Despite record, Als still upbeat at practice
“It’s a great day to be alive!” one of the players hollered Friday morning as the Alouettes went through a team stretching exercise at the start of practice outside Olympic Stadium.
It was indeed a great October day with sunny skies and a temperature of 8 C when the two-hour practice started. With a lot of hooting and hollering throughout the fast-paced practice, it was hard to believe the 3-11 Alouettes have the worst record in the CFL.
“A lot of my frustration is we have a good locker-room of guys,” head coach Mike Sherman said after last Sunday’s 34-29 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Molson Stadium. “They work hard in practice. They have a lot of energy, they enjoy practising, they enjoy their teammates, they enjoy going to work . ... You would think I would have to have whips and chains out there to get them to do something. They come out and they’re ready to go and they give everything they have at practice. I constantly tell them that just because we practise well as a team, it has to translate to the game.”
It obviously hasn’t and the Alouettes will face a huge challenge on Thanksgiving Monday at Molson Stadium when they play the 11-2 Calgary Stampeders (1 p.m., TSN, RDS, TSN 690 Radio), who have the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders also have the best offence in the CFL, averaging 32.1 points per game, and the best defence, allowing an average of 20.3. The Alouettes rank last in both categories, scoring an average of only 17.6 points per game while allowing 31.1.
“You’re playing ... a one-game season every week,” Sherman said after Friday’s practice. “And so what a great opportunity this is to play one of the top, if not the top team in the CFL. I’m sure they expect to win and we want to be able to knock them off and so we’re doing everything we can. If we can just focus on one game at a time, I think we’ll be able to keep the attitude the way we want to keep it and keep them working hard.”
Sherman said one of the most frustrating things during his first season as a CFL head coach has been watching the Alouettes beat themselves.
“That’s been our problem most of the season, whether it be missed tackles or penalties or a missed block or a dropped ball here and there,” he said. “It could be a number of things. But just don’t beat ourselves. I can live with anything in this business as long as we don’t beat ourselves. If somebody comes up and thumps us, they thump us. But if we thump ourselves, that’s disheartening and we’ve done that a few times.”
The Alouettes have been taking a thumping for a long time, dating to their last playoff appearance in 2014. Since then, they have 19-49 record. The Alouettes are 1-6 at home this season and since their last playoff appearance have a 10-24 record at Molson Stadium. Long gone are the days when the Alouettes won back-to-back Grey Cups in 2009 and 2010 while posting a 16-2 record at home in front of sellout crowds.
Molson Stadium was the place to be in Montreal back then, but seats are easy to find now and a lot of them are empty, even after the arrival of quarterback Johnny Manziel. The Thanksgiving game will be Family Day with fans who purchase an adult ticket entitled to buy another ticket for $5 for a child age 12 and younger in limited quantities. That’s one way to try to get fans to Molson Stadium. Winning is a better way.
The Alouettes are a franchise that needs a rebuild and/or a reset much more than the Canadiens. For all the heat Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin takes, the Habs have a winning regular-season record since he took over (239-168-52) while the Alouettes are 6-26 since Kavis Reed became their general manager. Acquiring Manziel was a major rebuilding move, but Johnny Football can’t do it alone. Whether it’s football or hockey, a good attitude will only take you so far without talent.
“At the beginning of the season, we were trying to find out who our quarterback was and we kept on getting guys hurt ... so that made it very challenging as far as who you are as a team, what your identity is on offence,” Sherman said. “That’s kind of been settled down. I think we’re in good shape at the quarterback situation right now not just with John, but with the other guys as well. So I feel good about that.”
We’ll see how good the Alouettes are feeling after Monday’s game against the Stampeders. But after practice Friday, a loyal fan showed up with two large trays of brownies she had baked for the players.
It really was a great day.