Montreal is no longer undefeated following its 37-18 humbling defeat to the Argos 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.
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, it would be surprising if Fajardo doesn’t miss at least one game. And without him, the Als might have challenges remaining competitive.
The Argos improved to 3-2, ending a two-game losing streak.
To 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.”
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 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.”