By Jack Bedell,
MontrealAlouettes.com
Hammond, LA – Last week, I spent a little time focusing on the Alouettes whose individual performances I thought were good enough to put them in line for CFL player awards. To be sure, this season has produced more than its share of All-Star performances from team leaders like Anthony Calvillo, Anwar Stewart, and Damon Duval.
But no team racks up 14 wins and a perfect 9-0 record at home without serious effort from its entire roster. Every player has to make a significant contribution for a team to succeed like the Als have this year.
Last Sunday’s big win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was a perfect example of how well a team can execute when all of its parts are playing on-point, focused football.
Well out of the game’s spotlight, game-changing contributions were being made by players like former All-Star Stanford Samuels, whose crucial blocks on kick returns led directly to big plays on special teams and big-time shifts in field position.
Depth across the board
Luc Brodeur-Jourdain stepped into the interior of the Als’ offensive line when Bryan Chiu’s absence created a shuffling of personnel and had a phenomenal game keeping Calvillo clean against Winnipeg’s dangerous D-line. The fact that Brodeur-Jourdain’s name wasn’t mentioned all day is a testament to how well he really performed.
Other players, like receiver Brian Bratton, stepped up when their numbers were called to have huge impacts on the game as well. The stat line might only show three catches for 48 yards next to Bratton’s name, but two of those catches moved the chains in crucial situations and the third resulted in a major that was really the first body blow landed by the Als’ offence in the tilt.
The same could be said for Andrew Hawkins and Kerry Carter. Both players provided absolutely essential yards to keep the Als in control of the game.
On defence, Darrell Campbell and Shawn Mayne stepped up when needed, too, to make stops that kept the Bombers stymied all day.
Really, the list could go on all day.
Eleven guys blocking to spring Larry Taylor for that 115-yard missed field goal return for a TD, Étienne Boulay running Jovon Johnson down repeatedly to negate Johnson’s impact on Winnipeg’s special teams, Billy Parker snagging a pick to drive the nail in the coffin… These are all parts of the equation for the team’s excellence.
For me, what’s truly special about this season’s Alouettes squad goes well beyond the play of the team’s stars. It’s the sum of all the team’s parts, from ownership-down, that makes me most proud of how the season has gone.
And that makes me sure there’s quite a ways left to go…
