INTERCEPTIONS COSTLY IN ALOUETTES’ LOSS
Backup quarterbacks struggle as Adams, Harris both throw pick-sixes
We know Darian Durant will be the Alouettes’ starting quarterback this season. And football fans can only hope the veteran remains healthy. This team might be in serious trouble should anything happen to him.
Head coach Jacques Chapdelaine will have to officially name a backup to Durant before the regular season begins. But none among Vernon Adams, Jacory Harris or rookie Matthew Shiltz did anything Thursday night to solidify their position or make management’s decision any easier.
Actually, maybe Shiltz did. He was the only one who managed to direct the Als to a touchdown in their 24-20 loss to the Toronto Argonauts in the teams’ opening exhibition game before an announced 5,532 spectators at BMO Field.
Shiltz, who played the fourth quarter, connected with rookie George Johnson on a 13-yard score at 13:07, then passed to him for a two-point convert. It capped an eight-play, 56-yard drive. Of course by that time, any starter who dressed for this one had long been replaced. Shiltz actually scored a five-yard touchdown on his first Canadian Football League drive, only to have the score nullified by a holding penalty to offensive lineman Sean Jamieson.
Shiltz completed six of 10 passes for 69 yards.
“Getting those game reps, especially for the younger guys, is important,” said Shiltz, who played collegiately at Butler University but was out of the game last season. “Personally, I think I still have a lot of things to improve on, but the game slowed down for me. I was able to work through my progressions. I did some good things and some bad things.”
Adams, who should be ahead of the others, considering he’s in his second year and completed last season as the Als’ starter after Kevin Glenn was benched and subsequently traded, had mixed results.
He started against the Argos, completing only four of 12 passes for 64 yards. He was intercepted twice. One, a terrible sidearm throw that never should have been attempted, was intercepted by Akwasi Owusu-Ansah and returned 41 yards for a touchdown less than five minutes into the game. Most of the other time, Adams and the Als failed to generate a first down.
“I started off really slow. I would have rather started off fast and finished strong,” said Adams, acquired from British Columbia for the Als’ first-round draft choice last May — a trade engineered by former general manager Jim Popp, who now has the same position in Toronto.
“Those two-and-outs early hurt us. It just gets everybody out of their groove,” Adams continued.
But in Adams’s defence, there were some dropped passes. When he finally started to generate some offence at the end of the first quarter, following a pair of 20-yard completions to B.J. Cunningham and Devon Bailey, the latter saw the ball come out of his hands early in the second period at the Argos’ one-yard line. It went directly to Qudarius Ford for an interception.
“It was just a lack of concentration,” said Bailey, a former first-round draft choice of Edmonton who signed with Montreal in April as a free agent. “You get down there and get a little too antsy. The No. 1 rule for a receiver is keep your eye on the ball the whole time. I took it off that split second, kicked it out of my own hands. No excuses. I’ve just got to be better.”
Things didn’t get much better when Harris replaced Adams well into the second quarter.
His first pass attempt as an Alouette was intended for Seydou Junior Haidara. But Harris telegraphed the throw, to his left. It was intercepted by cornerback Aaron Berry and returned 80 yards for a touchdown.
Two pick-sixes in one game. “The first was a bad ball,” admitted Harris, signed by the Als as a free agent after playing one game over three seasons with Hamilton. “I could have made the tackle, too, but we’ll live to see another day. I came back in and things finally started to at least pick up.”
Harris completed nine of 15 passes for 110 yards.
“Things didn’t start well, but that’s football,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do, especially on my part. I have to make sure I’m more of a leader on the field.”
There’s no reason to panic, of course. The opening exhibition game, traditionally, has been reserved for the rookies in the CFL. It would be unfair to say the Als fielded their B-team, but along with Durant, they were missing receivers Ernest Jackson and Nik Lewis, along with tailback Tyrell Sutton. Montreal did dress its starting offensive line to give the quarterbacks a fighting chance. Defensively, rushend John Bowman, along with linebackers Chip Cox and Kyries Hebert received the night off.
“For the most part, Vernon and Jacory did OK as far as their eyes were concerned,” Chapdelaine said. “They had some dropped balls. That didn’t help. At the same time they each threw an interception. In Jacory’s case the ball was behind. In Vernon’s case he forced it. The decision wasn’t great.
“Most of the time they managed situations well. You had young receivers there and maybe some people were a little bit nervous.”
If there was one positive, Boris Bede, who struggled and temporarily lost his job last season, kicked all four field goal attempts — including two from 48 and 46 yards.