Postgame: Blue Bombers vs Alouettes
CFL.ca staff
Winnipeg – Cato played well in his second career start but the Winnipeg Blue Bombers earned a bounce-back 25-23 victory over the Montreal Alouettes on Friday night in Winnipeg. He finished with 317 yards on 22-of-31 passing.
S.J. Green, meanwhile, finished with a career-high 180 yards on six catches to lead all receivers in the game, but it wasn’t enough to help the Alouettes secure a second straight win. Alouettes running back Tyrell Sutton, the league’s leading rusher entering Week 2 action, had the game’s only two offensive touchdowns on 74 rushing yards.
The Bombers had Cato running around early in this game, bringing him down for a pair of first-quarter sacks and pitching a shutout through the game’s first 15 minutes.
After a Boris Bede field goal for Montreal cut Winnipeg’s lead in half, the Bombers couldn’t get anything going offensively against the Alouettes’ stout defence, so they turned to their defence for the game’s first big play.
Down 12-3, the Alouettes needed an answer from their young starting pivot and Cato quickly answered. A deep ball to Green behind the Bomber secondary moved the Alouettes 51 yards deep into scoring territory. Then on a second down play, Sutton took the handoff and broke outside to just cross the pylon and score the Alouettes’ first touchdown.
The play was reviewed but upheld, capping off a 10-play, 80-yard drive to make it a 12-10 ballgame.
The Bombers and Alouettes exchanged field goals in the third to make it 22-13 through 45 minutes, but in the fourth Cato had the Montreal offence on the move yet again. The 23-year-old connected with a wide open Green over the middle and the veteran turned it up field for a gain down to the Winnipeg 32.
After back-to-back completions to slippery running back Stefan Logan to move the sticks, Cato took off for a first down on his own two legs down inside the Winnipeg 10. Then the Alouettes went right back to their money man in the red zone as Sutton capped off the drive with an eight-yard touchdown run to make it a two-point ballgame early in the fourth, 22-20.
The Alouettes and Cato look to get back in the win column a week from now vs. Hamilton on Thursday night, a key early-season East Division battle. Don’t forget, $2 hot-dogs will be available!
