Ed Philion
CFL.ca
As we all know, the Alouettes are in the midst of their first half exam and the report card, when sent home to mom and dad, would probably get you a slap upside your head. Of course, the old man tells you he ain’t raisin’ no fool for a son and that he expects more out of you. Heck, since you started school you always got A’s & B’s from whatever teacher you had; well maybe there was that “one” who wasn’t much of a teacher and as a result you had to settle for an F for the first time. However, you reassure the parents that come finals and the end of the year, all that studying and hard work is going to pay off.
Well, we all knew the Alouettes, at some point in the season, were going to be tested after starting the season 2-0 with convincing wins over East Division cellar dwellers Hamilton and Winnipeg. Chances were that those tests would come once Montreal left the relatively soft East Division and started playing the big boys out west. I think it’s safe to say that the balance of power in the CFL has gradually shifted to the ‘Wild West’ where any one of four teams have a great shot at claiming top prize in the division.
To me, the Alouettes are better than a .500 football team, who, after Friday night in Vancouver could be 2-3 and in the midst of a three game losing streak. Obviously, the biggest hurdle to date will come on Friday night, since no Alouette team has won in BC since 2000. The Als are better than their box score would indicate because this year the players and coaching staff are showing that mistakes aren’t repeated, lessons are quickly learned and coaches and players have respect for one another.
A great example of this happened last Saturday night in Regina. Special Teams coach Scott Squires was well aware of the struggles his kick return teams were having.
What kind of struggles? Dead last in any significant category.
Easy answer right; get rid of the returner and bring in a new one. Seems simple enough. Not so fast – instead Coach Squires reshaped a lot of his returns that week with an emphasis on north and south wedge returns to try and encourage Jason Armstead to get straight up field and put his offense in better field position.
Although the experiment didn’t quite work out as planned, I can bet you those coaches earned a tremendous amount of respect from not only Armstead but the other players as well. Why? Because for a player to know that the coaches aren’t going to throw you under the bus even though your play would justify it, winning coaches try to instil and build confidence not destroy it.
That is just one of a number of positive things that continue to come from that locker room.
Do I think this Alouettes team has enough to dominate the East Division? No. But the group is well coached and are beginning to find the respect for each other that allows them to hang in there with the big boys. If you hang in games long enough you just might be able to smack some of those other teams upside the head.
Ed Philion played eight seasons along the defensive line for the Montreal Alouettes. He was a three-time East Division All-Star and helped the Alouettes win the Grey Cup in 2002. Currently, he is a member of the Alouettes’ broadcast team on CJAD Radio in Montreal.
