Alouettes start off strong with win over Argos in Week 1
If you’re an Alouettes fan, you have to be thrilled about the way the team looked in their 28-10 Week 1 win over the Toronto Argonauts.
I’m not the biggest fan of cliches, but this was a textbook three-phase victory at Percival Molson Stadium on Friday night. The offence did its thing, the defence was phenomenal, and special teams were strong.
Let’s take a deeper look at how the Als came away with a victory.
Defence wins championships
I’m not really sure what more to say about this unit anymore. They’re awesome. After six months off, they didn’t miss a beat in the first game of 2025. They’re physical, they bring pressure with so many different players, and they don’t give up much.
Noel Thorpe’s unit allowed a first down for the first time in the final minute of the first quarter and they didn’t give up a major to the Argos until the fourth quarter. On top of that, they got two interceptions from Lorenzo Burns and Tyrice Beverette and a fumble recovery for a touchdown by Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund.
The bottom line is this, the Als defence gave up seven points and they scored seven of their own. You won’t lose too many games if your defence scores the same number of touchdowns as the opponent’s offence.
“Our preparation in training camp, we really emphasized turnovers, making plays on the defence, and taking the ball away from them,” middle linebacker Darnell Sankey said after the game. “I feel like that’s something we didn’t really do last year. We didn’t really have crazy turnover games. That was our emphasis this year.”
There are a lot of players that deserve a mention on defence, but the one guy that has to be highlighted is Adeyemi-Berglund. He plays like his hair is on fire every snap. He gets after the quarterback and makes a difference each game. His touchdown late in the first half essentially put the game to bed, as it made it 15-3 and gave the Als more breathing room in a game that shouldn’t have been as close as it was.
Adeyemi-Berglund finished the night with four tackles, one sack, one fumble recovery and a touchdown.
Offensive sparks
The offence, which is now led by Davis Alexander, flashed big-play ability. The first score of the year came off a 26-yard pass from Alexander to Philpot, who hadn’t played since Aug. 10 of last year because of a serious foot injury.
“It felt so good,” Philpot said of being back and scoring a touchdown. “It’s a testament to how hard I worked in the off-season. Not to be dramatic but it’s been 300 days, 42 weeks, and nine months since I last played. I missed this atmosphere. Davis is one tough (expletive).”
Alexander and Philpot failed to connect on two or three more deep shots, but you could see the chemistry between the two is still very much there. In six quarters together last year, Alexander targeted Philpot a team-best 16 times during that stretch. Philpot led the team in targets tonight, with eight.
The other thing that was clear tonight was that this offence was going to be committed to the run from the beginning. The Alouettes started their first offensive drive of the game from their own 8-yard line. They ended up getting into Argo territory partly because of running back Sean Thomas Erlington who carried the ball on three straight plays to start the game.
Thomas Erlington finished with 86 yards on 17 carries while rookie Travis Theis had 22 yards on only three carries. Alexander, by the way, had 50 yards on four rushing attempts. Many of those allowed the Als to move the chains on second-and-long.
“That’s going to be what we do,” head coach Jason Maas said. “We’re going to try to run the ball on everybody. We’re going to have to have a fallback plan if it doesn’t work here and there because teams are good at adjusting at times, but it’s going to be a hallmark for us. Every single week, we want to dominate the line of scrimmage and get our running backs involved. We get everybody involved when we do that.”
What a night for this vet!
Alex Gagne’s path to pro football is a great story. He went unselected in the CFL Draft and ended up making the Saskatchewan Roughriders roster off a pro tryout in the United States.
Not only has he enjoyed a long and productive CFL career, but he’s also become the heartbeat of the Alouettes locker room all these years later. I’ll never forget the speech he delivered before the 2023 East Final in Toronto. He’s one of the important leaders on the team.
His main responsibility is special teams. He’s switched between fullback and linebacker whenever the team has asked him to do so, and he hasn’t complained about it. Last week, when most veterans had the night off during the final preseason game in Ottawa, he played because he needed to get some long-snapping reps in as the backup to Louis-Philippe Bourassa.
On Friday night, he put on a clinic on special teams. Gagne finished the night with seven special teams tackles, which is a new franchise record. It also tied the CFL record set by seven other players.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what the record was, but somebody told me that I had just tied the record,” Gagne admitted after the game. “I think that was near the end of the fourth quarter when I first heard about it.
“It was a great night. I’m really happy.”
What’s next?
The Alouettes will now hit the road for a three-game road swing that will take them to Ottawa, Edmonton and Hamilton. They’ll take on the Redblacks at TD Place next Friday night at 7:30 p.m. ET.