Alouettes 41
Tiger-Cats 38
MONTREAL — Anthony Calvillo looks like he’ll be alright, but the same can’t necessarily be said for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats diminishing playoff hopes.
Calvillo threw two touchdown passes before leaving the game with tightening in his calf midway through the third quarter and the Montreal Alouettes hung on to down the struggling Tiger-Cats 41-38 on Sunday afternoon.
“I haven’t had a calf injury in a while,” said Calvillo, who completed 14 of 18 passes for 232 yards in just over two quarters of work. “But we have good trainers here, they’ll look after me, and it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Kerry Watkins had 102 yards receiving to pass the 1,000-yard mark for a fifth straight year and caught a touchdown pass for the Alouettes (13-2), who also got touchdowns from Ben Cahoon, Avon Cobourne, Jamel Richardson and rookie Michael Giffin.
Second-year backup Adrian McPherson was efficient replacing Calvillo, completing 10 of 11 passes for 110 yards, and he orchestrated what turned out to be the winning touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter to ice the victory.
“It was great to get out there and get a chance to throw the ball around a little bit,” McPherson said.
“Most importantly, I wanted to show the coaches they can have confidence in me should anything ever happen. The offensive line did a great job of protecting me and the receivers did a great job of making plays. I thought it was fairly easy for me to get the guys a chance to make plays, and they did.”
Hamilton (6-9) had a prolific day offensively with 579 yards gained, shredding the Alouettes league-leading defence, but the Tiger-Cats had to settle for Nick Setta field goals three times in the second half.
Despite the encouraging signs from the offence, Hamilton head coach Marcel Bellefeuille couldn’t help being disappointed with the bigger picture as the Tiger-Cats lost their fourth straight and continue fighting the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for second in the East Division.
The Tiger-Cats play in Toronto on Friday then host Saskatchewan before finishing the season in Winnipeg on Nov. 8.
“As much as I want confidence, we need points in the standings if we want to make the playoffs, and that overshadows the other part of it,” Bellefeuille said. “There were a lot of positives here tonight, and hopefully it’s enough because we’re going to need to win a few ball games down the stretch.”
Kevin Glenn, making only his fourth start of the season for Hamilton, had a career-high 506 yards on 29-of-44 passing and threw two touchdown passes to Marquay McDaniel and another to Arland Bruce.