Cody Fajardo<\/a> connected with Austin Mack \u2014\u00a0both former Alouettes \u2014\u00a0on a nine-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n![\"Elks](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0625-spt-alouettes-2026-1.jpg\")
Elks try to block a field goal attempt by Alouettes\u2019 Jose Maltos-Diaz on June 20 in Edmonton. Greg Southam \/ Postmedia<\/p>\n
The Als were then outscored 13-0 in the third quarter, with Edmonton tailback Justin Rankin scoring both touchdowns on runs of 36 and 47 yards, respectively, before the period was nine minutes old.<\/p>\n
On the second score, Edmonton gambled on third-and-two, with linebacker Najee Murray and defensive-end Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund both missing tackles.<\/p>\n
Rankin accounted for 120 yards in the third quarter and finished the game with a mind-boggling 179 yards on 18 carries. He was also a threat coming out of the backfield, catching five passes for 51 yards. At one point, Edmonton scored 23 unanswered points.<\/p>\n
The Als have been outscored 27-10 in the third quarter this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to tackle,\u201d Maciocia said. \u201cWe played a near-perfect first half, with the exception of that last drive. In the second half, we really struggled tackling \u2014 that\u2019s what it came down to. We\u2019ve got to figure it out and clean it up. And we\u2019ve got to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the collective bargaining agreement, teams are allowed 12 padded practices, with tackling, throughout the season \u2014\u00a0but not more than one per week \u2014\u00a0at the discretion of the coaching staff.<\/p>\n
Maciocia isn\u2019t questioning the defensive personnel, although the Als have lost middle-linebacker Darnell Sankey, safety Marc-Antoine Dequoy, rush-end Shawn Lemon and tackle Dylan Wynn from 2025. And with a league-wide average of nearly 63 points being scored per game, defences in general have had their issues through three weeks and 10 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t explain it. Usually, it\u2019s the other way around and the offences are a little slower coming out of the block,\u201d Maciocia said. \u201cNot this year. I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s more defensive personnel turnover compared to offence. But I do know a lot of points are being scored.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not concerned about the defence,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ll be fine. We\u2019re still sitting here 2-1. We\u2019re not 0-3.\u201d <\/p>\n
While the Als have only three sacks this season, Maciocia has never been a big fan of that statistic. To him, putting pressure on the quarterback and making him rush his throws is more relevant.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n
Leading 3-0 in the first quarter, backup quarterback Dustin Crum failed on a third-down gamble from the Edmonton 32. New returner Mario Alford fumbled a fourth-quarter punt at the Montreal 11 that resulted in a short field goal. That was one of three turnovers committed by Montreal.<\/p>\n
But the Als, to their credit, mounted a late surge. Trailing by 10 points with less than five minutes remaining in regulation time, Davis Alexander passed 34 yards to Tyler Snead for a touchdown before Jose Maltos-Diaz sent the game to overtime with a 31-yard field goal.<\/p>\n
But the Als might have deserved a better fate. Alexander, losing for the first time after 13 regular-season wins<\/a>, passed for 356 yards and a touchdown. Montreal had 30 first downs and controlled the ball for 34:16 while producing 481 net yards.<\/p>\nOn Wednesday, meanwhile, the Als signed defensive-back Faion Hicks. The 28-year-old attended Montreal\u2019s training camp in May. He was selected in the seventh round by the NFL\u2019s Denver Broncos in 2022 and played two games for the team. The Als completed Saturday\u2019s game without injured cornerbacks Kabion Ento and Lorenzo Burns.<\/p>\n
hzurkowsky@postmedia.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between taking a 13-0 lead and pitching a defensive shutout for nearly the entire first half \u2014\u00a0virtually unheard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-758800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758800","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=758800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}