Aug 09 Montreal Alouettes Blank Argonauts 25-0

After the Alouettes were handed their first loss of the season last week against the Eskimos, which had many thinking that their weaknesses were showing and that Edmonton managed to capitalize on them, what better way to answer back than to dominate a game and shut out their very next opponent?

The Als did just that when they met their Eastern Division rivals, the Toronto Argonauts and blanked them by a score of 25-0.

In the process the Alouettes sacked quarterbacks Kerry Joseph and Cody Pickett seven times, including on the last play of the game to end up shutting out TO for first time since 1992. Montreal hadn’t been the authors of a shutout since 1976.

While you would have to give TO credit for trying, with 1^st and 4^th quarter attempts on third down, which both resulted in turnovers on downs. The Als’ defense, however limited the Argos to only 126 yards and not even a field goal to show for it.

On the other end, Anthony Calvillo used all at his disposal in the usual suspects of Watkins, Cobourne Cahoon and company to tally 395 yards on 35 completions.

Speaking of Ben Cahoon, he reached a milestone when he caught eight passes for 103 yards to put him past the 12,000 mark in career receiving yards. In the process, he passed former Argo Derrell Mitchell for seventh place all-time.

But the nagging question remains: Was the Montreal defense THAT good, or was the Toronto offense that bad. Without having to search too far, it is safe to say that the answer is both.

Toronto is looking like a team that’s trying to find themselves. They were without arguably, their biggest offensive threat in Arland Bruce who got traded to Hamilton after a whole lot of drama ensued between him and new coach Bart Andrus. Andru’s himself is appearing to not have taken to the CFL as had Marc Trestman in his début and speculation has it that the team, like Bruce, are not yet buying into his system.

But credit Guzman and Bowman for their respective sacs as well as Stewart for his 2 and Mcelveen for his 3. If this didn’t shell shock both Cody Pickett and Kerry Joseph, it sure made them at least think twice before they wound up to throw. Marc Estelle, Guzman and Stewart also combined for 15 tackles on the night and regardless of how easy the Toronto offence was to defend against, it was due to these boys that neither a safety, nor a field goal made it to the Argos’ side of the scoreboard.

The Alouettes however, will have their work cut out for them on Saturday Aug 15th when they head to Hamilton where they will meet the surging 4-2 Ticats.

Hamilton quarterback Quinton Porter threw for a touchdown and ran another in for the winner as the Tiger-Cats overcame a 12 point first quarter deficit to beat the Edmonton Eskimos 28-21 on Saturday. The same Eskimos that handed the Als their first loss of the season. 

The last time the Also me the ticats, Montreal defeated them 21-8, but that was when we were perhaps starting to see the small cracks in the Als’ game, which eventually, Edmonton was able to take advantage of, which led to the loss. 

The back story here? At the end of this game, with a Ticat win, both teams will be tied at 5-2 or the Als, with a win of their own, could pull away to 6-1 leaving the Ticats behind at 4-3.

Full game recap here .

Tags: Anthony Calvillo \ Anwar Stewart \ Avon Cobourne \ Ben Cahoon \ cfl \ Montreal Alouettes \ Toronto Argonauts