{"id":761099,"date":"2026-06-25T22:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/761099\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T22:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T22:03:09","slug":"safety-nate-beauchemin-was-alouettes-defensive-standout-vs-edmonton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/761099\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety Nate Beauchemin was Alouettes’ defensive standout vs. Edmonton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nate Beauchemin believes he was the last player to touch the critical loose ball in overtime \u2014 but with a caveat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to say I was, but it\u2019s hard to say,\u201d the Alouettes safety admitted after practice at Stade H\u00e9bert. \u201cThe 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\u2019s perspective, it was super close.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beauchemin was one of the Als\u2019 defensive standouts in last Saturday\u2019s overtime loss at Edmonton<\/a>. He recovered a fumble, had an interception and was this close to also becoming the OT hero.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Following a video review in Toronto \u2014\u00a0former CFL referee Al Bradbury serves as the manager of officiating and replay performance \u2014\u00a0it was determined Edmonton retained possession. Two plays later, quarterback Cody Fajardo<\/a> scored the winning touchdown.<\/p>\n

Had it been determined Beauchemin was the last player to touch the ball, the game would have ended with a Montreal victory. <\/p>\n

\u201cEither way it shouldn\u2019t have been that close,\u201d said Beauchemin \u2014 who is in his second season with the Als and first as a starter<\/a>, having replaced the retired . \u201cI 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\u2019t be having this conversation. I take that responsibility on myself. Make it obvious, not a 50\/50 decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beauchemin, only 23, had a game for the ages against Edmonton \u2014\u00a0although 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\u2019s 425 yards of net offence.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always have to be happy when you put up a stat line like that,\u201d Beauchemin said. \u201cThere\u2019s 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\u2019ll keep going up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were situations (against Edmonton) we shouldn\u2019t have been in, if your tackling\u2019s on point. It\u2019s an easy fix. Standards over stats, as the coaches say.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Als\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

But the and were guilty of numerous missed tackles against Rankin, one of the CFL\u2019s premier backs. His two touchdowns came on runs of 36 and 47 yards. In Edmonton\u2019s opening-game victory at Ottawa, he gained 102 yards on 13 carries. He rushed for 1,013 yards last season while scoring nine touchdowns.<\/p>\n

The Als are 2-1 heading into Sunday night\u2019s home game against winless Ottawa, but they\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

Montreal has a bye in the schedule after facing the Redblacks, and it doesn\u2019t take a genius to determine a 3-1 record looks better than 2-2.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you watch that game there were a lot of really good things that came out of it,\u201d head coach Jason Maas<\/a> said. \u201cI\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of the game,\u201d he quickly added, \u201cthere\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

hzurkowsky@postmedia.com<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nate Beauchemin believes he was the last player to touch the critical loose ball in overtime \u2014 but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-761099","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\/761099","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=761099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}