Ticats at Alouettes Blowout Aftermath

Well that was ugly. I certainly thought Montreal had a chance, being at home and having an excellent defence. I didn't expect that blowout.

Montreal got ahead early and continued rolling throughout the first quarter. They benefited from some penalty calls that kept drives alive or gave good field position. Mainly the Montreal defence was the reason. Constantly blitzing, the Cats didn't have an answer in the first half (nor much of one in the second half either, although when LeFevour was in they were more effective). The Cats were sacked five times total in the game even though it seemed like it was more.

One could blame the line, but the pressure came from Montreal sending extra defenders, so some of the issue was not getting the ball away quickly. Having both Ellingson and Tasker injured was unfortunate as both are good for getting open inside and catching balls in tight coverage. Hopefully one of them is back next week. Having Simmons back from injury at tackle would help as well.

Montreal also had excellent tackling. The Cats had virtually no yards after first contact, while the Alouettes had a decent amount. Similarly on special teams, the Cats had little in the way of return yards, while Montreal had some decent returns, including some instances where the returner really should have been tackled.

One bright spot is that the Alouettes quarterback Troy Smith wasn't actually very good. He had 247 yards on 17 passes versus 35 attempts. Generally teams don't win very many games when the quarterback had less than a 50% completion. That didn't stop TSN commentators Chris Cuthbert and Glenn Suitor from coverage of Smith bordering on fellatio. I expect that from Rod Black, but generally CFL fans aren't stupid, you tell us once he won a Heismann and we will remember it. Smith did have three TDs versus no picks, but he had numerous passes that while hard thrown were no where near catchable. So that's a positive for the Cats at least for next week.

I'm assuming that Kent Austin will have the team fired up for next week at least and also will have looked at the tape and found some ways to adjust. The Cats really need to win this.