Montreal Alouettes Alone In First Place

The Alouettes, at 8-8, are a game ahead of both the Argonauts and Tiger Cats who are at 7-9. A win in either of the Alouettes final two games against Toronto and Hamilton will clinch them a playoff spot.

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Against Ottawa on Friday night, the offence and defence did just enough to win. It wasn’t pretty, but they held on for the 23-17 victory.

Jonathan Crompton was 17/29, 216 yards with a touchdown and interception. He also spread the ball around, with no receiver getting more than three catches. The top receivers were Duron Carter, S.J. Green and Brandon London, which is exactly as it should be.

They also got Tyrell Sutton to make an impact with 77 yards on 17 carries. Sean Whyte hit on all three of his field goals. It doesn’t seem like the team is losing a beat after losing Brandon Whitaker.

On defence, Bear Woods is playing so well, it’s hard to remember the person he is replacing: Shea Emry. Emry was and still is a great player but Woods is playing so well, he may be ahead of where Emry was last season. That was something I don’t think anyone thought possible when Emry signed with the Argonauts over the winter.

He had 10 tackles, a sack, an interception and a forced fumble. He is playing in a linebacking corps with Chip Cox, a defence with John Bowman and he may be the best of all of them. It’s almost as if he came out of nowhere. There was a time when he had to step in for an injured Emry last year. He has improved so much.

The Alouettes now get set to host the Argonauts who they shut down last week. It is their final home game of the season and could make things easy for themselves with a win. The two teams behind them have a game against Ottawa, so Montreal needs to take care of their own games and can’t rely on outside help.

It will be a noon start on Sunday, so prepare accordingly instead of the normal 1:00 p.m. start.

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