Elks rally from 13 down in 4th quarter to beat Alouettes
Montreal acquires the CFL rights to offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif from Calgary
At the start of the fourth quarter, the Edmonton Elks were down 31-18. Chris Jones' team was relying on quarterback Taylor Cornelius who had not had a start yet this season.
Kai Locksley made a two-yard rush to get the Elks (2-4) back in the game, but Edmonton missed their two-point conversion.
This didn't deflate the struggling Elks. Lockley added a second TD rush. Finally, Cornelius clinched a 32-31 comeback win over the Montreal Alouettes at Percival Molson Stadium on Thursday.
"When we got [the first touchdown] we went for two to try to go ahead and punch it in. That didn't work very well for us," Elks coach Chris Jones said. "Then we scored again. I knew that if we kicked the first one and if we kicked the second one then we'd be up by a point and then and I was hoping we could burn more clock.
"We ended up getting the ball back, we scored and ran the ball down to zero and were able to get off the field."
Cornelius spent five weeks watching games from the sidelines, pushed down the depth chart by Nick Arbuckle and Tre Ford. With Arbuckle traded to the Ottawa Redblacks and Ford on the injury list for a few weeks, Cornelius had to step up and didn't miss his opportunity to throw the winning touchdown pass.
The 26-year-old found Kenny Lawler with a 10-yard touchdown pass and the Elks clinched the win.
"It was everything you want in a game you know to have the ball in your hands on a play like that," Cornelius said. "And Kenny doing his job, it takes everyone. It wasn't just me making that play. It was everyone making that possible and then him coming up with a heck of a grab there in the end zone."
'You need to find a way to close the game'
The Elks took advantage of two large pass interference calls by Alouettes defensive back Wesley Sutton. In total, the Alouettes (1-4) accumulated 193 penalty yards during the game.
"That's a tough one to take," said Montreal's head coach and GM Danny Maciocia. "We lead by 19, we pull out a track play to get the ball back and we have the opportunity to score again and we're offside and there's a turnover on the same play. At that point we weren't able to get this game back.
"We need to know how to finish. When you lead by 19, you need to find a way to close the game."
Locksley rushed for two touchdowns. Cornelius threw for 225 yards, one interception and clinched the win with his lone touchdown pass.
WATCH | Elks stun Alouettes:
Alouettes quarterback Trevor Harris threw for 241 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Dominique Davis rushed for two touchdowns.
With both wins this season on the road, Jones and the Elks are aware that the next step is to win a game at Commonwealth Stadium.
"Hell, it's been a long time since we won a home game so as an organization it's extremely important," Jones said. "You've got to win home games and we've not played well. So it's not only been the fact that we lost the games, we've not played well at home."
Sherman Badie made a five-yard rush for Edmonton's first touchdown, but Castillo missed his conversion, giving the Elks an early 6-0 lead.
David Cote kicked a 19-yard field goal cutting Montreal's deficit to three by the end of the first quarter.
The Alouettes scored three consecutive touchdowns in the second quarter.
Harris found Tyson Philpot with a 12-yard pass for his first CFL touchdown. He then threw a 33-yard pass to Eugene Lewis for his first TD of the season.
Marc-Antoine Dequoy made his second career interception and was stopped at the one-yard line. Dominique Davis made the one-yard QB sneak pushing Montreal's lead to 24-6.
Castillo converted back-to-back field goals late in the second quarter to bring the score to 24-12 at halftime.
Davis added a second one-yard sneak TD in the third quarter, bringing Montreal up 31-12.
Locksley got the Elks back in the game with a two-yard rush for a touchdown to open the fourth quarter but Edmonton failed on their two-point conversion.
Locksley rushed in his second touchdown of the game with 10:55 left on the clock to bring the score to 31-25 for Montreal.
Following a 50-yard pass interference call on Sutton, his second of the fourth quarter, the Elks got to the red zone. Cornelius found Kenny Lawler with a 10-yard touchdown pass to clinch the win.
Alouettes acquire Duvernay-Tardif's CFL rights
The Montreal Alouettes acquired the rights to offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif from the Calgary Stampeders on Thursday in exchange for two conditional picks.
If Duvernay-Tardif signs a deal with the Alouettes or any other CFL team, Montreal would send its next second round pick to Calgary. The Stampeders would then have the option to trade the next first round pick to the Alouettes, if it turns out to be higher than Calgary's.
Should the Alouettes not have a first round pick the following season, this option would apply the following year.
"Laurent is a football icon in Montreal and Quebec," Alouettes GM Danny Maciocia said in a release. "We wish him the best success with his football career moving forward, and are satisfied knowing that if he does play in Canada, he will do so in a city and a stadium that he knows very well."
The 31-year-old Quebecer announced in June that he would be putting his NFL career on hold after being accepted into a residency program at a Montreal-area hospital.
Duvernay-Tardif played 54 games in five NFL seasons, helping the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl in the 2019 season.
He chose not to play in the NFL in 2020 and to focus on his career in medicine, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to help those who needed it most. This decision earned him Sports Illustrated's annual Sportsman of the Year honours.
He has been an unrestricted NFL free agent since March after finishing last season with the Jets. He said he's not retiring from football, just taking care of medical requirements needed to become a physician. The guard plans to reassess both his football interest as well as that of NFL clubs in September.
A sixth-round pick (200th overall) in the 2014 NFL Draft, Duvernay-Tardif played in eight games with the New York Jets last season.
The Stampeders claimed him in the third round (19th overall) in the 2014 CFL Draft.
