(Montreal) The Montreal Alouettes will be able to count on reinforcements in defense for their game on Friday, against the Toronto Argonauts. But they must again try to solve their problems of granted bags.
Jason Maas’ roster only has days to make these changes, with the Alouettes (2-2) needing to quickly turn the page on their horrific outing at B.C. Place on Sunday when they lost 35- 19 ahead of the BC Lions.
This very short week will have allowed the Birds to hold only one training session worthy of the name, Wednesday, on the synthetic surface between the Olympic and Saputo stadiums. It is also a short time to heal the small wounds that mark a season.
“Having a really long flight home doesn’t help either,” said quarterback Cody Fajardo, who banged his right hand against a teammate’s helmet in the fourth quarter against the Lions, in addition to being hit hard in the right hip on another play.
“I’m walking and I’m the healthiest I can be today,” he said. The thing with the small weeks is that you can quickly forget a bad performance. »
However, this session revealed that the Alouettes will be able to count on the return to play of defensive back Ciante Evans, who trained with the first unit of coordinator Noel Thorpe.
“Anytime you can play, you want to play,” Evans said. It’s hard to be on the sidelines. It’s painful to see the guys struggling and not being able to help them. »
However, Maas believes that he sees improvements and that the figures do not say everything about this poor performance, although he assures that he does not wish to see the Argos (3-0) take advantage of as many opportunities to join Fajardo Friday.
“Like I said last week, when you look at the number of sacks, I understand people are concerned right now,” the head coach said, in a much better mood than a week earlier. In the end, as all the attention is on it, it’s the only one we think about instead of thinking about the games that went well or the task at hand. It gets into the heads of the players, but also of the coaches.
“You have to let go. You have to focus on what you control. We played against some of the best defenses in the league, especially their defensive front. We believe that we will be able to do the job every week. The opponent will also make plays. […] What I don’t want is for everyone to be paralyzed by this. »
Right guard Kristian Matte, who had spoken very harshly after the game, also softened his analysis of the Alouettes’ performance on Wednesday. He said watching the game again brought a new perspective to the performance of the Alouettes’ offensive unit.
“After the meeting, I was frustrated, there is no other way to put it. I may have spoken a little too soon, he admitted. We watched the tapes and we’re really not far away. It’s not just the line though, it’s everyone together: the five guys up front, the quarterback, the running back and the receivers who are able to stand out as well.
“Right now it’s just a little thing missing, but we’re not far off. […] It’s full of little details that lead to bags. We are proud and we want to improve. It is clear that we see the statistics and that we are not happy. »
Since the start of the season, the Alouettes have been talking about a lack of communication and a lack of cohesion on offense. Luc Brodeur-Jourdain, offensive line coach, sees improvements on this point.
“It’s not the same issues. In the last game, we had a sack on a veiled pass to [William] Stanback, but an opposing player tripped him. On the line, we cheat by letting the players pass to give space to the ball carrier. When he is no longer there, it gives a bag.
“On another, we wanted to take a pitch instead of making a ground play, but Cody and William came into contact. The defensive players come in with their momentum and it creates a sack. These things are piling up on score sheets and it’s disappointing. Where I’m most bothered, relative to our offense in general, is that our ground game hasn’t blossomed yet. It puts us in second and long down situations: it benefits the opposing defenses. »
“These are two aspects that come back to me as a coach: I am responsible for protection and the ground game. It’s up to me to make things better. I work a lot on it. […] Now it takes performance on the pitch. »
