SUMMARY – Argonauts 30, Alouettes 28
MONTREAL – Literally, by dropping the ball five times, the Montreal Alouettes cruelly ruined their opportunity to defend their Gray Cup title.
Sinked by their mistakes, the Alouettes lost 30-28 in this first Eastern final presented in Montreal since 2012.
Trailing 30-22, the Alouettes orchestrated a push leading to Walter Fletcher’s 21-yard touchdown with 1:56 remaining, but they lacked magic on the failed two-point convert to go into overtime.
The Argos therefore avenged their 2023 setback on their home field.
No need to look for the cause of the defeat. With 1:28 left in the first half, the Alouettes led 16 to 7. However, these unforgivable gifts ended up blowing the Argonauts’ sails. The Argos scored two quick touchdowns, including one on a punt return. So much so that Toronto was able to retreat to the locker room with a 21-16 lead.
This season, the Alouettes once again excelled in turnovers with a record of +10. But, at the worst moment, they lost the ball five times. Oddly, these errors occurred four times out of five at the end of a great Montreal game.
The Alouettes did not survive this frustrating context for their fans who had invaded Percival-Molson stadium.
“I don’t think it’s possible to explain it, it’s not like us. We are one of the best teams at avoiding turnovers. These are things you can’t do when you want to win,” reacted head coach Jason Maas.
“We were bad at protecting the ball even though it’s usually one of our prides,” he lamented.
“Unfortunately, it’s one of those days where the ball doesn’t stick to our hands. The turnovers poisoned our lives,” said Walter Fletcher who was the victim of two of these turnovers.
Late in the third quarter, Chad Kelly, who was having another difficult playoff game against the Alouettes, suffered a broken right ankle.
Moments later, the Birds scored a touchdown via Austin Mack to cut the lead to 27-22. But the visitors ended up holding on.
The Alouettes defense would have liked to win against replacement Nick Arbuckle. However, the veteran was able to make a few crucial passes to run out the clock and dash the Alouettes’ hopes.
“At the end of the match, the attack allowed us to stay in the match. In defense, we had to stop them, but we didn’t succeed. Personally, I could have made an interception that could have prevented their touchdown before the half,” described Marc-Antoine Dequoy with a broken heart.
A portrait which demonstrates, beyond any doubt, that it was unfortunately the Alouettes who lost this match and not the Argos who won it.
“We lost the match easily. When you give the ball five times to the opponent, you don’t give yourself a chance to win,” agreed Dequoy.
This outcome only proves that, even in a nine-team league, it’s quite a mandate to win the championship two years in a row.
“It’s very difficult to accept, but you have to do it. In my opinion, we will become a better team and a better organization,” Maas predicted.
An attack that could have done better
When the result is decided by two small points, we can identify several games that were costly. If we remove turnovers from the equation, the Alouettes’ offense should have taken better advantage of its opportunities.
In the first half, quarterback Cody Fajardo lacked precision and he wasn’t embarrassed to admit it.
“I made some mistakes that I don’t usually make and it’s frustrating. We moved the ball better in the second half, I was more precise. Sometimes I play like an elite quarterback in this league and sometimes I give my team a hard time by missing passes or committing turnovers,” Fajardo said, honestly.
We can also think of the first failed attempt to convert two points. By opting for the one-point convert, the Alouettes could have tied the game with another one-point convert at the end of the game. Sometimes it comes down to small details…
“It’s easy to say and we shouldn’t think that we don’t discuss on the sidelines. This will be the least of our worries when we evaluate this performance. Instead, if we could have protected the ball better, the result would have been different,” Maas said with confidence.
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