The Montreal Alouettes (5-3-0) are looking to rebound after last week\u2019s loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. They\u2019ll take on the Edmonton Elks at Percival Molson Stadium on Friday night. The Als are in the middle of a stretch where they\u2019ll enjoy some home cooking. They\u2019ll be playing four of five games at home, including last week\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n
This is the second clash between these two teams, as the Alouettes defeated the Elks in Edmonton, 38-28, back on July 19th.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know about the game:<\/p>\n
Tight defence<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s game against Saskatchewan was just the second time all season that the team allowed more than 30 points, and it was really the first team the defence allowed more than 30. When the Als allowed 35 points to Hamilton in June, that included a pick-six and a fumble recovery for a touchdown.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Despite the 34 points allowed last week, the Als defence is still third in the CFL in points allowed per game, with 24 (22.4 offensive points allowed \u2013 also 3rd). Only Calgary and Saskatchewan are ahead of the Als in that category.<\/p>\n
The Elks find themselves dead last in both categories, as they\u2019ve given up 31.3 points per game and 30.1 offensive points per game.<\/p>\n
Ciante Evans starts at corner<\/p>\n
Evans will make his 2025 debut after being signed by the Alouettes at the beginning of the week. That\u2019s how banged up this team is right now. This is in no way a shot at Evans, 32, who has been an outstanding cover-man throughout his career. The fact that he\u2019s even able to start right away is a testament to how much he kept himself in shape when he was away from the game.<\/p>\n
This is Evans\u2019 third stint with the Alouettes, as he played for the team in 2019 and 2023, too. He was part of Noel Thorpe\u2019s defence when the team last hoisted the Grey Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was ecstatic,\u201d Evans, who is now wearing number 25, said on Wednesday. \u201cI was elated. I didn\u2019t think it would happen, but that\u2019s why you have faith, trust in God and keep your faith strong. When it happened, I was ready to go. My mind was already locked in on football. I just wanted to come in and be the best teammate I could be.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201c(The Alouettes) calling me was the cherry on top. To be honest with you, if it was any other team, I probably would\u2019ve said no. That\u2019s just being straight honest with you. I was probably at that point, thinking that way, but I built something here. I trust these coaches, I trust this management, I trust these players, so it was a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Special return<\/p>\n
A pair of former Alouettes will be returning to the city for the first time since leaving, as quarterback Cody Fajardo and receiver Kaion Julien-Grant will take on their former team.<\/p>\n
Fajardo will start at quarterback for the third week in a row.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it will be a special game for him whether he says it or not,\u201d head coach Jason Maas said of Fajardo. \u201cI\u2019m sure he won\u2019t by shy about saying it. I know he\u2019ll bring it. He\u2019s going to be excited to play here, and he should be. He has very fond memories here and he has a chip on his shoulder. Any time he has that chip on his shoulder he has a tendency to play well. It\u2019s our job to make sure that\u2019s not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Montreal Alouettes (5-3-0) are looking to rebound after last week\u2019s loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. They\u2019ll take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-131220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}