Bridge gets first start, first TD pass, but Als lose in overtime

MONTREAL— What could have been a dud of a finale to the 2015 CFL season ended with a drama-filled final quarter.

A potential rare win by a Canadian starting quarterback was wiped out by a furious fourth-quarter comeback as the Saskatchewan Roughriders salvaged some pride with a 30-24 overtime victory over the Montreal Alouettes on Sunday.

The Roughriders trailed 24-6 early in the fourth quarter when quarterback Brett Smith came off the bench and threw touchdown strikes to Ryan Smith and Weston Dressler, as well as a two-point convert. Smith later hit Dressler with a touchdown pass in overtime, while Montreal failed to score.

The overtime heroics were set up when John Chick recovered a fumble on a botched Montreal play and Smith led a drive that ended with Tyler Crapigna tying the game 24-24 with a 39-yard field goal with eight seconds left on the clock.

The late theatrics made a meaningless game between teams with a combined record of 8-26 surprisingly entertaining.

“Can’t express enough how proud I am to play with these guys, and for Rider Nation,” Smith posted on Twitter after the game. “This season is over, learn from it, and moving on to ’16.”

The result spoiled an impressive day for Montreal’s Canadian quarterback, Brandon Bridge, who threw touchdown passes to Tyrell Sutton and B.J. Cunningham. Anthony Boone also ran in a score while Boris Bede had a field goal.

“I liked my first start,” Bridge said. “Obviously, I would have liked the result to be different. I suppose we are going to learn from this match this off-season. It’s disappointing. I would have liked to finish the job.”

Bridge was the first Canadian to start a CFL game since Giulio Caravatta for British Columbia in 1996. The Mississauga product fell short of becoming the first Canadian to start and win a game since Calgary’s Greg Vavra in 1985.

Both teams had been eliminated for some time, though Montreal hung around longer than Saskatchewan. Despite being well behind Ottawa, Hamilton and Toronto in the East, the Alouettes threatened B.C. for much of the season with the possibility of the first East team to cross over into the West for the playoffs.

The Alouettes (6-12) and the Roughriders (3-15) used many backups and young players.

“There are a lot of things we’ve accomplished this year, we’ve overcome. We gave ourselves a chance to win a lot of games, even though we fell short,” Alouettes head coach and general manager Jim Popp said.