturday night for Montreal. The team will want to forget the end of the game, which they lost on the last play.
It started well for the Als. While trailing 19-18, the defence forced a punt that gave McLeod Bethel-Thompson and his offence two minutes to walk the field and score points.
MBT did it, but the mistakes started at the end of the drive. On a second-down conversion, Tyler Snead got pushed out of bounds, which stopped the clock. If he had found a way to stay in bounds, the Als could have run off 20 more seconds, which should have been enough to win the game.
Then, after Jose Maltos gave the Als the lead, Pier-Olivier Lestage committed an unnecessary roughness penalty by shoving Lions’ DE Mathieu Betts that pushed back the following kickoff by 15 yards. B.C. got better field positioning, which led to the game-winning field goal.
The final mistakes happened with three seconds remaining. The Als seemed to be prepared for a Hail Mary pass, but Nathan Rourke completed a short one to Jevon Cottoy, who got the team in field goal range with less than a second remaining.
The first error was the coverage offered. It was too soft, which allowed Rourke to complete the pass. Then, when Cottoy caught the ball, the defensive backs should have left him alone and forced him to go down untouched while the final milliseconds ticked away. Instead, they got the tackle, but offered the visitors a chance to win the game with a kick.
Discipline, discipline, discipline
Discipline hasn’t been an issue since Jason Maas took over the Als in 2023. However, this week, the 15-yard misconduct penalty committed by Lestage was a huge factor in the Lions’ late-game heroics. The Als had to kick the ball from their 15-yard line instead of the 30.
After the game, Lestage acknowledged with short answers that it was not the type of penalty he should have taken, specifically at that point in the game. His teammates had more to say about this critical lack of discipline.
“Without discipline, you ain’t going nowhere,” Shawn Oakman said after the game. “I hope they (his teammates) get their minds right”.
“We have a motto: Nothing they say, nothing they do, can take us out of the game,” said Tyrice Beverette. “We don’t play in between the whistles; we need to play between the lines. We gotta finish that game with more discipline, especially at the end of the game when it’s crunch time.”
Better, but not enough
Bethel-Thompson had a better outing than last week. He finished 15-of-23 for 192 yards and two touchdown passes. Most importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over and gave his team a chance to win.
In theory, that’s all you can ask for from a backup quarterback. Considering his experience, he still could have done more.
After an explosive first drive, the offence went silent until the end of the first half. Then, right after coming back from the locker room, MBT missed Tyler Snead in the deep right zone, a play that could have given the Als a 12-point lead. In the end, Montreal only scored six points in the final thirty minutes of the game. It wasn’t enough, especially considering B.C.’s defence didn’t have its best outing.
However, it needs to be said that Bethel-Thompson wasn’t helped by his teammates at times. Charleston Rambo was wide open on the Als’ second drive, and he dropped the ball after beating DB Garry Peters. Had he secured the catch, it would have most likely been a touchdown. Travis Theis also dropped a screen pass in the fourth quarter on second-and-four. It could have extended the drive, but instead, Montreal punted, and the Lions answered with a touchdown.
Miscues on defence
Defensively, the Als had some really good moments, but also had some costly miscues.
Kabion Ento, Najee Murray and Tyrice Beverette had strong outings for the Als. Ento made a great interception in his end zone, beating receiver Keon Hatcher for the catch. Murray recorded 10 defensive tackles, including an important knockdown in the fourth quarter.
Beverette was probably the best player on the field. He got involved early on special teams with hard tackles, and he kept rolling on defence. He finished the night with seven total tackles and one quarterback sack. He added two knockdowns, including the most important of the game on Hatcher, to give his offence enough time to win the game.
However, the defensive unit missed too many tackles. On multiple occasions, it gave B.C. a second life on drives and extended the amount of time spent on the field. Marc-Antoine Dequoy also stumbled — or as he described it after the game, “had bad footing” — in the fourth quarter, which led to a touchdown from a wide-open Stanley Berryhill.
As mentioned above, when the game was on the line with three seconds remaining, Montreal offered too much loose coverage, which led to the game-winning field goal.
What’s next?
The Alouettes (3-2) will have their first bye week of the season before returning to action on July 17 against the Toronto Argonauts (1-4) at Percival-Molson Stadium. The kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. EDT.
