Jeff Perrett: The Most Outstanding All-Star Snub

I wrote about this briefly yesterday that Montreal Alouettes offensive tackle Jeff Perrett could have been the most outstanding offensive lineman in the East Division while not being named to the All-Star team.

Today, it was official. Perrett beat out all-star tackles Josh Bourke for the Alouettes nomination and Toronto’s Chris Van Zeyl for the East’s nomination.

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It is hard to judge an offensive lineman, and often it is a team-achievement award as comparing two linemen is very difficult. If Bourke had won the team nomination, it could very easily be him in this spot.

Perrett won the honour by being the stalwart of the Alouettes offensive line and won the team nomination which was voted on by the Montreal media. League-wide voters may have focused more on the “blind-side” left tackle Bourke than the right tackle Perrett.

The Alouettes No. 54 will now go up against Calgary’s Brett Jones for the CFL’s most outstanding offensive lineman.

I remember covering the Alouettes during Perrett’s first season with the Alouettes (2007). He was the biggest offensive lineman on the team at that time (he is now listed at 6’7, 320 pounds).

He was simply huge. You get used to offensive linemen being big players, but Perrett put that to another level. He was a third round pick in the 2006 draft out of Tulsa.

QUICK HITS

• The Alouettes are struggling to sell playoff tickets for Sunday’s East Final. They expect between 15-16,000 which would be their smallest crowd of the entire season by about 3,000 fans. By contrast, Hamilton has almost sold out their 24,000 seat stadium for next week’s East Final.
• There is a Montreal connection in the B.C. locker room. Mark Washington is B.C’s defensive coordinator and was a halfback for the Alouettes in 2000 when the Alouettes won their last playoff game at Molson Stadium. That year, the Alouettes lost the Grey Cup to B.C who finished the season with an 8-10 record after starting 0-5.

This game has many implications for the Montreal franchise. They have not won a playoff game since the 2010 Grey Cup, losing three straight playoff games. However, that might be the skeptical approach.

The three playoff games they lost could be argued they were one play away: A double overtime loss to Hamilton in 2011, a Brian Bratton end zone drop in 2012 that could have forced overtime and a blatant pass interference call last year that wasn’t called to bring up overtime (and create a rule change in the offseason).

Now, this team – which it must be said had a successful season just to make the playoffs – has underachieved and has a reputation to not win the big games in November. A lot of this team has never won a playoff game and this is a team that will likely have to replace several key players next year.