‘No reason’ to panic after Als’ offence falters in opener
If Marc Trestman’s slogan when he coached the Alouettes was 57 plus three, offensive co-ordinator Khari Jones’s mantra better become 15 plus 45.
The Als were great in the first quarter of their opening game at British Columbia, scoring 10 points. But somehow the visitors couldn’t produce a single point the rest of the way.
“They moved the ball. Then we ... didn’t fall apart, but we couldn’t move the ball as well as we needed to,” Jones said on Tuesday, following practice. “Penalties hurt us a bit. Field position ... we moved it to a certain position and then kind of stumbled.
“We need better plays, play-calling, all of that. But we put up more yards than them. We did some quality things. It’s finding ways to put points on the board. We’ll get the formula,” Jones vowed. “It’s only one game. There’s no reason to be in panic mode.”
The Als did plenty of good things in their 22-10 loss. They had more first downs and net offence than did the Lions. The visitors also controlled the ball for more than 32 minutes. And quarterback Drew Willy passed for more yards than did Jonathon Jennings.
Willy completed his first six passes before failing to connect with Chris Williams more than midway through the second quarter. But Willy, who passed for 183 yards by halftime, threw for only 98 yards in the second half — a good chunk of that coming in garbage time, on the final drive, when Willy largely completed short passes to pad his statistics, but never attempted a throw into the end zone to make the final score more respectable.
And tailback Tyrell Sutton, who had 44 yards rushing at halftime, gained only 21 additional yards in the second half. They could have provided him with more touches. At the same time, the Lions frequently blitzed when they knew Montreal was in passing situations.
The Als took 14 penalties for 125 yards — more than the length of a Canadian Football League field — with a great many coming on special teams. Kicker Boris Bede was twice penalized for illegal punts that went out of bounds.
“I thought we did some good things in the game. Obviously, we did some things not so good,” head coach Mike Sherman said. “The penalty situation gave us bad field position a lot of the times. It’s not an excuse. We have to clean up those penalties.
“We didn’t score enough points, obviously, to win the game. That’s all that really matters. It seemed like we had a long field a lot of the time. We’re going to play on long fields and have to be able to handle that.”
In the fourth quarter, when the Als were trailing only 15-10, Willy made a poor decision, attempting to pass to Eugene Lewis, who was well defended by Garry Peters. The ball was intercepted and returned to the Montreal 45. With a short field with which to work, Jennings required just six plays to produce an insurance touchdown.
“He (Willy) pumped it once, thought he’d get the guy (Peters) to stop, beat him or lollipop it over the guy’s head. It just didn’t work. That was my interpretation,” Sherman said. “He was trying to make a play.”
Willy, now 12-27 throughout his career as a starter, said he should have taken a sack or thrown the ball away.
“I just didn’t get enough air on it. I probably should have eaten the ball, honestly,” he said. “I can make that play, but the percentages aren’t high. When the read wasn’t there on the field side, I tried to scramble and make a play. Sometimes the best play ’s the next play. Eat the ball, let us punt and keep field position for us.”
Willy completed 71.4 per cent of his passes, the average gain consisting of 11.24 yards. And while Jennings only missed on four of his 24 attempts, his average gain was a more modest 9.15 yards. The Als’ defence played well enough, Sherman said, that the offence should have been able to feed from it.
Jones said Willy produced a solid game and didn’t panic.
“He stayed in the pocket at times and threw the ball, which is what I want to see,” Jones said. “He can still throw the long ball a bit more when the opportunities present themselves and be calmer in the pocket.
“For a starting point, with a new offence and group around him, I thought he played pretty well. He threw the ball decently. He can still hit his spots even better.”
Notes: Second-year quarterback Antonio Pipkin was one of three players the Als released Tuesday, along with receiver Seydou Junior Haidara and tailback Amir Carlisle. Pipkin technically was the backup quarterback against B.C. with Matt Shiltz sidelined with a back injury. Until Shiltz recovers, Jeff Mathews inherits that role.
Veteran rush end John Bowman, who missed the opening game with an ankle injury, is expected to return Friday night when the Als host Winnipeg . ... Offensive tackle Ruben Carter has a separated shoulder and is expected to miss four to six weeks. He may be replaced by non-import Sean Jamieson . ... Sherman wouldn’t commit to dressing defensive tackle Faith Ekakitie, a former Blue Bomber and the first overall draft choice in 2017. He was signed by Montreal last Thursday, four days after his release.
Weputup more yards than them. We did some quality things. It’s finding ways to put points on the board.