Defense, what else? The Toronto Argonauts were, by far, the best team in the Canadian Football League before meeting Noel Thorpe’s unit. With a 38-17 win, the Montreal Alouettes will advance to the Gray Cup for the first time in 13 years.
All week, the Alouettes players were reminded that they were inferior to those of the Argonauts. That they arrived with the label of underestimated. That their chances were slim against a team that posted a record of 16 wins and two losses in the regular season.
In enemy territory, few people paid much for the skin, or plumage, of Larks. The logic was to see them stripped at the end of this Eastern final.
And Marc-Antoine Dequoy was fed up. On Friday, he told the media that he was tired of preconceptions. So, the defensive back responded in the best possible way.
In the fifth play of the game, the defensive back intercepted a pass from Chad Kelly. Hair in the wind, facing the breeze from Lake Ontario, the Quebecer brought the ball back 101 yards to score his team’s first touchdown. His third of the season, what’s more.
And this blow was the beginning of a match during which the Alouettes’ defense was breathtaking and beyond reproach. The Argos, the second most productive team in Canadian football during the regular season, scored just 17 points in the most significant game of the season.
In fact, the narrative is simple. All the players with the potential to make a difference in the Montreal defensive unit stood up.
All year long, this brigade was imperial, propelling the Alouettes into the playoffs and saving an often anemic attack. There was no way it was going to change at a Gray Cup game.
Completely disconcerted, and visibly powerless, the Toronto quarterback was unable to establish anything. Kelly’s lack of experience in the playoffs will undoubtedly have been a factor, as he broke in the second quarter. The pressure from the Alouettes players was constant, effective and lethal.
It was probably the only way to win against such a devastating attack. You had to be perfect. And the defensive unit was.
On the other hand, history also repeated itself for the attack led by Cody Fajardo.
Even if the Alouettes are celebrating while waiting for their flight back to Montreal before heading back to Hamilton, one fact remains: if it weren’t for the performance of the defense, this game would have been much closer. The attack was not extraordinary, far from it. Usually, a team that scores a single offensive touchdown in the semifinals does not reach the final.
The truth is that the unit led by Anthony Calvillo is doing pretty well under the circumstances. She entered enemy territory for the first time in the game with 7:51 left in the second quarter.
Tyler Snead was clever in avoiding a tackle a yard short of the end zone before entering it midway through the third quarter. But this sequence is Fajardo’s only real moment of celebration in this match.
The Alouettes offensive line, however, did not do its quarterback any favors. Fajardo suffered seven quarterback sacks during the game. This was to be expected, because habits always come back at a gallop. And this gap marked the Sparrows’ regular season.
Even if the players are aware of this weakness, it was time to party on Saturday night in Toronto.
The Argonauts players will undoubtedly take a huge step back, because there will be nothing joyful in reviewing and analyzing this meeting during which nothing worked. The Argos have hit their Titanic. And the shipwreck was long and painful.
Kelly will have thrown five interceptions in the first three quarters. He caused 12 in 18 regular season games.
In panic, he played too often in a desperate manner to hope to win. Like his interception against Darnell Sankey in his own territory, where while running to the left, he attempted an overthrow pass right in the center instead of taking the sack. And the result was not to his advantage.
And twice the quarterback was unable to convert third downs and short. A game to forget for the highest earner in the CFL.
Even A. J. Ouellette, the most dangerous running back in the CFL, has been invisible.
Unlike the Alouettes, the Toronto attack was ineffective. And above all unfit to carry out the work of proactive defense. And that’s where the match was played. And that’s why the Argonauts won’t be in Hamilton despite a historic season.