THE CANADIAN PRESS
EDMONTON – Brandon Whitaker was a one-man wrecking crew Friday, scoring three touchdowns as the Montreal Alouettes defeated the Edmonton Eskimos 34-21.
The Alouettes improved to 7-5 and moved two points back of East-leading Winnipeg with just their second win in five outings.
But they may have also suffered a loss as veteran quarterback Anthony Calvillo was knocked out of the game with a huge third-quarter hit, although he did remain on the Montreal bench.
Edmonton dropped to 7-5 and could fall out of a tie for first in the West if Calgary can defeat Hamilton on Sunday.
Montreal led 4-1 after the first quarter and stretched the lead to 11-1 early in the second as Calvillo capped off a long drive with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Whitaker.
Montreal scored a carbon copy touchdown four minutes later as a wide-open Whitaker reeled in another 23-yard touchdown pass from the veteran QB.
Edmonton finally got close enough to the Montreal end to record a 41-yard Derek Schiavone field goal with three minutes remaining in the half before Edmonton got back into the game on a Jason Armstead 72-yard punt return TD with 22 seconds remaining to cut Montreal’s lead to 18-11.
Edmonton had an impressive drive from their own four into Montreal territory in the third that included some impressive ground gains and two fumble recoveries, but only got a point out of it as Schiavone missed a 36-yard field goal. Montreal responded with a 42-yard Whyte field goal to go up by eight.
The Eskimos got to within one scoring play of the lead on a field goal with one minute left in the third to make it 21-15.
Then with just seven seconds, Calvillo looked to be badly injured following a massive hit by Marcus Howard following a fumble. Howard connected squarely with Calvillo’s left shoulder and the future Hall of Fame quarterback looked to have hit his head hard as he landed on the turf. On the play, Etienne Legare recovered the fumble for the Eskimos but Ricky Ray was intercepted by Seth Williams on the next play.
Adrian McPherson came in to replace Calvillo and he drove the team downfield to start the fourth quarter, culminating in a three-yard TD run by Whitaker for his third score.
The Als added a pair of field goals before Edmonton made the score look a little more respectable as Ray threw a short one-yard TD pass to Fred Stamps on the heels of a massive 74-yard passing play to Adarius Bowman.
Both teams return to the field next Friday as the Alouettes travel to Winnipeg and the Eskimos are in B.C. to face the Lions.
Notes: In their only previous meeting this season, Montreal beat Edmonton 27-4. Kicker Damon Duval had all of Edmonton’s points. Montreal won both games last season but Edmonton had won its home game against the Als the previous three seasons. … In the previous meeting in Montreal, Edmonton rushed for minus-one yard … The Alouettes came into the game having allowed only three 100-yard rushing games against, losing all three of those games. They had also allowed the fewest turnovers in the league at 17 … Eskimos slotback Jason Barnes returned to the lineup, joining Stamps, Bowman and Marcus Henry to give Edmonton its starting four receivers for the first time since they were 4-0.
