THE CANADIAN PRESS
MONTREAL — The Montreal Alouettes remain undefeated, but now they know they have a dangerous rival in the CFL East Division in the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Anthony Calvillo passed for 404 yards with touchdown tosses to Jamel Richardson and Brian Bratton to lead the Alouettes to a 21-8 victory over the Tiger-Cats that was closer than the score indicated on Thursday night.
Damon Duval added two field goals and single for Montreal (4-0), which laboured to score for the first time this season after averaging 44.3 points per game through their first three contests.
“We knew there’d be resistance tonight,” Montreal coach Marc Trestman said. “Everyone has this picture of how things are going to turn out, but the fact is you have to play the game and this was a highly competitive game.”
The TD passes gave Calvilllo 335 in his career, moving past Saskatchewan great Ron Lancaster into second place all-time behind Damon Allen, who had 394 in 23 seasons. His 48-yard TD toss to Richardson in the second quarter got the milestone and earned a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 20,202.
Nick Setta had two early field goals for Hamilton (2-2), which was held to only a safety in the fourth quarter by a Montreal defence that has allowed only 61 points in four games.
The Ticats, who won only three games all of last season, wasted a chance to tie Montreal for first in the division, but showed that big wins in the early season over British Columbia and Winnipeg were no flukes.
“We know we’re a good team — that’s one thing we can take from this,” said Ticats quarterback Quinton Porter.
For a second week in a row, Kevin Glenn relieved Porter in the second half and had more success than the starter in moving the ball forward although, unlike a week ago against Winnipeg, failed to score any TDs and pull off a comeback win.
“They get good pressure on the quarterback and they play a tight man-to-man (on pass coverage),” said Porter. “That’s something we have to get better at.”
Porter was pulled after his bomb intended for Chris Davis in the third quarter was picked off by safety Etienne Boulay.
Coach Marcel Bellefeuille said he and his staff will review film of the game and decide early next week whether Porter or Glenn will start a home game July 31 against British Columbia.
Together, they completed 24 passes for a healthy 353 yards. Porter had 155 passing yards and Glenn had 198.
“I don’t think you’ll see anything horrible on the tape, but that interception I threw was my fault,” added Porter. “I lost the safety and threw it right to him, so that’s something I’ve got to correct.
“If I play, I’ll be the guy out there and if not, I’ll be rooting Kevin on.”
The Ticats have not won in Montreal in 10 games since a 29-26 victory on Oct. 20, 2002, but Porter said “we’ll have a few more chances to play them and we have a good chance of beating them. At least we know we were in the game.”
Bellefeuille added: “We came out here to try to win a game and we didn’t do that. That’s the bottom line. We’re not out here to get respect, we’re here to win a game.”
The Tiger-Cats were the first team to score first against Montreal this season and led 6-0 early in the second quarter on Setta field goals of 41 and 15 yards before the Alouettes offence caught fire.
Calvillo hit Richardson for a 48-yard TD pass on a four-play 82-yard drive 3:57 into the second quarter, then capped a three-play 65-yard march with an 18-yard pass and run TD to Bratton.
Duval added a single and a 47-yard field goal to put the home side up 18-6 at half time.
Hamilton’s best chance in the half came early in the second quarter, when Preachae Rodriguez managed to keep one foot in bounds for a 47-yard play to the Montreal seven, but the Ticats settled for a field goal.
Boulay, playing after Mathieu Proulx was injured, intercepted a Porter pass at the Montreal 12, but a time-consuming 14-play drive stalled when Calvillo’s pass was picked off by Dennis Haley at the Hamilton three.
With Glenn in the pocket, Rodriguez’s lunging 28-yard reception helped Hamilton get to the Montreal one, but a run was stopped and Robert Pavlovic couldn’t hang onto a pass on third down in the end zone.
However, the field position helped force Duval to concede a safety with 5:28 left to play. Montreal took a penalty on the play and had to kick off from its own 10, but the defence came up big and forced Hamilton to turn the ball over on downs again.
“We turned the ball over on downs early, we had an interception and those are things that in a close game are going to come back and hurt us,” said Calvillo. “We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball.
“I feel we haven’t improved in that area — leaving points on the field.”
Trestman said Proulx suffered a hip pointer but may be ready to play next Thursday at Edmonton.
