CFL ‘Quick Kicks’: Week 15

The third and final game of the weekend was a 19-19 tie between the host Calgary Stampeders and visiting Montreal Alouettes. The result moved the Stamps to 4-8-1 and the Alouettes to 10-2-1. Back in Week 10 Ottawa and Saskatchewan played out the first tied game we had seen in the CFL in seven years, yet here we are just 37 days later and we have another!

For Calgary this result halts a four-game run of defeats, although they have still not won since week 8 when they were 4-4. Montreal conversely were at 10-1 and with their last two results have slipped to 10-2-1. Their matchup with Ottawa next week will be huge for both teams.

Prior to this game Montreal had been on an eight-game winning run on the road which is a franchise record. This also marks only the second tied game ever between these two teams in a series Calgary leads 43-41-2.

Calgary had good chances to win here. They started the game strong forcing a fumble on Montreal’s first offensive snap and then recovering another fumble on a kick return. They capitalised by scoring both times and took a 10-0 lead. Montreal did find their way back into it, but it was Calgary who had better field position and offensive play only to come up empty handed in the red zone. In fact, they only converted once on four trips inside the red zone and that really hurt them.

For Calgary, returning QB Jake Maier went 29 of 37 for 236 yards and a touchdown, whilst Dedrick Mills keyed the attack with 21 carries for 122 yards and Marken Michel had 6 grabs for 73 yards and a score. Reggie Begelton added 7 catches for 68 yards meaning he surpassed 400 career receptions.

Montreal did enough to stick around and could maybe have pinched it in overtime, but a tie seems like a fair result. They were able to rely on the boot of Jose Maltos who hit 4 for 4 on his filed goals, including a 53-yarder, a kick to tie it with the clock hitting zero and two overtime kicks. The Als should have felt fairly confident as he hasn’t missed a kick in his last six outings now.

A nice bonus for Montreal were the returns of receivers Kaion Julien-Grant and Tyler Snead to the passing game and each one contributed.

On the ground Walter Fletcher had 10 carries for 90 yards, and Darnell Sankey continues to ball on D hitting on 10 tackles here.

With three unexpected results hitting the CFL in week 15 it is going to be really interesting to see how the people who do the power rankings react next week. Will these be seen as trap games or part of a wider picture where there isn’t as much separation between the teams as some might think?