By Francois Ferland,
MontrealAlouettes.com
Montreal – Under the watchful eye of head coach Marc Trestman, it has been a rarity to see the Als execute a fake on the special teams front. However, in the Alouettes’ 22-19 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Oct. 17, Trestman veered off his conservative road and elected to surprise the Bombers with a fake punt.
As exciting as it may be for the McGill faithful, try and imagine what was going through the mind of the man who was chosen to execute the fake, Matthieu Proulx.
“It was the first time in my entire career that I was asked to carry the ball,” said Proulx who was anxiously standing in front of the decoy kicker Colt David awaiting the snap. I got some great blocks from my teammates and managed to shed some tackles for the first down,” added the sixth year Alouette.
Play structure
How does one execute a fake punt without showing any signs to your opponent? According to Proulx, it’s all about consistency.
“We have to make sure that everything stays the same, as if we’re actually about to kick the ball downfield,” he said. The only difference is the cadence being used. When I heard the code and realized what was about to happen, I felt a great jolt of adrenaline.”
Proulx also noted that it all depends on who’s on the field. Should Proulx not been on the field, the coaches may have elected to pass instead of run the ball.
“We also wanted to take advantage of the weather. The wind was blowing against us so there was no way they could have imagined we were going to run a fake,” said Proulx.
The fake punt is a perfect example of how everyone on the field has a specific job to do, and it’s safe to say that on this particular fake, it was a job well done for the Alouettes.
