Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
The way the Montreal Alouettes piled it on against the Ottawa REDBLACKS in Week 9, you could be forgiven if you suggested they were just fine without getting some of their injured starters back on offence.
I’m sure they’d say thanks for the generous compliment but that they’d rather have a generous complement.
That’s what the Alouettes are poised to have, outside of the sublime S.J. Green, the receiver lost to the team for the year after suffering a knee injury in the second game of the season. As Montreal gets set to host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Week 10, they are getting high calibre starters Tyrell Sutton and Kenny Stafford back and that’ll do nicely, thanks.
So happens that the second game of the season is where running back Sutton (knee sprain) and receiver Stafford (broken toe) were also lost.
RELATED:
» Preview: Bombers aim for fourth straight vs. Als
» By the Numbers: Alouette offence coming to life
» Game Notes: A look at Week 10
» Buy: Winnipeg at Montreal tickets
Tyrell Sutton’s return to the lineup should boost the Alouettes (Jason Halstead/CFL.ca)
That Montreal offence has been searching for answers without three pretty important contributors available. For the most part, it has shown.
The Ottawa game aside, Montreal’s offensive production in the absence of Sutton and Stafford was, to put it charitably, modest, outside of thrashing the CFL’s bottom-ranked defence in Saskatchewan during a Week 6 rout.
Now it might be that, in that 43-19 win over Ottawa, the Als’ offence found the design, the execution and the flow it needs to move the ball in decent fashion for the rest of the season, regardless of returning the CFL’s top rusher from 2015 to the backfield and a breakout receiver to their line-up.
I doubt they’d want to test that theory, though. Because as impressive as that performance against Ottawa was, getting two valuable starters back in uniform can only serve to add a couple of important dimensions to the Montreal attack. That means whatever optimism they’ve established in that victory should only be fortified.
In Sutton’s absence, the Alouettes fairly well ditched any kind of running game. Brandon Rutley is a fine replacement but it seems head coach Jim Popp and offensive coordinator Anthony Calvillo decided he was of better use as a short pass receiver and in that he did not let them down.
Sutton, who came on like gangbusters down the stretch of the 2015 season to wrestle the rushing title away from Andrew Harris and Jerome Messam, is very good in that capacity, too, averaging 7.8 yards per catch when the Als called upon him to do that in 2015. Where he really popped – and what will be very important to the Alouettes moving ahead – was in the rushing game, where he finished the season with 1,059 yards, averaging just shy of six yards per lug.
And that’s an important thing when talking about the successes and failures of Kevin Glenn over the course of his career. It seems to me that when he’s had a good running game to keep opposing defences from just dialing in on stopping his proposed aerial routes, he’s been more effective, generally speaking.
When Glenn can approach a game with balance as a game plan, he manages things very, very well, as he notably did in Calgary with Jon Cornish in the backfield and as he did with the BC Lions with Harris to hand off to.
Stafford will give the Alouettes another deep threat and one that opponents cannot take lightly. While sharing routes with Adarius Bowman and Derel Walker in Edmonton last season, he still came up with 732 yards on 47 catches. With Nik Lewis heating up, inserting Stafford into the Montreal attack at a time when B.J. Cunningham is blossoming and Duron Carter is doing his thing should mean headaches for defensive coordinators and captains.
The East is a wild west right now with a logjam from top to bottom and the Alouettes had a lot to do with that with their upset win in Ottawa last week. The REDBLACKS lead the division with nine points, Montreal brings up the rear with six points, two back of the meat in the middle of that sandwich, the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Ticats.
If you assume that the Ticats are good to go with a healthy Zach Collaros back in their line-up – and that’s a pretty safe assumption – and that the REDBLACKS will find the right gear again after losing three of their last four – not quite as safe an assumption but one you would likely bet on – that leaves Montreal battling the Argonauts and perhaps a western crossover candidate for the final playoff spot in the East.
While the Als’ defence, led by a front seven rotation as good as any in the league, is up to the task of contention, we’ve seen that there is a limit to what that unit can shoulder and previous to the Ottawa game, we witnessed them getting tired and worn on a game by game basis as the offence failed to sustain drives and come up with even close to enough points to earn victories.
The “eureka” moment of a gluttonous offensive outburst – Glenn threw five touchdown passes and totalled 382 passing yards and a quarterback efficiency rating of 180.1 on 25 completions against Ottawa – means the Alouettes can have their giddy optimism, especially now.
Because having two game-breaking studs like Sutton and Stafford back in the line-up will allow Glenn and Calvillo to pull the levers on their offence they way they’d intended when the season began, when Sutton rushed 15 times in a well-balanced, 22-14 win over the Blue Bombers.
The Alouettes’ offence showed signs of robust life last week and with Sutton and Stafford back in the line-up, they have an opportunity to step on the accelerator.
With a playoff spot on the line, they’ll need to.
