Davis Alexander shuffled up to a wall of cameras and microphones with his head down and hands tucked in his pockets, his voice still heavy from the Grey Cup loss.<\/p>\n
Less than 48 hours after falling 25-17 to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the CFL\u2019s championship game, the Montreal Alouettes quarterback wasn\u2019t ready to turn the page.<\/p>\n
Alexander hadn\u2019t rewatched the game film, nor had he answered the messages of support sent his way as he processed the way his historic season ended.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart hurts for our guys, it’s definitely going to eat us up for a little bit, eat me up for a little bit,\u201d he said Tuesday at Olympic Stadium. \u201cI’ll definitely vow to come back stronger, vow to come back better, but I’m definitely going to let this one marinate and let it soak in for a little bit before I just move on.”<\/p>\n
Alexander set a CFL record with 11 straight regular-season wins as a starter \u2014 including a 7-0 record this year \u2014 followed by two playoff victories to reach the Grey Cup in Winnipeg. But he reinjured his hamstring in the Eastern final.<\/p>\n
With only a week to recover, the 27-year-old from Gig Harbor, Wash., threw three interceptions and no touchdown passes against the Roughriders, taking much of the blame despite playing at far from full health.<\/p>\n
“Deep down, yeah, I think I am proud of myself, but I’m also sick to my stomach,\u201d Alexander said as the Alouettes cleaned out their lockers. \u201cYou play the worst game of your career in the biggest moment of your career, and yeah, it’ll eat you up for a little bit.”<\/p>\n
Alexander underthrew on one interception, and his mobility \u2014 crucial to his shifty, explosive playstyle \u2014 was clearly hampered.<\/p>\n
Even after his turnovers and a pivotal goal-line fumble by short-yardage QB Shea Patterson, the Alouettes came within one score of tying as Alexander fought hard in the second half. On the final drive, he tweaked his hamstring again, jumping in pain after a rush to the sideline, but returned to the field without hesitation.<\/p>\n
“I say less than one per cent probably would have played with that injury,\u201d Alouettes receiver Tyler Snead said. \u201cTo go out there and still perform the way he did and put it all out there on the line for us, that’s just the type of guy he is, type of competitor he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe normal human being wouldn’t be able to play with that,\u201d added wideout Tyson Philpot. \u201cI would never have been able to step on that field with that kind of injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hamstring issue began as a minor knock in training camp and plagued Alexander the entire season. He revealed that when he re-aggravated it on July 17 against Toronto, it was a \u201cgrade 3C tear.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically as bad as it gets besides it being torn off the bone,\u201d he said. \u201cAs soon as you tear it off the bone, I think it’s a nine-month recovery. But yeah, that type of injury (a grade 3C tear) takes four months to recover.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew it wasn’t going to be 100 per cent for the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says the key to full recovery is \u201cjust time.\u201d That he\u2019ll have, with training camp for the 2026 season still six months away.<\/p>\n
Although he and the Alouettes are still mapping out an off-season plan, Alexander said his rehab will start with coming into Montreal\u2019s facilities every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I know whenever I go back to Arizona for a couple of months, that’s going to be the main focus, getting the hamstring right and making sure nothing ever happens again,” he said.<\/p>\n
Eager to make a strong impression in his first season as the starter, Alexander trained tirelessly \u2014 perhaps a little too much \u2014 to bulk up last off-season. In retrospect, Alexander understands the suggestion that he may have overdone it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s been talked about a little bit, maybe I trained too hard,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn’t really believe that that was a thing, I guess until now. So it’ll be something that I’ll definitely monitor.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of me thinks it’s just a freak injury that happened, (but) maybe it was from overwork and all that, and then I just never kind of let it recover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyson Philpot\u2019s contract is up, and although he loves playing in Montreal, he says his future is uncertain.<\/p>\n
“It’s definitely uncharted territories,\u201d he said. \u201cNever really been in this situation before \u2026 I would love to be here. I would love to get something done. Obviously, I can’t spin a crystal ball, I can’t tell you exactly what’s going to play out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philpot, who caught the Grey Cup-winning touchdown for Montreal in 2023, totalled 804 receiving yards on 61 receptions with five touchdowns in 12 games this season.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old from Delta, B.C., didn\u2019t hide that playing with brother Jalen, a Calgary Stampeders receiver with one year remaining on his contract, is on his mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m definitely getting to this point in my career where I’m kind of itching,\u201d he said. \u201cI would love to play with my brother. I would love to get him on the big stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s definitely something that’s becoming more tangible where we could play together with his contract being up next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Davis Alexander shuffled up to a wall of cameras and microphones with his head down and hands tucked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-293183","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\/293183","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=293183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}