Alouettes needed to beat Redblacks 'at all costs,' Maas says
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The Montreal Alouettes locked up a home playoff date with their 24-12 victory over the Ottawa Redblacks on Saturday - a win that head coach Jason Maas said the team needed "at all costs."
Maas joined TSN690 Montreal to discuss the team's outlook down the stretch of the season and give his reflections on the win over Ottawa.
"It was a big deal for us to win that game and at all costs we said we'd win it," Maas said.
Quarterback Cody Fajardo appeared to be slowed by an upper-body injury in the first half of the game, but continued to follow the game script en route to 226 yards passing and 29 rushing yards with a touchdown.
He carried the ball seven times, which Maas said was by design.
"When we call a run play for him ... It's just as perilous if he drops back and throws. He can get hit in the pocket. He can get hit any time. For him, he said he was okay, perfectly fine and to [keep the game plan intact]," Maas said.
"If he would have told me 'coach I'm not feeling this,' we would have cut out all those types of things. We weren't on that page, it was 'do everything at all costs, I can do anything you need me to do.' That's the way he plays football, that's the way we coach football, and as long as our players are feeling it that's the way we're going to continue to do it."
Fajardo, who missed four games earlier in the season with a hamstring injury, did complete the game and is expected to start again on Saturday against the Toronto Argonauts.
The Alouettes took a major step towards an East Division title with the victory, pushing themselves seven points ahead of the Redblacks with only four games remaining on the schedule. It would be their first division title since the 2012 season.
That urgency to claim the top spot in the East was reflected in the game plan and in Maas' feelings afterwards.
"We call plays to win the ball game at the end, which we needed to do, without a worry about tomorrow. We said we'll sacrifice everything for this game," Maas said.
Montreal's defence picked off Redblacks quarterback Dru Brown twice in the first quarter to continue a stretch of strong play in which they've held their opponent below 20 points in three of their past four games.
"They've been fantastic all year, it's fun to watch them from the sidelines," Maas said of the defence. "They put us in great positions throughout the game, and at the end of the game, when we need them the most, they come up with stops."
The offence, however, has not been as strong recently. They rank fourth in the CFL with 26.7 points per game on offence, but they've averaged 22.0 points per game in their last three.
"The last three weeks there's been missed opportunities throughout games," Maas said. "We've been a big play offence that doesn't turn the ball over. We haven't been turning the ball over, which is a very good thing when your defence is playing the way they are, but the big plays haven't been there for us as much as we've been accustomed to earlier in the season."
A lack of production on second down and lack of big play production are two facets of the offence Maas specifically pointed to, but he is confident they're close to sorting those problems out down the stretch.
"When we watch the film, when we look at different things, there's a handful of plays in each of our last three games that could've turned the tide for the offensive output that would've put those games in a different light. So we're not hitting the panic button by any means, we're just looking to regroup and refocus and get better," Maas said.