The Montreal\u00a0Alouettes\u00a0tied the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for first in the East Division and extended their win streak to five games with a 39-28 victory over the Ottawa\u00a0Redblacks\u00a0on Saturday.<\/p>\n
With just one game to go in the regular season, the\u00a0Alouettes\u00a0have a chance at earning a bye through the first round of the playoffs if they can finish\u00a0top\u00a0of their division.<\/p>\n
For the\u00a0Redblacks\u00a0(4-13), it\u2019s the second straight loss to the\u00a0Alouettes\u00a0(10-7) after falling 30-10 in Montreal on Monday.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Alouettes\u00a0fielded quarterback Davis Alexander, who extended his CFL record career-opening run to 11 straight wins. In this one, Alexander completed 21 of his 31 passes for 328 yards.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the ball, the\u00a0Redblacks\u00a0gave stringer quarterback Tyrie Adams the nod with starter Dustin Crum sidelined with a head injury.<\/p>\n
Until this game, Adams hadn\u2019t logged any contributing numbers beyond appearances since suffering a torn ACL ending his 2023 season. Before that, he completed 31 of 49 passes for 412 yards through 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n
In a prove-it game, Adams stepped up as an offensive threat at points, converting 27 of 44 passes for 278 yards and three touchdowns. He also threw three interceptions in key moments.<\/p>\n
Ottawa failed to contain the\u00a0Alouettes\u00a0offence out of the gate, falling to a 13-0 deficit while Alexander completed five of seven attempts for 171 yards in the first quarter alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even after an awkward tackle sidelined Alexander in one of the game\u2019s opening plays, he was back on the field by the very next drive, where he delivered a 23-yard lob pass to set up Montreal\u2019s first touchdown, rushed in by running back Stevie Scott III eight minutes into the game.<\/p>\n
Just four minutes later, Alexander sniped a 44-yard pass to wide receiver Austin Mack to put the\u00a0Alouettes\u00a0within two yards of a score. After rushing it in, a botched Montreal conversion was little consolation for the hosts.<\/p>\n
Halfway through the second quarter, Adams put Ottawa on the board with only his second career touchdown, finding wide receiver Eugene Lewis at the back of the Montreal endzone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A 49-yard Montreal field goal from kicker Jose Maltos Diaz three minutes later gave the\u00a0Alouettes\u00a0some breathing room. Then a goal-line interception by Montreal defensive back Najee Murray devastated one of Adams\u2019 best drives of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An Ottawa field goal brought the\u00a0Redblacks\u00a0back within six points, as close as they would get through the remaining two quarters.<\/p>\n
Montreal put Ottawa in a choke hold through the third quarter, starting with two successive field goals through the first half of the frame.<\/p>\n
With just over a minute to go, a 38-yard interception return by Montreal linebacker Tyrice Beverette set the\u00a0Alouettes\u00a0up for a 22-yard touchdown pass to Mack on the very next play to go up 29-10.<\/p>\n
Even as Adams led Ottawa\u2019s offence to an 18-point showing in the final quarter, it wasn\u2019t enough to catch the\u00a0Alouettes\u00a0and their dominant lead through three frames.<\/p>\n
UP NEXT<\/p>\n
Redblacks: Visit the Ticats on Friday in the regular-season finale.<\/p>\n
Alouettes: Head to Winnipeg to face the Blue Bombers next Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Montreal\u00a0Alouettes\u00a0tied the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for first in the East Division and extended their win streak to five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-225173","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\/225173","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=225173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}