The Montreal Alouettes are hot on the heels of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for first place in the East Division, but they know all too well how quickly a team's fortunes can change.
Now riding a three-game winning streak, the franchise is not far removed from a five-game losing streak that sent them to the bottom of many power rankings. This has affected the way they approach this race.
“The month of August was a bad month for us. I think it woke up everyone in this organization to realize that if we don't play our best, you could lose,” head coach Jason Maas. told Montreal media this week. “But when we play as hard as we can and we go out there and give it our all and we're healthy – which is how we feel right now – you go out and feel like you have a chance to win every week. I think that's what you want at this time of year.”
The Alouettes lost five straight games from Weeks 9 to 14, with starting cornerback Davis Alexander languishing on the injured list with a troublesome hamstring. At worst, they were two games under .500 and the future looked bleak, although a playoff berth was assured from then on.
Despite this, the mid-season slump provided meaningful football in a way that was missing last year. Getting off to a hot start comes with its own trials and tribulations, as Montreal learned after clinching a playoff berth in Week 13 of the 2024 season and going through the final two months.
They won just twice in their last seven games, and after easily clinching first place early, they squandered their lead by losing in the Eastern final. This allowed for other lessons to be learned about how to cope with those precious final weeks.
“I think we learned a thing or two last year. Obviously we got first place at the beginning of September and we had a long way to go before the playoffs started, plus a bye week at the end,” Maas recalled.
“I don't feel like we didn't practice and play hard throughout all of these games; the games just didn't go our way and some of them were late in games. Some things happened, but I think everyone here is very aware of what happened. This year, all we've focused on is that we just do our best every single day and compete. That's how we stay. on top. I think we're past that.”
There will be some meaningful football to be played this time as Montreal entered this week two games behind Hamilton in the race to advance to the first round. The Ticats' mistake on Saturday increased their likelihood of closing the gap, but Maas tempers his optimism with a healthy dose of introspection.
“To go through what we've been through and still be able to do it, I think it's still great. That's our awareness factor. It's not something we focus on, but we know what's at stake,” he insisted.
“I think our guys are looking forward to getting better every day because we're not at our best yet. We still have a lot of room to improve, and we're going to get better every single day from here on out. Obviously, we've talked about being great. We've had eight great teams in this organization; we want to be ninth, and to do that, you better focus on your task.”
For now, that goal is Monday's Thanksgiving Day clash with the Ottawa Redblacks, their first of two straight meetings against an officially eliminated opponent. Whether you choose to call these matches easy wins or potential pitfalls doesn't matter to Maas, who is trying to be a voice for a culture of intrinsic motivation.
“Honestly, I don't care if that makes them more or less (dangerous). I'm more focused on us and making sure we do our job every single day to the best of our ability,” he said. “We want to go out there and compete the best we can. I know we'll get an opponent that will fight like hell – that's what they've been doing all year.”
The Alouettes (8-7) and Redblacks (4-11) will tip off at Percival Molson Stadium at 1:00 pm ET on Monday, October 13th.
