MontrealAlouettes.com
MONTREAL – The Montreal Alouettes struck early and often on Sunday afternoon, grabbing an early lead over the Toronto Argonauts and never looking back in the 38-11 victory.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Larks and was the first for new Als new head coach Jacques Chapdelaine, making his head coaching debut in Montreal after replacing Jim Popp.
All three facets of the game were strong for Montreal, limiting Drew Willy and the Argonauts to just three field goals and a safety while also intercepting the new Argos quarterback.
The game began with a two-play drive, first a 48-yard reception by Kenny Stafford followed by a toe-drag touchdown from Samuel Giguere.
“You don’t script it that way but it’s kind of good that it does happen that way,” said Chapdelaine of his team’s opening drive. “It’s like anything else. You’ve got to understand that in a game, there’s going to be some good opportunities and some bad opportunities. The timing of that is unknown until you start playing the game.”
For a team still very much in the playoff picture in the crowded East Division, Chapdelaine cautioned his players to not get ahead of themselves following the win. Still, he couldn’t hide the excitement of winning his first game.
“It’s a great feeling. Like I told the players, you can’t get to the top of a ladder unless you take the first step. To some extent, it would have been easy for them to start thinking that we’ve been thrown right into the middle of the ladder. The reality is, let’s just focus on one game at a time.”
Chapdelaine brings 13 years of coaching experience with him to the position but has never been the head coach of a team. He quickly realized the difference between coaching practices and a regular season game.
“There was a certain level of anxiety. I’m not sure if it’s nervousness,” said the 54-year-old. “I haven’t called a game all year long and I haven’t called it for Rakeem so there was a certain amount of not being entirely sure how that was going to go. We had a little bit of a feeling out process with the adrenaline running. We did that throughout the week but playing a game with the adrenaline is a little bit different.”
Next week, the Als host the Edmonton Eskimos, a team from the West who currently occupy the Crossover playoff spot in the East. A win over the defending Grey Cup champions will only make the playoff picture more unclear but will be another step up the ladder that Chapdelaine described. But like their new head coach also mentioned, they will take it one game at a time.
