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News May 27, 2023

Maltos leads Alouettes to preseason win over Ottawa

Montreal Alouettes wide receiver James Letcher Jr. (89) tries to evade the Ottawa Redblacks defence during first half CFL pre-season football action in Ottawa on Friday, May 26, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

James Letcher Jr. (Canadian Press)

Even though the Montreal Alouettes walked into Ottawa without many of their veterans, they still managed to come away with a 22-21 preseason victory over the Redblacks. 

It wasn’t a perfect performance, but that’s to be expected in preseason. This was the first time a lot of these players stepped on a CFL field in their careers. Even though the game was sloppy at times, there were positives to take from this one. 

Let’s break it down:

Special Teams stands out:

The special teams units was very good throughout the win. 

Let’s start with the obvious. Kicker Jose Maltos was outstanding in his return to Ottawa. The former Redblack joined the Alouettes in free agency this winter, and he didn’t disappoint on Friday night. 

Maltos made all five of his field goal attempts, including the game-winning kick with no time left on the clock. After he made the kick, his teammates rushed the field, hoisted him up on their shoulders and were heard chanting his name. 

“I’m happy because I have been working so hard in Mexico, in Canada waiting for my opportunity,” Maltos said after the game. “This kind of opportunity I had, it’s my dream and God’s plan.

“I went to the NFL in 2013, and then from 2014 to 2017, I had no calls, nothing. After that, I went to B.C., I found the CFL as an American. The opportunity was so small. When the Global Initiative came here to the CFL, it was a good opportunity because I had another chance to practice with the practice squad.” 

On top of Maltos’ performance, kick returner James Letcher Jr. also stood out for what he was able to do. The Als returner had two long punt returns and he looked dangerous every time he had the ball in his hands. 

Defence does its job:

Even though the Redblacks dressed several starters in this game, the Als defence didn’t concede very much. They managed to force three turnovers, including two fumbles. It’s hard to heap praise on every individual, but the unit as a whole played hard all night. 

“(The effort was) tremendous,” head coach Jason Maas said after the game. “We talk about A-T-E in our locker room, which is ‘ability, toughness and effort’. You have to show it on every single play because those are the only things that players can control. They’re all here because of their ability, they’re all here for a reason. That mental and physical toughness has to show up. At the end of the game, with the game on the line, that’s the mental toughness we talk about. The effort was tremendous all night.”

Tyrell Richards came up with a pair of clutch plays at the end of the game. With the Alouettes trailing by two points late in the fourth quarter, Richards knocked a pass down at the line of scrimmage on first down. He registered a sack on second down to force Ottawa to punt, which eventually led to Maltos kicking the game-winning field goal. 

Offence came through when it had to:

The performance on offence wasn’t always pretty, but they came up with some big plays when they needed them down the stretch. 

With the Als trailing 21-12 with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Davis Alexander threw a touchdown pass to receiver Quartney Davis. That was the Alouettes’ first and only touchdown of the night. 

After Richards made those two key plays on defence, the Als got the ball back, and they used Mike Glass III at quarterback for that final drive. 

Glass III and receiver John Brunner connected multiple times in the closing moments of the game, including once on third-and-long near the sideline. 

The Alouettes offence moved the ball enough to get into field goal range, and that’s when Maltos split the uprights with no time left. 

Caleb Evans, who got the start in this game, looked particularly efficient during his first drive of the second quarter. He was able to connect with Austin Mack, Tyler Snead and Kevin Kaya on that drive, which led to an Als field goal. 

“The more and more comfortable I felt with the system and how coach was calling the game, the more and more i knew what he was going to call next,” Evans said. “I got comfortable and I felt the receivers out. We were on the same page and we started clicking.”

You may have noticed that Evans, Alexander and Glass were all rotating in and out of the game. It’s not something you see very often, even in the preseason. When a quarterback leaves an exhibition game, he doesn’t typically come back later on. According to Maas, there was a specific reason behind his thinking. 

“One thing I stressed to them, was that there was going to be stress on them,” Maas explained. “We’re not going to tell you when you’re playing. It’s going to be just like a game. They aren’t the starters, they’re the backups for our team. They’re fighting for the backup job, and they know that. Well, the backup never knows when he’s going to play. If Cody (Fajardo) ever were to go down, I want those guys to be prepared and ready mentally and physically. We didn’t make it easy on them tonight.”

NEXT: 

The Alouettes will be heading back to Trois-Rivières to continue their training camp. They won’t be on the field on Saturday or Sunday, but they will still attend meetings and recovery sessions. They will be back at practice on Monday morning. 

The Als will take on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in their preseason finale next Friday night at Percival Molson Stadium.