Davis Alexander did not lose his cool on Friday night. That is the story, because for three games before Hamilton, he had.
The Montreal Alouettes beat the Tiger-Cats 37-25 on September 18, and their quarterback completed 21 of 27 passes for 218 yards and two touchdowns, according to RDS's game report. It was an efficient, unremarkable line from a player whose previous week had been anything but. Six days earlier he had been at the centre of a sideline brawl in Vancouver. Two days before kickoff, his head coach acknowledged sitting him down to talk about it. One day before kickoff, the league fined him. Almost all of that played out in French, and most of it has not been reported in English.
What Maas actually said
The 48-29 loss to BC on September 12 was Montreal's third straight game in which Alexander struggled to keep his temper, by RDS columnist Éric Leblanc's count. In a piece published September 17, Leblanc reported that Jason Maas had addressed it with his quarterback, and he was specific about what he wanted changed.
« Les matchs sont intenses émotivement et notre équipe était peut-être un peu survoltée, Davis en particulier. Je ne veux pas que Davis change sa nature. Évidemment, s'il doit nuancer son discours, c'est surtout envers les arbitres. On en a parlé et je crois qu'il va progresser. »
Translated: "The games are emotionally intense and our team was maybe a bit overcharged, Davis in particular. I don't want Davis to change his nature. Obviously, if he has to tone down his talk, it's mostly toward the officials. We talked about it and I believe he'll improve."
That is a narrower message than "calm down." Maas drew the line at how Alexander speaks to referees, not at how he competes against opponents. He also declined to blame his defence for allowing 122 points over three games, telling RDS, « Je ne veux rien entendre au sujet d'un effondrement défensif. On est une équipe de football, ce n'est jamais à propos d'une seule unité. » ("I don't want to hear anything about a defensive collapse. We're a football team, it's never about a single unit.")
Alexander's own account
Alexander did not dispute that he had been rattled. He told RDS the play that set him off came late in the second quarter, when BC's Mathieu Betts pulled on his right arm after bringing him down by the collar.
« J'aurais peut-être pu mieux me contrôler. Mais, je joue toujours avec mes émotions et je ne pense pas que ça m'ait empêché de jouer comme lors du match face à Winnipeg. J'étais extrêmement frustré par plusieurs choses, à juste titre. »
"I maybe could have controlled myself better. But I always play with my emotions and I don't think it stopped me from playing the way I did against Winnipeg. I was extremely frustrated by several things, rightly so."
On Betts specifically: « Le plaqué était correct, mais le reste, ce n'est pas du football. » ("The tackle was fine, but the rest, that's not football.")
He also framed himself as a target by position rather than by personality. « Je sais que je suis une cible comme la plupart des quarts-arrières étant donné l'importance du poste... Ils sont réputés fragiles, il faut que je sois prêt. » ("I know I'm a target like most quarterbacks given the importance of the position... They're reputed to be fragile, I have to be ready.")
Maas was blunter about Betts than his quarterback was. « Betts n'a aucune autre raison de faire ça à part si c'était son intention, » he said when asked whether the Lions defender meant to injure Alexander, before adding that he could not speak to intent. « Je sais qu'il joue constamment avec les limites. S'il les franchit, je pense que la LCF le punira éventuellement. » ("I know he constantly plays with the limits. If he crosses them, I think the CFL will eventually punish him.")
The other sideline
BC head coach Buck Pierce was asked about Alexander's style immediately after the game, and his answer was closer to admiration than complaint. "He's a passionate football player, and I think his team responds to the way that he plays," Pierce said in his post-game availability. Asked directly whether Alexander goes too far, Pierce said, "No." He described the chippiness between the clubs as "two competitive football teams" rather than dislike, and said he had received no explanation for why Betts was ejected.
The league had its own view. On September 17 the CFL suspended Josh Hagerty two games and disciplined Callis and Kent. On September 19, the day after the Hamilton game, the Department of Health, Safety and Integrity fined three Alouettes for Week 15: Tyson Philpot for taunting Cristophe Beaulieu, Tyler Snead for unnecessary roughness on Ronald Kent Jr., and Alexander for unnecessary roughness on Deontai Williams. Per league policy, amounts were not disclosed. Betts was not named in either release.
Friday, and what came before it
Montreal held a single practice before the Hamilton game, per RDS's pre-game report, and did so with a thinned roster. DeVonte Dedmon (knee), Kabion Ento (ankle) and Cole Spieker were placed on the six-game injured list, and Najee Murray (head) and Wesley Sutton (back) remained out. Caleb Evans replaced Terry Wilson as the short-yardage quarterback. Philpot, who had said publicly that « quelqu'un doit payer » for the Vancouver loss, caught six passes for 57 yards and a touchdown and passed 1,500 receiving yards on the season.
Montreal led 24-3 at halftime. Alexander's two touchdown passes went to offensive lineman Donald Ventrelli on a tackle-eligible play and to Philpot with 66 seconds left in the half. Nate Beauchemin returned a fumble for a touchdown and added an interception. Stevie Scott III carried 21 times for 108 yards. Harrison Frost threw four interceptions for Hamilton.
« C'était important de sortir d'ici avec la victoire, » Alexander told RDS afterward. « Notre défense a été très bonne, mais on doit faire attention à ces fins de match. On doit jouer jusqu'à la fin. » ("It was important to get out of here with the win. Our defence was very good, but we have to be careful with these ends of games. We have to play to the finish.")
The win was Maas's 44th as Alouettes head coach, moving him past Marv Levy into sole possession of fourth in franchise history, per RDS. « Être mentionné dans la même phrase que Marv, c'est un honneur, » he said, adding that the wins belong to the team.
What a bye week does with this
Montreal is 11-3 and does not play again until October 3, when Winnipeg visits Percival Molson Stadium. RDS reported that Tyler Snead and Tyrell Richards did not return after halftime on Friday, so the two weeks will be spent counting bodies as much as resetting.
The open question is whether time off helps or hurts a quarterback who, in Leblanc's words, « carbure via le volcan qui jaillit en lui » ("runs on the volcano that erupts inside him"). Maas said he does not want that to change. What he asked for was a narrower target for it. For one game in Hamilton, that is what he got.
If Montreal and BC meet again in November, the Lions will have watched the same tape everyone else has. Geoffrey Cantin-Arku, for one, is not pretending otherwise. « On peut assurément dire qu'il y a une rivalité entre nous, » he told RDS. ("We can definitely say there's a rivalry between us.")