Zurkowsky: Sean Whyte's last-second field goal carries visiting Lions past Alouettes

Montreal Gazette

13 hours ago

Montreal Alouettes
By
Death, taxes and an Alouettes' loss against B.C.
The Lions have now defeated the Als five consecutive times following Saturday night's bizarre 21-20 victory at Molson Stadium before 21,144 spectators. Montreal hasn't defeated B.C. since Jason Maas became head coach in 2023 and hasn't scored a victory against that team since Sept. 9, 2022.
There are many reasons why a team loses, and there was enough blame to be shared on this night, as the Alouettes lost their second straight game without injured starting quarterback Davis Alexander. Montreal, which was threatening to run away with the East Division following a 3-0 start, now has a 3-2 record and is only two points ahead of Hamilton, with the Tiger-Cats holding a game in hand that will be made up next week, when the Als have a bye in the schedule.
Among the many culprits, the leading candidate must be Alouettes guard Pier-Oliver Lestage, who continues hurting the team with his lack of discipline.
With Montreal clinging to a 20-18 lead following Jose Maltos 's 24-yard field goal with 28.1 seconds remaining in regulation time, Lestage took a 15-yard misconduct penalty, forcing Maltos to kick off from his 15 as opposed to the 30. Maltos did his best to kick the daylights out of the ball, but the visitors still scrimmaged from their 43 with 22.1 seconds remaining.
Lions Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke, who returned from an oblique injury, passed twice to Keon Hatcher. Following an incompletion, a 13-yard pass to Jevon Cottoy moved the ball to the Montreal 36 with 0.2 seconds remaining. Sean Whyte then kicked the game-winning 43-yard field goal as time expired.
Lestage refused to speak to The Gazette postgame. The Alouettes only took five penalties for 50 yards. Instead, it was the Lions who were more undisciplined, taking 11 penalties for 146 yards.
'We talk about nothing they say, nothing they do,' Maas said. 'That means anything they say to you, anything they do to you, can't result in an action that would get a 15-yard penalty. He's remorseful about it. He's been very good about that, trying to be a disciplined player. He just let the emotions get the best of him. I always say it's a learning lesson. I hope this is the last time and he reiterated to me he learned his lesson there.
'That's as a team. If one guy does it that means everybody can learn a lesson. That 15 yards turned out to be a huge deal at the end. It's not anything he's intending to do. Sometimes the emotions get the best of you. I can understand that better than anybody. We'll have his back, but it has to be something we never let happen again to us.'
The Alouettes started well. After cornerback Kabion Ento intercepted an underthrown pass in the end zone for Hatcher, McLeod Bethel-Thompson, replacing Alexander, directed Montreal on a three-play, 80-yard scoring drive — capped by a 45-yard pass-and-run touchdown to Tyson Philpot, who broke numerous tackles.
But for the second consecutive game, Bethel-Thompson, 37, simply didn't do enough to put Montreal's offence in a position to win. He completed 15 of 23 passes for 192 yards and a second touchdown on a 14-yard pass to tailback Sean Thomas-Erlington just before halftime.
The Alouettes, however, were held to a pair of field goals following the intermission. Bethel-Thompson missed open receivers, didn't move the pocket frequently enough and had to leave the game temporarily following an eight-yard run in the third quarter when he left his upper-body exposed and was viciously tackled by linebacker Deontai Williams. Bethel-Thompson should know better at this stage of his career.
'It's a loss. There's no individual performances, it's just a loss,' Bethel-Thompson said. 'There were a lot of big plays we left out there. A lot of inches we couldn't quite accomplish. If we do that, if we don't kick ourselves in the foot, we should be pulling away with this game.
'I'll say it bluntly, I don't think 20 points is enough to win a game. We can do better on offence. We were right there on a lot of situations.'
The Als had 23 first downs and 312 yards' net offence, but ran only 50 plays and had the ball for 29:15. But at least — unlike last week at Hamilton — they ran the ball. Thomas-Erlington, playing the 100th game of his career, gained 76 yards on 11 carries. Montreal produced 120 yards along the ground.
Defensively, the Alouettes held B.C. to a pair of touchdowns. Rourke, the CFL's highest-paid player, scored on a two-yard run early in the second quarter. He also passed 46 yards to Stanley Berryhill III 10 minutes into the fourth quarter after safety Marc-Antoine Dequoy fell on the play.
'Bad footing. That's pretty much it,' Dequoy said. 'I tripped and let a big play happen. We didn't win, so I don't think (our pass defence) did great.'
Rourke, who missed the last two games with an oblique injury, shredded the Alouettes' pass defence, completing 22 of 36 for 352 yards.
There was an incident postgame when B.C.'s Kemoko Turay, a defensive-end, appeared to inexplicably try to enter Montreal's dressing room. He undoubtedly will be fined by the league.
Montreal's next game is July 17, at home, against Toronto. Alexander is expected to return that night. The Alouettes surely require his presence before this promising season further deteriorates.