The Alouettes finish with a perfect home record
By Richard Obrand,
MontrealAlouettes.com
Montreal – In the minds of all the Alouettes fans who witnessed last week’s loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers… all must be forgiven.
And why not? After outstanding performances by Anthony Calvillo, Avon Cobourne, Larry Taylor and Damon Duval in today’s 48-13 win over those same Bombers, what can they possible be disappointed about?
Most definitely not Calvillo’s 305 yards and two touchdowns in his first game back after sitting out last week with a minor leg injury. And certainly not Cobourne’s 124 total yards and a rushing major – his 13th of the season.
Duval’s six field goals with a game-long 42-yarder in the first quarter? No way.
Not only were fans happy by the time Taylor returned a missed field goal 115 yards for a touchdown, by then they were going mad! The third longest in Alouettes history, Taylor’s runback gave the Als a 20-point lead in the third quarter.
Strong on both sides of the ball
As evidenced by Taylor’s special teams score, the game was not won on the offensive side of the ball alone. The Als’ defence came up big when it counted, limiting quarterback Michael Bishop and the Bombers to just one first down in their first seven series, and the 13 points Winnipeg put up were the fewest the Als allowed since their 32-11 win over the Stampeders three weeks ago.
The effort must have been extremely refreshing for defensive coordinator Tim Burke, who saw his crew relinquish 79 points in its last two games – more than they had allowed in five games dating back to mid-September.
The strong defensive play allowed Calvillo to get the ball rolling early, starting with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Brian Bratton for the receiver’s second score of the year to give the Als a 10-3 lead in the first quarter.
AC was at it again in the second frame, this time finding Andrew Hawkins for a 19-yarder to cap off a seven play, 78-yard drive.
Even more exciting than the Hawkins touchdown, however, was the fact that both Jamel Richardson and Ben Cahoon each eclipsed the 1,000 yards receiving mark on the season – becoming the second and third Alouettes to do so this year, following Kerry Watkins earlier in the campaign.
Cahoon also extended his streak of consecutive games with at least one catch to 126.
The Alouettes now stand at 14-3-0; good enough to tie the franchise record for most wins in a season and have a chance to break that record next week against the Argonauts at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
The Alouettes will close out their regular season against the Argonauts at Toronto’s Rogers Centre next Saturday at 1 p.m. (RDS HD, TSN HD, CKAC SPORTS, CJAD 800).
Notes
Cahoon and Richardson both broke the 1,000 yards-receiving mark this season… Cahoon extended his own team records to eight-straight 1,000-yard season and nine in his career… Richardson hit the 1,000 yard plateau for the second time and his second year in a row… Taylor totalled over 300 yards today… The Als set a new team record by going 9-0 at home.
