The past two weeks have certainly had their fair share of strange events for the Montreal Alouettes. After picking up their first win in B.C. in fifteen years, and their first win away from home since last October, owner Bob Wetenhall fired head coach Tom Higgins. With interim coach and general manager Jim Popp filling in for his fourth stint on the sidelines, the Alouettes became the first road team to ever win a game at the year-old Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton.
These rare back-to-back road victories couldn’t have been accomplished without the “Angry Birds”, that is to say, the Montreal defensive group, but more specifically, Kyries “Angry Bird” Hebert, who is the leader of the pack. In B.C., they held their hosts to only 13 points and 249 total yards of offence. The following week, playing in front of one of the most hostile crowds in the league, Zach Collaros and the Tiger-Cats were limited to 23 points and 322 yards, 293 of which were through the air.
The game against the Lions was only a sign of things to come from the defence. Three sacks were generated by three different players, all in the front seven, while the defensive back Dominique Ellis picked off Travis Lulay at a key moment in the game to almost seal the victory. At times in this contest, they let the opposing offence control the flow of the game, which allowed B.C. to take a 13-12 advantage into the fourth quarter, before Montreal’s offence exploded for 11 points.
Hebert, playing in just his second game of the season, collected a single tackle, while Winston Venable led the team with five. 15 total defenders had at least one tackle on a Lion.
Noel Thorpe must have worked with his defence on maintaining consistency from drive to drive and control the pace of the game heading into Hamilton, as the difference clearly showed. It was all Montreal, all game, never allowing Hamilton to hold a lead for the full sixty minutes.
The defence had a more concentrated distribution of tackles, as only 13 players had the opportunity to stop a Ticat. The Montreal high was six by Ellis, nudging just above Hebert (five) and five others who had three.
The key factor this week was the sacks. The Angry Birds were right up in Collaros’ face with six sacks, compared to one by Hamilton. Hebert, Venable and John Bowman each got to the pivot, Kyler Elsworth had such a fun time doing it the first time that he made a return trip for two sacks, while Michael Klassen returned home with souvenirs, following a sack, strip, and fumble recovery all on the same play in the second quarter. The pressure by the front seven, who TSN collectively named the Player of the Game, disrupted Collaros’ flow. He was only able to build two strong drives, and failed on a third attempt late in the game.
After stringing together some long passes and setting his team up in field goal range, down by three with thirty seconds to go, Collaros felt the pressure of a five-man blitz and with Elsworth about to hit him hard, he blindly threw the ball down the middle and into the hands of Hebert.
This was a perfect end to a game that was dominated by the Angry Birds. Every other defence in the league has failed to hold the Ticats at bay at Tim Hortons Field, including Montreal on two occasions, Not this time.
The timing in the season couldn’t have been better, either. A year ago, on August 29, the 1-7 Alouettes defeated the Ottawa Redblacks en route to finishing the season 9-9, with an 8-2 stretch in which the defence regained their swagger. In 2015, after a 3-5 start, Montreal has picked up a crucial win on August 27. But can they collect more wins and build their swagger back up in the weeks to come?
Only the Angry Birds defence will be able to answer that as the CFL season winds down into the second half of the season.
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