Nate Beauchemin believes he was the last player to touch the critical loose ball in overtime — but with a caveat.
“I want to say I was, but it’s hard to say,” the Alouettes safety admitted after practice at Stade Hébert. “The reality is it was super close. I do believe I was the last one to touch the ball, and then the ball was out of bounds. I understand, from a ref’s perspective, it was super close.”
Beauchemin was one of the Als’ defensive standouts in last Saturday’s overtime loss at Edmonton. He recovered a fumble, had an interception and was this close to also becoming the OT hero.
With Montreal leading 29-26 after the opening possession of overtime, Edmonton tailback Justin Rankin fumbled on first down. On the chaos that followed as numerous players attempted to recover the loose ball, it appeared it was last touched by Beauchemin, who attempted to push the ball out of bounds. But it was Edmonton offensive-tackle Brendan Bordner who emerged from the pile on the sideline holding the ball.
Following a video review in Toronto — former CFL referee Al Bradbury serves as the manager of officiating and replay performance — it was determined Edmonton retained possession. Two plays later, quarterback Cody Fajardo scored the winning touchdown.
Had it been determined Beauchemin was the last player to touch the ball, the game would have ended with a Montreal victory.
“Either way it shouldn’t have been that close,” said Beauchemin — who is in his second season with the Als and first as a starter, having replaced the retired . “I attempted to jump on the ball. I should have just punched it out. If I punched it out it would have been game over and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I take that responsibility on myself. Make it obvious, not a 50/50 decision.”
Beauchemin, only 23, had a game for the ages against Edmonton — although the team had some issues stopping Rankin, who gained 179 yards on 18 carries, adding 51 more on five catches. Rankin alone accounted for 230 of Edmonton’s 425 yards of net offence.
Beauchemin had five defensive tackles, one knockdown and an additional special-teams tackle. He was selected by the Als in the second round (14th overall) last year out of the University of Calgary. When training camp began in May, Beauchemin was behind on the depth chart, but it quickly became obvious Beauchemin had earned a starting role.
“You always have to be happy when you put up a stat line like that,” Beauchemin said. “There’s more plays to be made, and I should have had them. I know the amount of improvement that has happened in three games is pretty tremendous, in my opinion. It’ll keep going up.
“There were situations (against Edmonton) we shouldn’t have been in, if your tackling’s on point. It’s an easy fix. Standards over stats, as the coaches say.”
When the Als’ defence was good against Edmonton it was very good. Montreal held the Elks without a first down until the final play of the opening quarter. Edmonton was held without a point for more than 29 minutes.
But the and were guilty of numerous missed tackles against Rankin, one of the CFL’s premier backs. His two touchdowns came on runs of 36 and 47 yards. In Edmonton’s opening-game victory at Ottawa, he gained 102 yards on 13 carries. He rushed for 1,013 yards last season while scoring nine touchdowns.
The Als are 2-1 heading into Sunday night’s home game against winless Ottawa, but they’ve allowed an average of nearly 30 points along with a league-high 10 touchdowns. Through three games, their defence has three sacks and three interceptions.
Montreal has a bye in the schedule after facing the Redblacks, and it doesn’t take a genius to determine a 3-1 record looks better than 2-2.
“When you watch that game there were a lot of really good things that came out of it,” head coach Jason Maas said. “I’d say our fourth quarter was damn dominant. We had two corners go down and ended up coming back from a 10-point deficit. When we needed it the most, our defence stood on their head in the fourth quarter.
“The rest of the game,” he quickly added, “there’s some things we can clean up. We made a lot of the hard stuff look easy. A lot of the easy stuff? We made it look hard.”
hzurkowsky@postmedia.com
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